Hi,
I am after a bit of advice. Back in Uk I had my girl on Pegasus horse and pony nuts/cubes as she is a good do-er and she seems to live on fresh air. However she can be a bit excitable so I she has magic which works a treat, and I need something to go with it to get her to eat it, so we mix it with the pony nuts and a bit of water and she licks the bowl clean.
Has anyone found an equivalent over here, the locals seem to look at me in disbelief when i told then that I was only paying £5 for a 20kg bag of feed!!
They already think that I am a strange english woman, as I poo pick my field daily :-)
thanks
thanks for all the messages, I think that I will send spillers an email and ask them if they stock it our here, or an equivalent (if not then probably pasture mix is the closest, I remembe a friend of mine used that with her good-doer). Im sorry that I couldnt explain myself better, horse/pony nuts are something that have always just been around at the yards I have been to. It was one of the main feeds for the riding school horses at my last yard. Yes she is given somethings as she is fiercly defensive over food and has to have soemthing when others are eating and before all she was on was denjie good-doer which is chaff however she stopped eating it, the riding school yard manager tried her with a handfull of pony nuts and she liked the bowl clean. Magic is a Naf calmer product, and seems to settle her down a bit, we have tried her without but she becomes too excited and doesnt know what to do with herself, I spoke with the vet and he said that it was worth her going back onto it.
I need to give her a bit of something especially going into the winter as she is ridden 5-6 days a week for an hour or more mainly hacking however we ride at all 4 speeds so it isnt a slow plod out. She will also need to be clipped shortly as she sweats up easlily when exercised with her winter coat. We are tryng to get our ourdoor menage sorted so that exercising when it gets slippy is safer and easier. Thanks Jo
Hi Joanna,
Like Annette, I'm not sure what the question is. Generally hay alone is sufficient for a pony in light work. I think I know the kind of pellets that you are talking about: big cubes of compressed hay. I have used them in the past to bulk out a ration so that that one horse is not jealous of another and also to slow down a quick eater.
I have 2 ponies (1 big, 1 small) that are VERY excitable . They are fed on grass in the summer and hay in the winter,with an extra ration of Strucomix, Pasturemix or Leisuremix when they have been worked (generally the weekend), or when it is extremely cold.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'magic'.
Okay let me try again!!! :-) I am not understanding the original post? Are you feeding just the Pegasus nuts or something with it? Is the "magic" a vitamin supplement or a chaff along with the nuts? You wrote that you need to put something with it (the Pegasus nuts) to get her to eat "it"? What does the "it" consist of?
If you have a good doer and she is on grazing of some type 24/7 then you would only need to add roughage at certain times of the year or depending on the quality of the grazing she is eating. So that would be additional long stalked grass of some type baled (whatever you can get locally) ie hay/lucern/teff etc.
As for what you bucket feed? If you need to bucket feed (ie you have a routine or the horse is used to being fed once or twice a day you can either use a chaffed mix (same as the fodder long stalk but can be bought already chaffed in bags very cheaply or can chaff and mix yourself) or you can use commercial bagged meal (grain) or nuts. This type of bagged feed would be a hard feed (because it's been processed into cubes and doesn't really give the gut the workout that a long stalk fodder would). These types of bagged feed will give you minerals/vitamins and energy requirement for workload. So the "cheap" equivilent locally would be a local made bagged feed that is a "cool" mix for light work or maintenance. That you would need to ask about at your local agri/horse supply/outlet.
The best way to really know what you are feeding is to know what your grazing contains and the content/quality of any additional fodder. Then you can balance with the "bagged hard feed" anything you think is missing. Horses of course are supposed to be grazing 16 hours out of 24 and most hardy breeds will do well on grazing alone with just the additional extra fodder during sparse times or for heating purposes when the weather is cold. Unless your horse is competing or has a heavy workload then additional hard feed is not really required IF the nutritional needs are met with grazing.
"Bagged" feed being nuts or meal do tend to get bulked out with bran and other stuff as well as having molasses etc added to encourage the horse to want to eat it. There are some brands that are more wholesome/horse friendly and molasses free etc but will cost more. The bucket and bagged feed idea is more for the human and the stabling conditions horses are kept in, and not necessarily the best way to feed a horse according to it's ethogram.
I am not sure how helpful that is to you? I don't know what brands are available in France curently, maybe some other members here can advise on brands there and what they contain? If you can get the processed feed to a very minimal amount and find a good source and storage for some bales, I think your pony will be very happy :-)
If the supplement you are adding is for calming? (hence the reason you need the nuts), you may find once the nutritional needs are met through grazing this behaviour calms down. Plus obviously being out 24/7 will help too. Some of this behaviour "can" be linked to the feed or can be a mineral deficiency if you have of course ruled out hormones and physical ailments :-) If the land is yours, you might want to research types of plants/herbs that you could introduce that help with balancing :-)
This is what it says about it. i was told that itnis basically compressed hay/chaff into nuts/cubes.
Pegasus Value Cubes from Spillers Horse Feeds are a non-heating pony nut, offering excellent value for money. These economy nut don’t compromise on quality are suitable for horses and ponies in light to medium work.
Typical analysis:
Protein 9, Oil 4, Fibre 17, Ash 10, Vitamin A 8,000 iu/kg, Vit D3 1,000 iu/kg, Vit E 75 iu/kg, Copper 22 mg/kg, Selenium 0.2 mg/kg
" However she can be a bit excitable so I she has magic which works a treat,"
Not sure I understand what this is? Is it some kind of chaffed mix ie hay/lucern/straw?