Finally the follow up to the Horsemanship Nutrition Course!
I have been feeding Sky and Zorro, following Dr. Tucker's advice, for about 5 months now. It took some time to get Zorro to eat the Soybean Meal. He does not like it when I put new things in his feed pan. He is super picky about what he will eat.
For about a month I had to give him just the tiniest amount of the SBM to get him to finish his hay pellets. If I tried to up it too quickly then he would just walk away from the pan. Then I would give him plain hay pellets for a feeding or two, then sneak the SBM back in. Now he doesn't like to eat his hay pellets without the SBM, if we run out. He will walk away from the plain pellets. LOL!
Though both ponies were too fat coming into Spring and for much of the summer, they had bright eyes and beautiful, healthy hair coats. In order to get them to lose some weight I have had to weigh and measure their hay intake. Even though I am feeding low sugar low starch hay, they just couldn't lose the weight.
After a month of feeding 2.5#'s of hay in the morning and 2.5#'s of hay in the evening, with 1/4# of hay pellets topped with 2 ounces of SBM twice a day, they have both started losing weight! Zorro looks especially good. Sky still has some to lose. I think I will have to put her on the Thyro-L, though I really don't want to have to do that. She walks away from the hay before it's done and still isn't losing like Zorro is.
I have been exercising Sky, trotting 5 minutes in one direction and then 5 minutes in the other direction, with a walk around our driving track in the middle. She is going to bump up to 7 minutes of trotting today! And I ordered some Chaste Berry Powder that I will try before I put her on the Thryo-L. Both she and Zorro have an appointment with the vet next week for a follow up blood test. I'm hoping their liver enzymes have come back down to normal.
I have been trimming both of their hooves once a week, never allowing more than 2 weeks between trims, since March as well. Their feet have never looked better! I'm sure being fed a simple diet that is appropriate for horses and ponies and being on a good trim cycle have both contributed to that!
So this extremely simple feed program has been excellent for my ponies. I highly recommend taking the course and giving it a try with your herd!