Advice from Spillers Controlling calories

STACEY ROLPH’S IRISH sport horse, Jumbo, is a good doer and gained a few too many kilos over the winter. She’s now worrying about the risks of the spring grass. Stacey says Jumbo has always been a very good doer so ideally she should have let him lose weight over the winter. She struggled this year though — weeks of snow meant he was stabled for longer than usual and had less exercise. Now the days are longer, Stacey is riding for at least an hour every day. Jumbo is also being turned out daily onto restricted grazing, but the dilemma is what to feed him when he is stabled overnight. Currently he has soaked, double-netted hay but he eats it quickly, then starts kicking the stable door in protest, which the yard owner, who lives on site, isn’t overjoyed about. Stacey could consider giving Jumbo several scoops of a low calorie, low starch and sugar, fibre-based feed as a hay replacer when he comes in at night. This will provide controlled, reduced calories, unlike the variable calories in hay. She could then ask the yard owner to give Jumbo his net of soaked hay last thing at night to help keep him occupied and hopefully distract him from kicking his door. SPILLERS® HAPPY HOOF® is a low calorie, short-chop forage containing all the vitamins and minerals needed for good health. It can be used as a partial or total replacement for hay and helps extend eating time. SPILLERS® HAPPY HOOF® is approved by The Laminitis Trust and has been used successfully in important laminitis studies.