what do i feed an 8yr old middleweight hunter whos a good doer?

Question

he is in hard work and turned out for 4 hours a day. |He hunts three times a fortnight and is of a calm disposition.

Answer 1

hi i have a thourghbred cross irish draught who hunts as well i feed him i scoop of sugar beet twice a day and high fibre nuts and alfa a some times he gets haylage at night or hay it depends what the farm has in where i keep him if hes having hay i give him 4 to 6 sections a night and 4 during the day i feed coarser hay as it digests better and takes longer to eat good luck

Answer 2

First of all, the most important part of his diet is going to be forage. If he's on grass, great, if not make sure he has plenty of hay available. For grain you have several options. I like a mixture of sweet feed and rolled oats for my TB hunter. He's a real doer and eats about six quarts a day, three in the morning and three at night. There also pelleted feeds, but make sure you take a good look at the ingredients. Some of them can be high in starches and some horses have bad reactions to them. Of course, if your horse is doing fine one what he's already eating, I wouldn't try to fix what's not broken. If he's dropping weight you can try a higher fat feed and adding a bit of corn oil to the grain.

Answer 3

From the terminology you use, it sounds as if you're in the UK or Europe. Not sure if these feeds are available, but I like Triple Crown by Agway. Specifically, I like Complete. As its' name implies you can (theoretically) use it as a complete feed when hay is in short supply. It's a 12% protein feed with 6% fat. My 15.1 h QH who's worked for an hour 3x a week gets about 4 pounds a day. He also gets about 3 flakes of grass/ timothy hay 3 times a day.

I try to stay away from 'straight' grains when at all possible. I think they contribute to carbohydrate overload. If that is all that's available to you, stick to oats and barley and avoid corn. I'd also add a general vitamin supplement like Glanzen or Accell by Vita Flex, as well as a mineral salt block..

Answer 4

i would go for a good quality hay, and lots of it, and just some chaff. no need to feed hard food if they are good doers, any work they do will help keep their weigh down.
may want to feed a multi vitamin suppliment to make sure it gets all it needs.
if you can avoid it then best to aviod concentrated feeds like grains as these are not natural for a hore to eat, but if he needs a little more energy then i would go for just a handful or two of some type of conditioning mix, doen't need to be too expensive. and maybe a little splash of linseed oil too, that will give him some energy and a lovely shiney coat. But if he is a good doer then keep concentrates to a minimum to avoid excess weigh.