healthy diet for pony

Question
I have just gotten a 5 y/o welsh/qh cross pony gelding for my granddaughter - my first horse too and need advice please.  He was in a small pasture with 5 other horses and was the low end of the hierarchy.  The other horses looked a little rough and on the thin side.  My pony appears pretty good in comparison - he is muscled and his middle looks a little heavy, but the owner says he has been wormed on a regular basis.  We live in northeast Texas and he will be kept in a 20 acre mixed grass pasture that he will only share with a few heifers at any time.  We keep good quality hay out for the heifers during the winter.  What type of additional feed will the pony need?  What about mineral supplements?  And what is the best type of treat for him?  Thank you for your help.

Answer
Dear Vicky,

Congratulations on your new purchase!  A couple of things stand out in your post.  Namely the fact that while your pony was the lowest in the group he was in he is in good condition while the others were not.  This tells me that your pony is what we call a "good doer" i.e. he doesn't need many groceries to keep condition on him.  This is very typical of ponies especially welsh ponies.  Think of the welsh mountains where they come from the grazing is VERY sparse and has very little nutritional value.  Therefore I am VERY concerned about him having access to 20 acres of grazing with only a few heifers.  This could spell disaster.  When ponies such as him get access to too much gras they are very prone to a condition called laminitis.  This results in severe lameness as their hoof walls break away from the internal structures of the hoof.  This can result in the bone that is inside the hoof (the pedal or coffin bone), which looks like a triangle that mirrors the shape of the hoof when looking from the side, to rotate down and it sometimes comes through the bottom of the hoof.  If any rotation in this hoof occurs the horse is said to have foundered.  This is irreversible.  Once a horse has had laminitis it is at great risk of a repeat occurrence and many ponies never recover.

You need to condition score and weigh your pony here is a nice article on how to do both

http://www.admani.com/AllianceEquine/Body%20Condition%20Scoring.htm

If he was mine I would fence off a small area that only he has access to and allow it to become dirt and feed him grass hay giving him limited access to the grazing. This will allow you to manage his weight more easily.  This is a big subject and I can't cover all you need to know here.  I strongly recommend that you buy yourself two books that are put out by the United States Pony Club. These books are aimed at teaching youth about horse management and cover all areas of everything you need to know about keeping horses.  The lowest level book The D Manual is very basic information and your grand daughter would probably very much enjoy it and the C manual starts to get into the subject matter in more detail.  The 3rd book the B.HB A levels is the most advanced and you may find it interesting after you have read teh C one.  

You can buy all these books from the pony club bookstore online at
http://uspcbooks.stores.yahoo.net/

The manuals are at
http://uspcbooks.stores.yahoo.net/usmaruandgu.html

The Manual of Horsemanship is one book and is the English pony club manual.

the people there are knowledgeable and will be able to help you with any other books you might want.

In addition speak with your vet about how best to manage this pony in order to avoid getting into problems.

Good luck,

Clair Thunes, PhD
Independent Equine Nutritionist,
Equilibrate Equine Consulting
www.equilibrateequine.com
clair@equilibrateequine.com