After show season, how do you feed?

[Royal Crescent]

I live in Minnesota, and my horses are already getting ready for the winter ahead.

This year, we were not able to shave them down until May, as I do not have a heated barn. Some years, I might get away with April, and blanket them. The problem is, you shave them down, and start working on show conditioning them so late. They are either too fat or need weight and either way, they need muscle/tone.

I would like to put them on an abbreviated program over the winter of exercise (keep in mind the snow), and a diet that would not leave us starting at square 1 every year. I also intend to watch their weight carefully, though it is hard with a full coat. I have alfalfa mix hay, and am open to adjusting their feed. Last winter, they got oats/omelene 200. Suggestions?

 

[MyBarakah]

Hi!

The ones that I plan to keep on showing for the next years show season I keep them on the same feed program ALL year around. I don't dare let them fall apart and get fat.... where the weather is so unpredictable here it's very hard to beable to consistantly work them....... so my feed program is what keeps them looking as good as they do! It's "ALL" in the feed! And where there are weanlings that I am wanting to show next year I start them on my same feed program so I can start working on the this fall with the condition they need to be in.......

 

[Leeana]

Well me and the horses are done for the year, except for nationals but none of my horses are going, so right now everyone is outside on pasture, hay 2x day and simple grain 2x a day...i dont go all out during the winter. Weanlings and yearlings are up in the barn getting fed a special diet since they are growing and i want to keep an eye on their growth and make sure they are getting everything and more that they need and then i have two colts up in the barn too.

So right now in the barn i have a weanlings filly im showing next year, two yearling colts, a yearling shetland filly and that is it. Everyone else is outside on pasture, i throw hay AM/PM and they get omlene 200 2x a day with hay. Oh...i also have a broodmare in the barn that i feed separate as she has a throid problem and protein loosing enteropathy. Then i have a yearling colt that is coming home in a few weeks that will be in the barn too, going to start getting him ready when he gets home. Everyone else will come up to the barn in like late april or march and start all over agian....if i had room i would keep show horses in the barn all year around but its really just not needed.

 

[Royal Crescent]

Hi!The ones that I plan to keep on showing for the next years show season I keep them on the same feed program ALL year around. I don't dare let them fall apart and get fat.... where the weather is so unpredictable here it's very hard to beable to consistantly work them....... so my feed program is what keeps them looking as good as they do! It's "ALL" in the feed! And where there are weanlings that I am wanting to show next year I start them on my same feed program so I can start working on the this fall with the condition they need to be in.......

Thank-you for your input.

I am not sure that I will be able to work them over the winter, so as you say the feed program may be my savior for the winter. I am going to turn them out for the winter, but it is a relatively small area so feeding 3 or 4 of them separately should not be so difficult. What do you feed your show hoses?

Barb

 

[dannigirl]

After show season, I will let them out to pasture or to play a lot more. I really feel all horses need to be horses for a while each year. I don't really change the feeding program much. The best thing is to feel under all that fur as often as possible and make sure they aren't getting too skinny or fat. About Feb 1, we slowly start getting them in shape by doing some light exercise and checking their size more often. About Mar 1 we start standing them and such. By Mar 15 or Apr 1 we try to body clip the ones we are wanting to show so we can see what needs to be done and then they get 2 blankets at night. We might wait till April 15, but are almost always started by then.

Good luck.

Angie

 

[MyBarakah]

Hi Barb,

Well..... I've played around with the feed program and what works best for me is everyone gets 1 1/2 Cups (measure dry) of shreeded beet pulp, 1 1/2 Cups of whole oats (soak them together, and I let them soak for 20-40 minutes)... I also (once a day) they also get the pelleted Strongid C daily wormer and Kelp/Flaxseed mix. Everyone is a easy, easy keeper so no one gets any grain with thier beet pulp & oats. And then if you have acess to good alfalfa hay they get about 1-2 lbs of alfalfa 3 times a day. Sometimes depending on the horse, if they are already fat, you may have to back them off to just 1 Cup of the beet pulp & oats.....

And if you can't get alfalfa hay I would use the alfalfa cubes and they would get 2 (full length cubes) but I would soak them with the beet pulp & oats.....

I've had very good results with that and LOVE what the beet pulp does..... it fills them out in places they need to be filled out and gives them a nice filled out topline.... That is a must with the show horses..... and I LOVE feeding it to my broodmares...... the broodmares only get 1 Cup of the beet pulp & 1 Cup of oats only once a day they are SOOO fat and then they get grass hay a.m. and pm......but LOVE the way the beet pulp makes them look also! I honestly don't think I could have any kind of feed program that would work with out the beet pulp.....

 

[Echo Acres]

Royal Crescent...Hello from MN. Oh boy, the never ending feed question. I don't know if I will ever figure it out. Our big horses weren't this difficult to feed.

This year we seemed to get it down the best so far. We fed Omolene 200, Oats, and beet pulp. How much depended on the horse.

What really confuses me, and this may be a stupid question... is how can a horse not gain wait over the winter if you keep them on basically the same feed and no exercise. We also live in Mn, so winter exercise is pretty much nothing because of snow, ice, and weather. We did get a treadmill last fall and that helped, but we don't want to overdue that to add to much bulk in the wrong areas. So is it the cold weather that helps them burn off the calories so they are okay on the same feed? We usually cut back some and they still are a little heavy in the spring. Also last year we switched over to our regular grain mix for the winter, maybe we should try and stay on the same diet. Our treadmill allowed us to start a month earlier in the spring, and we body clipped towards the middle of April which really helped see the weight. But we only did this because we took them to the horse expo. It was brutally cold with snow/rain and our horses froze for a couple of weeks. They were double blanketed and kept in the barn. Otherwise I know the feeling you have of only having a month to take it off after body clipping and sometimes that just doesn't cut it. Especially if you start showing mid May like we do.