Is she getting enough...everything?/weight critique

I just want to double check because I feel good about what I'm feeding Lacey and Lacey is looking great, I just want to make sure that there isn't something essential that she's missing in her diet that I don't know about.

So, the basic things about Lacey are:

• she's 26
• in medium/light work
• 24/7 turnout
• a mild founder/laminitis risk (haven't had any issues in the last year, since I've been in charge of everything she eats, but yknow)
• possibly insulin resistant
• and we're located in northwestern Oregon, in case that makes any difference with something she needs
• She's a relatively easy keeper, not an air fern but not difficult to keep weight on, especially if she's blanketed

Currently, she's eating about 10 pounds of alfalfa a day, unlimited grass hay (she mostly just nibbles on that when she gets hungry, it's never fully gone), 2 pounds (before soaking) of soaked beet pulp, 1 pound of Purina Enrich 32, and Mare Magic, along with whatever grass she can scrounge up (there isn't much yet).

Once the grass starts coming in, and is enough to support her, I plan on getting her off the alfalfa but that probably won't be for at least another month. I'm planning on leaving her on the Enrich 32 since at least from my understanding, that's supposed to help her digest sugars and things better. I'm unsure about leaving her on the beet pulp. I feel like she's a little more filled out/muscular etc since I started her on that so I'll probably keep her on it unless she gains too much weight. Right now she's been staying a pretty consistent weight, she's maybe lost a little in the last few weeks because I've been trying to get her a little slimmer for springtime grass.
I'm pretty happy with the weight she is. I think it's good, hopefully. She has enough energy (maybe too much, haha, I keep finding marks in the mud where she's been galloping around and stuff by herself! Silly girl) and I think the Mare Magic is keeping her hottness under control, thank goodness!

Is her weight looking good? Does she appear like she needs something more? Or is she good?

She looks great! Especially at 26! You're doing a wonderful job. Her neck looks just a little bit cresty, so what you could do is see about taking out the Mare Magic and putting her on a supplement with magnesium in it to control her hotness and weight a little bit.

Here's a link to one on SmartPak. It's a little bit cheaper than the Mare Magic too. This is the Magnesium 3,000 and the Magnesium 5,000 costs $11.95, the same as the Mare Magic.

Magnesium 3,000 - Equine Metabolic Supplements from SmartPak Equine

She looks good, any more and she might qualify for "chubby".

She looks great!

Lacey is looking great. A little tip to save money, find a place that sells red raspberry leaves in bulk. That is pretty much all mare magic is, but much less expensive. I had a site from someone else somewhere...I'll have to scrounge it up.

You know Lacey is a sexy girl. She could bear to lose a bit more but for a horse her age, it is just so nice to not see ribs. I just cannot believe how much progress you have made with her since you've had her. She looks like an actual horse now instead of a lumpy mattress .

So magnesium should do a similar thing as Mare Magic? Who knew! Cool. Because it's really not about her attitude while she's in heat, she just gets super hot off of something in the spring. Maybe it's the grass, I don't know, but she turns into a little demon. Haha
If magnesium should help with that, I'm totally game to try it!


Tinyliny- I should have left chubby as an option! Haha She's my little chunker. But yeah, thankfully she's lost a little bit since that picture was taken so she's a little less "bootiful".

Thanks Spastic! :)

That would be great, grayshell! Thanks!

Hahaha a lumpy mattress! She did look like one back in the day. Excellent point. LOL! And thanks! I think she's appreciative, she tells me so everytime I try move anything into or out of her pasture. She comes over as fast as her little legs will carry her and proceeds to "help" me inspect everything. >.< Haha
Like today, I was mucking out her little shelter (it's been horrifically rainy here, so her shelter and all the bedding inside was basically flooded) and she stood there, "supervising" for the entire hour it took me. And then, as soon as I got done and put the fresh bedding down, she peed in it. What a jerk.


Would perhaps moving her to just one pound of beet pulp do good things, in the scheme of having her loose a little bit?
When she gets less alfalfa she starts stealing the llamas alfalfa and then they get all hungry and skinny (she's very polite about it, she just ambles over to their pile and the leave, silly kids!). So if she wasn't inclined to take their hay, I'd just cut out a lot more of the alfalfa...but until the grass grows in, I'm hesitant, for the sake of the llamas...

I'm also going to try to get her working more this term. With all the lessons we're giving and school, I just haven't had the time to really get her moving regularly, which certainly doesn't help her be svelte! Haha

Sorry for the double post!

I honestly don't have much experience with beet pulp so I am unsure how cutting it down would effect her. I suppose it couldn't hurt to try, I mean, it's not like she's wasting away to nothing or anything .

Hahaha not wasting away is right! Someone wants to pretend she's a QH and it's not me.... Haha

I was just looking at pictures from last year and I don't even know, like I'm embarrassed that she looked like that and kind of irked that people didn't say anything. But, maybe they just figured it was her age.... But does this look normal:




I feel so bad that she was like that. Gosh darn. At least she's making up for it now!