Muscling 3 minis

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How can I put muscle on my 3 minis during the winter with no barn?

  • Feed muscle up?

    Votes: 2 100.0%
  • Exercise

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • Total voters
    2
I am physically disabled and with the bad winter weather coming, How can I put muscle onmy 3 minis without a indoor arena to work them in?
 
First I would look at what you're feeding them. The simpler the better but protein is very important in muscle building.

With bad weather coming in it is very difficult to exercise them, but having them in a living situation that allows lots of movement is very helpful for them to exercise themselves! Especially if there is snow and they have to walk through that on a regular basis. I'm not sure what their living situation is but if you can feed them far away from their water, as in across the pen from the water or on the other end of pasture, then they will have to walk to drink. My ponies live on a small track system in which they have to walk around the track to go from the hay to the water and then back to the hay. They also have to walk from the hay to the shelter and then back to the hay. So lots of movement!

When it's very cold and wintery I don't do too much exercise with my ponies. But if it's just cold but sunny then I do drive them. So having them trained to drive is helpful in helping to keep them well muscled, exercised and healthy :)

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First I would look at what you're feeding them. The simpler the better but protein is very important in muscle building.

With bad weather coming in it is very difficult to exercise them, but having them in a living situation that allows lots of movement is very helpful for them to exercise themselves! Especially if there is snow and they have to walk through that on a regular basis. I'm not sure what their living situation is but if you can feed them far away from their water, as in across the pen from the water or on the other end of pasture, then they will have to walk to drink. My ponies live on a small track system in which they have to walk around the track to go from the hay to the water and then back to the hay. They also have to walk from the hay to the shelter and then back to the hay. So lots of movement!

When it's very cold and wintery I don't do too much exercise with my ponies. But if it's just cold but sunny then I do drive them. So having them trained to drive is helpful in helping to keep them well muscled, exercised and healthy :)

View attachment 40655
I am feeding them Nutrena Horse Feed, Beet Pulp, Tri Ameno, Red Cell pellets, and muscle up. Also, high fiber hay 2x a day. The hay for the boys are fed outside, while there water is inside to be plugged in for the winter. The boys are only 3 and 1 1/2 yrs old. My 7mo filly is in a different pen and is fed away from her water. My 1 1/2 yr old is really boney in his back hips. Want to improve him before sho season 2020.
 
It seems you may be doubling up on some things that are not necessary. I would never tell you what to do with your minis but may suggest cutting out a supplement or two. You are most like just wasting money by using a few of the same things. And I have NEVER been a fan of adding iron of any kind to any horse or pony's diet. They don't need added iron as they get all they need from their hay, which is very often too high in iron as it is. I would especially not do this for a young horse. Unless you have had them diagnosed by a vet with anemia (which is extremely uncommon in horses) then I would take Red Cell out of the their diet all together, if they were mine :)

I'm not sure which Nutrena Horse feed you are feeding but I am not a fan of grain of any kind. My ponies get either Timothy Hay pellets or Alfalfa Hay pellets, wet down, then topped with soybean meal for protein as it has had all the oil and the hulls removed and is a very good source of amino acids. They get between 5 and 10 pounds of hay each per day, depending on the weather. I have had to start weighing their hay as they got a bit too fat last summer. They have access to fresh water but have to walk for it and then I have salt available to them 24/7.

I have a blog post in which I share about horse nutrition. The online course I took was inexpensive and mind blowing and cleared up many questions I had after taking longer and more expensive nutrition courses in the past! LOL! Here is a link to that post: The Horsemanship Nutrition Course.
 

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