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Growing filly, need feed advice!

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  caseymyhorserocks 
#1 ·
Hello!

I am new here, and came here with a question about my horses' feeding plan. I am new to growing horses and want to provide my growing filly the best nutrition.

Ginger is a 3 y/o 14.2hh quarter horse. Before I got her she was skinny and malnourished. After lots of groceries she is at an okay weight, but it fluctuates, which I don't like. I have had her for a year and it seems like I just pour the feed to her with little weight gain sometimes and other times she fattens up. My vet said it was the feed, and that I should switch to one with more fat than protien. She currently gets 4 quarts a day(split between two feedings) of a 50/50 mixture of a 14% feed and honey grain. She has 24/7 access to a good quality bermuda round bale and I let her out to graze on a bermuda/native grass pasture for 3-4 hours a day. This is because the drout last year killed all the grass off and it is just now growing back in, once it is nice and lush I will let her graze all day.

Anyway, I want to feed her something healthier, not just grain. I was thinking alfalfa pellets and a good mineral block? If you all owned her, what would you feed her? She is completely healthy, so there really isn't any restrictions. Just need advice and some ideas! Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
I feed my 2 yr old quarter horse Patriot 12/6. 12% protein 6% fat. 1/2 a lb in the evening &1/2 a lb calf creep in the morning with hay all day. I feed my 15 yr old paint the same. Both stayed healthy all winter even with the crappy hay, Oklahoma here. Anytime I have tried a different feed they start striping bark off certain trees. They also have a mineral block all day. Hope that helps :)
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#3 ·
Rice Bran is an excellent choice for providing fat- which your vet is right about, they need lots of fat to gain weight. I currently feed Rice Bran, Alfalfa Pellets/Cubes, and 24-7 pasture to my hard keeper. Another really important thing to add weight is fiber, which can be found in Alfalfa and/or beet pulp. Since Alfalfa does not really have much fat, mainly lots of Protein and fiber, you will want to add something such as Rice Bran into your horses diet.

Also- if you are going to feed Alfalfa Cubes/pellets, I would highly recommend soaking them. Some horses always choke (my horse chokes on one broken up cube or a handful of pellets) or others never choke, but you don't really want to figure it out the hard way! Pellets soak faster but don't satisfy the horses need to chew long stem fiber - as pellets are ground up hay and cubes are chopped hay, both compacted - but if you are feeding to add weight you can really go either way. What I did was buy a bag of each and saw when one Casey liked best.. She had no preference, I prefer cubes, so thats what I usually feed.
 
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