It’s that time of year again; winter - which can only mean thing.  Waking up and finishing the yard in the dark, praying before you mount your green and recently clipped fresh ponies in the wind and rain.  To help with those winter blues I will be giving you a few of my top tips for feeding in the winter months. So autumn has arrived, the show horses have gone on rest and the younger horses are coming in to begin their education.  I have slowly started to reduce the show horses calorie intake so I have started to move them from ReadyMash Extra to Forage ‘n’ Fibre.  This feed appeals to me as it is low in starch and sugar and cereal free which is perfect as our yard ranges from shetland ponies, to my lightweight hunter so I need a feed that is versatile enough for the whole yard.  We have lots of different horses and ponies home on the yard during the winter months, sometimes we have some that will only be with us for a few weeks, and others are here for a few months.  As I don’t want to be adding extra energy to young horses when they are starting their ridden education Forage ‘n’ Fibre is ideal as it is fibre based and gentle of their bellies.  I do have a few young show horses still ticking over in preparation for some winter shows which I will keep them on Ready Mash Extra as I don’t want them dropping too much condition.  I have also just started to feed Muscle Builder to my Welsh Section C as I have found he is lacking the top line where he is changing shape with work.  I have started now as I want to build him up gradually over the winter and then hopefully in the spring reduce the Muscle Builder.  I have been feeding Rowen Barbary for nearly 7 years now and I have found it doesn’t take long to see a difference, every equine is different but I do think it is an amazing feed so start with a little and build up until you get the desired effect. My top tips:

• Reduce the starch, sugar and cereal intake
• Feed more fibre based feed
• Feed for type and workload
• Make any changes gradual
• A little goes a long way so start of gradually