Answer

By Your Horse

Nutritionist Lizzie Drury replies:

Cobs tend to be good doers, requiring very little concentrate feed, especially in spring and summer, to maintain good condition. Your gelding’s weight and condition will govern how much and what you feed him. I suggest you weigh him, using a weigh tape, and condition score him. Ideally, do this every two to three weeks. This will let you pick up any changes in his condition quickly and allow you to adjust his diet before his weight becomes a problem. I would expect him to weigh about 600 to 620kg, and you should aim for a condition score of 5 to 6 on a scale of 1 to 9 where 1 is poor and 9 is extremely fat.
If he is a typical cob, at his ideal weight and condition, he won’t need much hard feed. He should get a large part of his digestible energy and protein from the pasture, though it will lack essential vitamins and minerals that he needs. These can be provided via a low-calorie feed balancer such as Saracen Bio-Life 2000 or Bailey’s Lo-Cal (give him about 500 to 800g a day). Balances also maintain a healthy gut and allow the horse to make better use of his forage.