In September 2015 my mum bought her own horse called Cloudy, he is an American Paint X Thoroughbred. He's 18 this year and is an ex eventer. He hasn't been out eventing for a while now as we've had him a year and a half and his past owner had him a couple of years. Since retiring from eventing he has just been a happy hacker with his past owner and pretty much my mum. She takes him in the school on occasions and a bit more often throughout the summer when the roads are busy.

We're not sure on any of his eventing history, but we've seen some pictures his past owner had of him doing it. For the age of him he is still very much active and if you compared him to the way Legacy works you make think their ages were the other way around. He is ridden most days as my mum works in the mornings she gets the afternoons to ride so he is quite fit. There's a popular quick hacking route that the yard do, typically it takes 20 minutes there and back, it takes Cloudy 10 minutes he has such a big stride and is forward going he leaves everyone behind.

Myself and him have such a love hate relationship, he is definitely a one person horse. Lets just say we more tolerate each other. In the beginning we got along well. There were moments where he would misbehave for me but we got over that. There was a time he gave me a black eye, I've written about it in my Naf hedgy treats review. We were doing great riding together and I was even getting back into jumping on him, as he was such a confidence booster when it comes to jumping. If you aren't 100% sure on what you're doing he's great, he does it all for you. Until one day just before christmas the year we got him I was jumping him and he took off and bunny hopped until I was off, I went straight into the puddle. I was ready to finish jumping for the day after that but I got back onto to trot a 20 circle to keep my confidence on him and he did the same again but also jumping over the pole on the floor. Which was unexpected for me. Turns out when we got the back man out after that his withers was out of place and the jumping and work was causing him pain. Since that day I've lost my confidence on him and haven't ridden him without being on the lunge since. As it was even when not in pain he did like to play up for me a little anyway. My aim this year along with getting Legacy working well is to get back on Cloudy and to get back schooling him and listening to me, and maybe we'll leave the jumping as an aim for next year.

Balancers, Why Feed Them?

Balancers are a great way to give your horse all the recommended vitamins & minerals without having to feed multiple times a day or giving them a bucket full of feed. Depending on the choice of balancer you will be giving them no more than 2 cups of feed and that's for a 16hh+ horse.

It has always been a big no no to give your horses bigger feeds as it can increase the chance of colic among other things but giving your horse 2-4 feeds a day isn't always readily available for some people. The more times a day a feed is split up into the better as it keeps the digestive system working correctly as fit's with the way the horse has always eaten, little and often. Splitting the feed up is also a good way to help put weight onto your horse as it will give the system plenty of time to take up all the nutrients needed from each meal.  

Some of the benefits from feeding a feed balancer with ad-lib forage are:

• Better digestive efficiency
• Reduced risk of loose droppings 
• Reduced risk of colic 
• Reduced risk of laminitis
• Reduced risk of stereotypical behaviour (once called ‘vices’) 
• Reduced risk of ‘tying-up’ 
• Reduced severity of gastric ulcers
• Reduced risk of DOD (an umbrella term covering abnormal limb development) 
• More relaxed behaviour with improved focus 

Feed balancers can be fed alone like the Naf Optimum or can be added to a chaff to add a little bulk and more of the horse to eat.

Some balancers come in a pelleted form like the Naf Optimum or they will come in a powder form. From experience I've learnt that the powdered ones will be the ones you come across in a small tub such as the Equine Answers 365 Balancer starting at 1Kg (I've done a review on this product, which you can read here), but the Naf Optimum also comes in a smaller bag starting at 3.7Kg. 

There are now many different types of balancers each suited to your horses needs:

- Performance

- Lo-Cal/Lite for laminitis prone or the fat

- Conditioning

- Weight maintenance

-  Joint

- Hoof

- Veteran/Senior

- Stud

- Donkey

What's great about balancers as well is that they will be low in starch & sugar meaning they won't heat up or fizz up for horse. 

The 2 balancers that have worked really well for Legacy are the Naf Optimum & Equine Answers 365 Complete 

Do you feed a balancer to your horse?

*Images are from this article

*Italicized list is from this article

NAF Hedgy Treats Review

Legacy loves her treats, and when NAF brought out their new Hedgy treats I just had to get her some to try. They are made with natural ingredients which include read hedgerow herbs, so she's not only getting a treat but it's healthy for her. 

The herb ingredients in the treats are as follows;
Common Nettle,
Hawthorn Berries,
Dandelion Leaves
Rose hip Shells

These are all herbs which horses could find in the field which proves it's natural and healthy. If you're horse doesn't have any of these in their field these treats are a great way to add home variety into their diet. 

Back when Legacy cut her head open and I wasn't able to bring her head down to get a good look into the cut, I fetched these and she was happily bringing her head down to eat these. 
These treats have even resulted myself having a black eye from my mums horse, I was using them to keep him still while trying a new rug on him and I moved into the stable rather than over the door and he flew his head up to look where the treats have gone, and his head flew up into my face, splitting the edge of my eye open and then having a black eye for a few days. 

The lesson I learnt from that day is to never under estimate the power of some tasty treats. 

Here are a few links to where you can check out the treats;

VioVet, Hyperdrug, Houghton Country, Millbry Hill

New Page! Legacy's Feed!

I don't know if anyone's notice but I've just added a new page in the header bar. It's called Legacy's feed, it's a page where I show and write about what she get's in her daily meals from hard feed to supplements. It's just a little breakdown as to why she's on that feed and if she's doing well on it so far. Who knows the page might be changing quite a bit of the time depending on if she's stays well on them or I decide to add anything extra in, keep an eye out. Hopefully sometime soon I will also be posting reviews on the supplements mentioned if I haven't done one already. 

You can either find the page on the header or click here to check it out.

Spring grass = Excitable Legacy

I When the spring grass comes through each horse can react to it differently, some put on weight, and others can get quite excited. Legacy can be quite excitable just on a day to day basis, because of this she's on Naf Magic calmer (can review this is people would like) this stuff is what it says in its name magic, she's just so happened to run out of it as the fresh grass is coming through. 

From the way she's been while she's off it, I can't wait until she's back on it haha. 

As she's slightly still too underweight for my liking, she's been on Baileys topline conditioning mix and Dengie healthy tummy, both of these together have worked well for her but as she isn't getting worked much due to me not driving yet she hasn't been using up her energy. 

Original energy + Spring grass + Extra energy from feed = Explosion of Legacy. 

Because of all of this she has now been taken off her feed for the summer Atleast and she will now have a forage based diet, but I need to find a balancer for her to also have. 

If anyone has any recommendations on a great balancer that can be fed along with Naf Magic that would be great.