Answer

By Your Horse

Nutritionist Louise Jones replies:

As your elderly mare has trouble eating haylage, it’s important that you continue to provide alternative fibre sources in addition to grass. This can be achieved by feeding a ‘haynet in a bucket’, which contains chaff, sugar beet and high fibre cubes. Ideally, this mixture should be fed in a large rubber skip bucket as frequently as your pony would consume a haynet (three to six meals a day). This will mimic the natural ‘trickle feeding’ process and ensure she is not over-faced.
Generally, chaff is much shorter-chopped than haylage, and so it should be a bit easier for her to eat. Adding sugar beet and high-fibre cubes to this should soften it a bit, again making it easier to eat. As your pony is prone to losing weight, feed alfalfa chaff instead of an unmolassed chaff, as this is a good source of highly digestible fibre and energy (calories).
Make any changes to your pony’s feed ration gradually over a period of approximately 10 days to minimise the risk of digestive problems and monitor her weight. How much of the ‘haynet in a bucket’ feed she requires will depend on the amount of grass and haylage she has available – and how much of it she can consume. In the worst-case scenario, assuming she is on poor quality winter pasture and can’t eat any haylage, she would require around 2kg per day of each product.
The sugar beet should be weighed before it’s soaked.