Your First Pony- Feeding Your Pony with Catherine Shelley

This article is from the March 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

How much food do you need to feed your pony? Naturally, it depends on the individual pony, their age and breed; how much grass they have in their paddock and how much exercise they are getting.

In general, ponies have a slower metabolism and lower energy requirements than bigger horses, so they tend to gain and maintain body weight more easily, even when they are being ridden on a regular basis.

Your pony’s diet should be based around grass and hay. Equal to a biscuit or two (as a rule 1.5% of the pony’s body weight) in good-quality forage. Forage is another name used to describe food for livestock; e.g. hay, chaff and/or grass. 

Pasture is a word used to describe the different grasses growing in a paddock. This is used to feed livestock; horses, cattle and sheep.

Many ponies will maintain their body weight on pasture or hay alone, but some forages may lack important minerals and vitamins. 

Many commercial feeds formulated for performance horses will supply too many calories for ponies, which can result in weight gain and can lead to obesity and related diseases, such as laminitis (otherwise known as founder). Reducing the feeding rate of a commercial feed to lower the energy intake can result in deficiencies of important nutrients. 

Feeding a low-intake, low-calorie vitamin and mineral block in addition to forage is a great way to supply ponies with their daily requirement of nutrients without weight gain. 

Ideal Body Condition

Body Condition Scoring (BCS) gives you a good idea of how thin or fat your pony may be. Ideally your pony should have a BCS of around 3. As you can see from the diagram below, 0 is very thin and unhealthy looking. 5 is very fat and equally unhealthy. 

Ponies at risk

When feeding ponies with a body condition score of 5, or higher, we must be cautious of feeding diets high in sugar and starch (NSC or non-structural carbohydrates). If your pony is overweight, immediate steps must be taken to reduce his body fat.

Speak to your vet to recommend a healthy diet for your pony to eat during his weight loss.

Your vet may also advise you on some of the following:
• Remove grain and other concentrated sources of calories from diet
• Forage should be the primary; if not the sole energy providing component of the ration
• Limit the amount of access to grass per day to one to three hours and turn ponies out late at night (after 8.00pm) or early in the morning, removing them from pasture by mid-morning, at the latest (before 10.00am), because non-structural carbohydrates (e.g. starch and sugar) levels are at a minimum.
• Alternatively, limit the size of the available pasture by use of temporary fencing to create small paddocks or use a grazing muzzle.
• Cease feeding of “treats” (i.e. apples, carrots)
• Increase the exercise program

Laminitis/Founder 

If you think your pony has laminitis alert your veterinarian as soon as possible.
Signs of laminitis may include:
• Your pony is leaning back on his hind feet to take pressure off his front feet
• A strong/bounding digital pulse at the back of the hoof
• A hoof that’s hot for hours

• A distorted hoof shape and/or unusual growth rings surrounding his hooves
• An increased heart rate. If you place your hand on or around his girth area on his near (left) side you may be able to feel his heartbeat. For a pony, his heartrate is around 44 beats per minute at rest, give or take a beat or two.
• Too little or too much hoof lifting 
• Apparent stretched or bulging hoof and/or bleeding of the hoof
• A shortened stride when walking forward

Once your pony has suffered from founder, his diet has to be managed for life, so that is why it is very important for him to maintain a healthy body weight and be given regular exercise to avoid it happening again.

Catherine’s Feeding Tips 

There is a lot to think about with regards to a pony’s healthy diet; monitor their intake, weigh out your feeds, know your pony’s weight, watch their body condition score and know their nutritional needs. 
• Do some research online (Google) or in horse diet books, your local library will have lots of books to go through. 
• Make sure they have fresh clean water at ALL times
• Regular visits by the dentist and the farrier, along with a good worming routine is vital to your pony’s wellbeing.
• Never put fresh food on top of stale leftover feed, always remove the leftover food from his feeder before feeding him his fresh feed.

All of these simple steps each day will help your pony thrive their whole life; and with good management and dietary practises, the challenges of feeding your pint-sized companion can be overcome.

Until next month...
happy horsing around!

Catherine Shelley
NCAS EA SSTA/ CE Level 2 General Coach, NCAS Level 1 RDA Coach, Dip. of TB racing -
Melton Equestrian accredited with EA Ready, Set, Trot program.

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