Bringing a dales back into work...feeding?

[kirt]

When the dales pony i am taking on trial arrives I am going to have to start from scratch to get him fit, as he has been out of work since christmas. I would like to get him to a level where he can hack out at an active pace for a good hour and be comfortable doing so.

Can anyone tell me if i should Put him on any kind of feed for coming back into work?

[dalesvic]

I'm no expert at all- but I guess not as long as he's not growing and you build him up slowly enough to give him a chance of getting fit and coping. Especially not if he's overweight I would say or you'll struggle to get the weight off him. Though of course you have to consider what else he is getting- our field is not lush at all and is very short but Sammy has had tons of energy recently. If he's out on grass I would he'll have more than enough evergy just from that.

I ride Sammy very intermittently and she is on nothing but a handful of happy hoof and seaweed, plus she is out 24hrs- on limited grazing however. Looking back I might have fed her a bit more during the winter in order for her to be able to do a bit more- but she dropped weight during the winter which was what I wanted. What I'm trying to say is it depends on him and the circumstances but I would start with nothing and see if he can cope with it. It's amazing how quickly then can fitten up and seeing as you only want to take him out for an hour then I would imagine he would be ok. Though of course if you push him from the start he might struggle to find the energy to cope.

Felix was very overweight and hadn't done much for 2 years if I'm honest but now he is a trekking pony and doing at least 2 hours a day (roughly maybe more now). That involves trotting and some canter as far as I know. He was taken out for about an hour daily from the start but the energy he was expected to put into it and how he carried himself was built up as he could cope with it. I don't think he got any extra feed and he's shed quitre a lot of weight now and looks lovely and muscled. I think it took up to 8 weeks to get him going out on 2hour treks but he was starting from a point where a very short stretch of trot would make him puff!

Sorry for the ramble, hope it makes some sense. I'm obsessed about my ponies getting too fat so I would always err on the side of caution but guess you need to weigh up what you want and the circumstances

[juliansteve]

The only thing ours are getting at the minute is Top Spec Anti - Lam feed balancer so I'm sure they are getting vitamins and minerals. They are on rough grazing but seem to be getting plenty out of that. where we live it is all hills and they have plenty of energy.
I would only only feed fibre i.e. Spillers High Fibre cubes abd Speedi beet if there was no grass or in the winter.
I agree with being careful about them getting fat - better let them have plenty of fibre any day!