Pony Series Nutrition Focus: Yard Focus – Tommy Severn

Lorna Edgar – specialist equine nutritionist

Yard Focus Tommy Severn

Four horses’ quirks & individual needs

As yard visits only really started in June, I have not had too much of an opportunity to do a Yard Focus, but as I began my travels again, I was back at Longdole Polo Club, near Cirencester, this time looking at 3 goal player, Tommy Severn’s horses, with his grooms Sammy Kerslake and Julia Hyslop – total Yard Focus material!

Tommy has 10 horses in work, but here we have focused on four of Tommy’s favourites that all have their own quirks and individual needs!

Longdole Polo Club allow all their horses ad lib forage and they encourage as much turn out as possible. With no exception to the rules, Sammy and Julia very much keep

Lovelocks Mourhino

A 15.2hh 10-year-old who has been with Tommy for two years. She is a very sweet mare and really easy to have around the yard, she maintains condition easily and is very easy to feed for energy.

When she first came into work, like all Tommy’s horses, she was fed Baileys No.6 All-Round Endurance Mix to provide the calories of a conditioning feed whilst keeping a lid on any excitable/fizzy energy that may bubble over at any point! She continued on AllRound Endurance Mix during lockdown, and once a few chukkas were played she moved onto Conditioning Mix – thus increasing the starch intake of the diet without adding straight oats.

Diet

• Two round bowl Stubbs scoops of Baileys No.17 Conditioning

Mix per day • Three measuring mugs of Baileys Stud Balancer per day • Two measuring mugs of Baileys Outshine per day • Half a scoop of Fibre-Beet per feed

Cliquot

A 15.2hh, 14-year-old from Ellerston. She came to Tommy this season from Charlie Hanbury, quickly settling into the string – and already reaching the top four!

Although an easy and straight forward mare at home, she can become quite hot and ‘stressy’ at polo. She has maintained her condition well so far, but if polo becomes very busy for a long period of time, we may have to increase her calorie intake a little more. She has been playing well on the Conditioning Mix, but the backup plan if she becomes too hot at polo would be to focus on a lower starch diet, as with Toast.

Diet

• Two heaped Stubbs scoops of No.17 Conditioning Mix per day • Three measuring mugs of Stud Balancer per day • Two measuring mugs of Outshine per day • Half a scoop of Fibre-Beet per feed to this ideal management for Tommy’s busy string of horses.

On polo days they all travel with haylage nets, both to and from polo, and on arrival at a ground they will all have a good pick of grass as they are fussy about eating chaff, so the grass is a compromise to satisfy their need to eat an extra bit of fibre. As you can imagine I absolutely love this type of management!

The horses are all fed electrolytes every day in the hot weather we are experiencing as I write this article in early August. On days when they are playing or working hard, they’re given either in a wet feed or in their water buckets. During my last visit we discussed the benefits of pre-loading with electrolytes before they play polo, so administering them when they arrive at the grounds – allowing the ideal two-hour window before they play to enhance performance.

So, let me introduce you to the chosen

A 15.2hh 10-year-old who has been with Tommy for two years

Photography courtesy of Lorna Edgar

four…

Lovelocks Rufio

A 15.2hh nine-year-old who arrived from Argentina last year, and soon picked up her condition. Sammy described her as “the angel” of the string as she is very easy to have around and is now Tommy’s ‘go to pony’ as she is so reliable.

Rufio holds her weight well, and she is one we keep an eye on to avoid her putting on too much condition. If there is a quieter week of polo, we might reduce her Conditioning Mix a little, just to keep the calorie intake in check.

But, when she is playing a lot, she can go off her feed so introducing some Baileys Foal Assist Plus (to increase the B vitamins in her diet which can stimulate appetite) has helped. She can be fussy with it in her feed so syringing it as you would Bute has been ideal; increasing her appetite for her hard feed and forage.

Diet

• Two scoops of No.17 Conditioning Mix per day • Three measuring mugs of Stud Balancer per day • Two measuring mugs of Outshine per day • Half a scoop of Fibre Beet per feed

A 15.2hh nine-year-old who arrived from Argentina last year

Mini Toast

A 15hh, 12-year-old originally from Andre Vianini and she has very much been one of Tommy’s favourites for the last five years. Toast could be described as a ‘busy bee’, often running off her adrenalin and very much knows her job!

Extra energy is not often required and she maintains her condition well. She can become picky with her forage, which Sammy and Julia keep an eye on, and if she does stop eating they introduce extra Fibre-Beet into her diet in a third or fourth feed. As with Rufio, we could always consider Foal Assist Plus to boost those B vitamins and stimulate appetite.

The Conditioning Mix has been suiting her but we reduce it if she has too much energy and introduce Baileys Ease & Excel, thus reducing the starch in her diet and focusing on stamina based energy through digestible fibres and oils; but so far she is fine on the Conditioning Mix.

Diet

• Two Stubbs scoops of No.17 Conditioning Mix per day • Three measuring mugs of Stud Balancer per day • Two measuring mugs of Outshine per day • Half a scoop of Fibre-Beet per feed

You will notice all four horses, and most of Tommy’s playing string, are all being fed Outshine, the high oil supplement, to help increase the stamina-based energy in the diet. We began to add this once they had been playing for a month or so, and as they were playing a lot of polo, we wanted to ensure they were receiving adequate energy for peak performance, and ideally not having to increase the rations too much per feed or add oats. As their energy levels seemed to be fine, we introduced Outshine to boost the glycogen sparing effects (see the Oil Q&A article!) and boost stamina – so far this ration is working for them all.

A 15hh, 12-year-old originally from Andre Vianini

Notes

Sammy, Julia and I have really tried to focus on not over-feeding in any meal, so when possible the feeds are split over three meals per day if necessary, thereby promoting maximum digestion and utilisation of nutrients to enhance performance.

As I mentioned previously, all the horses came into work on AllRound Endurance Mix and this really suited them during the bizarre time of Lockdown, when we weren’t sure if polo was going to get going. They switched to Conditioning Mix as their polo progressed, which so far is suiting the majority of this lovely string of horses, particularly the Fab Four!