Feeds for and Feeding the Pony Club horse or pony

The responsibility for all owners of pony club horses is safety for the young rider, the horse and the spectators.

The objective is for the young rider, the parents and the horse to enjoy the day out. have you dreamt all week about the weekend show, and you groomed your pony until it shone. The big day comes, you get up early, and your pony wont load, or if it does, you get to the event, and you have a battle all day because your pony is badly behaved. The day ends up in disappointment. Has this happened to you?

Pony Club can be an active day out for a pony and depending on how often the pony is ridden their energy requirement may go up. As a rule ponies dont need concentrates or grain as they have a very different hormonal response to food and have evolved to live off very little feed. CoolStance is a a suitable feed for a pony used for pony club as it is very low in carbohydrates (low NSC).

Stance Equine produces a range of feeds for Ponies, that form the Stance Equine Feeding System. These feeds include

CoolFibre contains a low NSC (7%), high level of digestible fibre, which can be used to dilute the energy content of a high NSC grain the diet if required.

CoolStance contains <12% NSC, which reduces the amount of fermentable sugars. CoolStance contains 8% oil, and digestible fibre, which provides non NSC energy for performance. The CoolStance Feeding System is designed to be safe, easy and simple. Remove the high NSC containing feeds (grain and sugars), and feed medium quality grass hay, plus CoolStance as recommended.

GoStance contains 23% NSC, and has been formulated to provide a balanced supply DE for "fast" energy and "endurance" energy. GoStance is for high activity horses including dressage, racing, harness, polo, polocrosse, eventing and endurance.

CoolStance and PowerStance contain MCT in the coconut oil, which are thought to control excessive growth of intestinal organisms causing Dysbiosis, which can cause colic. and poor performance.

Ponies have to be fed with care as the usual mistake is to feed them too much which induces problems such as obesity and laminitis which are associated with many other health issues. The majority of ponies can survive with good quality grass hay and limited access to pasture. In the case of a pony performing at pony club they may require additional feed. Dependant on how many times a week that the pony is required to attend pony club feeds that are given should be high in vitamins and minerals but low in calories. Although many ponies will appear starving and very eager to eat it is up to the owner to monitor the amount the horse is given as an overweight pony can suffer from a large majority of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, cushings disease and founder.