Am I over doing it?

I have an eight month old gypsy colt. He is around 600 lbs, but that is really just an estimate.

He gets 3 lbs of nutrena mare and foal and 1 lb of calf manna twice, and two large flakes of hay twice a day. I'm going to weigh the hay tonight just to see how much he is getting. He is boarded at a stable and that's what every horse gets.


He gets the calf manna as his breeder weaned him early at 3 months.

He is also gets smart combo by smartpak as a supplement for hoof, joint, digestion and coat. And omega 3 supplement.

He only gets let out to pasture every other day. There isn't much grass right now, but it's 40 acres so they move around and find some to nibble on.

Anyways I bought some alfalfa cubes yesterday just to add as an extra forage. I don't plan on giving him a whole lot but probably a pound every night along with his dinner.

My vet has approved of my feeding plan, accept the alfalfa, haven't talked to him about that yet.

But I'm just wondering if I am overdoing it? I know some people that just feed their 5 lbs of grain and two flakes of hay morning and night and their horses look okay, but I just want my colt to be as healthy as possible.
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Here is a picture of him

Sorry for my typos

... Well, I guess I'm not over doing it then.
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How much did the hay weigh?

I don't think I can be of much help. Our horse is with us so he has free choice hay and what I'd feed would be a lot different from your guy. Pretty boy though and he looks good and healthy from the picture :)

Try FeedXL Horse Nutrition: The D.I.Y. Equine diet planner for a ballpark estimate if your horse is getting enough.

Though it is good news that your vet has approved it and your horse seems very healthy and has a nice shine. Well done!

I think you're spending more money than you need to, but I doubt it is having any negative side effects. Are those 'large flakes' off of our typical 50lb coastal bales? If so, that is very little hay for any of the horses. You'd need to weigh the hay to be certain. I would be concerned about feeding too little hay and so much (proportionally) grain along with limited turn-out... that's prime set up for ulcers. I doubt they're finding much other than weeds out there right now, but that little roughage is hopefully helping to mitigate being short on hay.

By this point, the calf manna is probably unnecessary and the smartpak as well. But, if it makes you happy to be sure he's covered, I doubt it will cause any harm. You should probably familiarize yourself with OCD (the joint problem) as some think that genetic inclination together with an over-supplemented/high growth diet make it more likely.

I actually like the alfalfa pellets, at least that's a little more hay in some form, and the extra calcium in it can help with ulcer prevention. Hay in every form and the mare and foal probably covers everything he needs right now.

Did you decide if you were going to geld him for a pleasure/show horse? He's getting so big!

I don't have any plans to geld him soon. I have trained him all of his or most of the ground manners and he is such a docile boy, his pedigree is very nice and so far he is growing into a nice boy although he will probably not be full grown til age five. So I will wait and see on that.

I guess I can start switching him off the calf manna since he will be getting more alfalfa. I didn't weigh the hay yet, I'll do it today.


I have read about OCD but as always, keep an eye on him for any unusual swelling, lameness, soreness.
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Here is another pic, he is only eight months, but while he looks nice and plump on a profile pic, here you can see how narrow he actually is

Thanks, I did the feedxl, still need to weigh his hay, but it looks like he doesn't need the calf manna at all, he does need more iodine. He has a salt block but barely ever uses it so ill just add a little salt to his feed. He was also lacking vitamin b.