Horse Hunter Forum / HORSES / Feeding

Something to nibble?

Silke — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:32:00 GMT

Basically, he's jealous.
He gets grass all day (and it's still pretty good and plentiful), and (very good) haylage in the evening -- but the other horses get horse feed in a bucket in the morning...and he doesn't.
Ergo, horsey is jealous of the others and feels left out.
Now, I don't want to feed him grain or any kind of performance mix because he really doesn't need it.
However, I'd like to just let him have something he can nibble on so he doesn't feel totally left out.
I was thinking of some "On Grass" mix, or maybe Apple Chaff, but I have no experience with them.
If there is something you guys feed a good doer (and he is) to keep them happy while others are being fed, let me know what. I don't want to spend a ton of money on something he doesn't really need, either, so if you have suggestions, I'd be more than happy to hear them.
Right now I'm leaving carrots for him, but I think it might be cheaper to just get a sack of some "keep him happy" (and get some vitamins into him) feed and give him a little of that every day.

Need some help please???

RosJ — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:00:31 GMT

Jayboy at the moment is really healthy and only has a little chub on him, but as you know, he's incredibly spooky and hyper.

I'm thinking of moving from his usual mollichop and pellets (I'm not sure what they are cause no one will tell me :blink: ) to something else but I'm not sure what as I've never really had much to do with feeding horses :blink:

I was thinking of moving to hi-fi and cool mix, but someone suggested healthy hoof and cool mix which has thrown my little brain in to complete confussion and disarray :hehe:

I really want to keep him low sugar - high fibre as he's barefoot and in light work so I'm trying to avoid molalsis/sugar as much as possible.

SO, any help/ suggestions in laymans terms welcome to help solve my spinning brain please :hehe:

How many bales?

Jersey Girl — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:40:46 GMT

For once in my life I am organised and have got in my supplies for winter. Previous yards I haven't had the storage or the contacts to get in what I hope to be a whole winters worth of hay/haylege in.

So how many bales of haylege would you buy in for a fat cob and a not so great doer? One lives in at night and out in the day with their grazing supplemented and the other lives out and has there grazing supplemented?

Im expecting the grazing needing to be supplemented from the first week of September to end of April so about 35 weeks.

Feeding nowt!

Zychrono — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:30:41 GMT

Lola's been getting a bit silly & I don't really know why. I do know that it seems to be very out of character according to those who knew her before.

So I may need to try cutting out all hard feed, although she was only getting a handful of a pony mix with a bit of Alfa. And she works hard for what she gets too.

The problem is that I was feeding all 4 together so if one stops, they all stop. Pebbles is a rising 5 welsh-x who does well on fresh air & no rug. Charlie is a rising 3 heavy cob also lives on fresh air & no rug. Morgan is 18 now & a very good do-er. Only used as a happy hack, lives out with a rug. Lola is the slimmest of them all, but is doing fine on hay & has a rug.

Does anyone else feed no hard feeds at all? I find it really difficult to do - I just want to spoil them! But they are all in great shape & plenty condition.

haylage

stuart — Sun, 01 May 2011 18:12:51 GMT

hi! new to this site .i am trish ,just wondering if anyone has had problems with big bale haylage. last year i bought 6 big bales for my 29 year old mare to last through winter,only to find i had been well and truely ripped off.every bale was white mould she wouldnt look at it,£150+£20delivery.haylage being wrapped you cant see what you are getting ,the guy didnt want to know. money down the drain but lesson learnt,be warned.

feed for condition

HurveyBai — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:55:58 GMT

All my horses are now living out 24/7, they aren't being fed anything as they're all good doers. However, my tbx selle francais has really lost condition recently! He's now being fed again but I need a bit of help with what to feed him.

He's on a scoop and a half of Chestnut Horse Feeds sport horse feed and nothing else. I'm not sure whether to feed him a balancer, or a supplement or even just adding some sugarbeet or something?

Thanks in advance!

straw n haylage

davina11 — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:11:34 GMT

this year since we have 7 horses and this year i've gone back to college. to save a little bit of money and spin out a bale of haylage, we have started feeding barley straw which has abit of hay in it and haylage to all the horses and the seem to really like it and feeding the straw in the net has stopped them eating the wheat straw we use for bedding.

does anyone else feed straw n haylage?

Bran

Tally Ho — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:31:04 GMT

Do any of you actually feed bran?

I do, I really like using it. I know some people don't like it but I thought I would see what you think :)

Feeding hay in the field

Tally Ho — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 06:33:18 GMT

My grass is going now :( It's time to feed those who live out!

I can't get the tractor in the field, it's too wet and my nightmare horse walker installer man left me a lot of mud behind the gate SO I have the problem of getting hay into the field and stopping them from wasting it.

Do you use hay feeders or do you feed it loose? Do you have any ideas for saving hay in the field because mine use it as bedding and a toilet as much as eating it :(

Joint Supplements

A7X Girl <3 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:14:47 GMT

My 11yo thoroughbred mare has been very stiff in her forehand, mainly her near side, but has recently got worse. ive been recommended various solutions but all a bit too expensive for me :)

The cheapest ive been suggested so far is Apple Cider Vinegar, which is good and cheap but im not quite sure how good it works for joints and if there is something around the same price.ish.. that may work better or should i just get it to try anyway..

Can anyone help please? :D

What to feed?

KER — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:51:35 GMT

Kitty is currently being fed on a handful on hi-fi original and two handfuls of D&H balancer. She is getting a section of hay twice a day and is out at grass 24/7 however the grass is knee high in places so she is getting the field extended every few days to stop her stuffing herself.

She is now coming up to being 3 months in foal and i have been looking at gradually changing her feed to some kind of stud mix/cubes etc. She still wont be getting a lot as she is not working but i want to ensure she and the foal are getting the correct feed. The problem is there are so many kind of feeds by each feed company im at a loss where to start :w00t: For example D&H have stud cubes, stud diet and stud balancer which all sound right so why do they have to have so many types :crazy:

Then i went on Dengie's site and they say to feed balancer, something from the alfa-a range (which is fine as she is already on hi-fi) and then the natural vitality performance supplement. The supplement sounds good as it contains all the correct vitamins along with phosphorous and calcium which is essential in later pregnancy for strong bone development etc.

Do i keep her on what she is on but give her a supplement once a day or do i keep her on the hi-fi but change the balancer to some stud mix/cubes/balancer and add the supplement further on in the pregnancy?

I was going to ring one of the feedlines but didnt see the point as they will always tell you there feed is the best when that may not be true.

So for those of you who have bred/had mares in foal what did you feed and what can you recommend? Also when did you start to increase the feeding and by how much and how often? Any help will be really appreciated before i get a headache.

Thanks if you got to the end :hehe:

Here is a pic of her which i think shows her at a good size for now

old mares

Faberge — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:54:59 GMT

what do you feed your old ponies and horses our 17 yr old 128cm mare has been losing weight lately normally she is over weight but now she is just losing it we have put her in a better feild more grass and shelther and foal is being weaned in next 3 weeks
what would you feed her
as she is lami prone

Rolled/Crushed Barley

sparkle — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:01:27 GMT

I've been advised to feed this to Molly for weight gain as she's not looking great at the moment. My stud recommended it to me as one of her broodmares always does the foal well (Belles a little chunk!) but the mare herself looks poor and this is what's happening.

She's now on better grass, and have been advised to feed the following:

Alfa a, speedibeet, stud mix and rolled/crushed barley and she'll still be having her Linseed oil.

Has anyone else fed it? What did you make of it?

Hay

Missjobloggs — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:25:21 GMT

The prices are going to be? my farmer that i normally get my hay from would not give me a firm price for this year's cut?.He use to charge £3.50 before the prices went up, due to the bad weather we had! So last weekend when i was out , i stopped at all the field's that were being worked on to see how much they are charging ? as i thought i'm not going to wait for them too all get on the bandwagon! but yet again no confirmed price! one farmer said that there has been talk of it starting from £4.00:w00t:(I'm in the south east).

Lucky i got a price at £3.00, so i went a head and ordered it, although the farmer said that he can deliver it but would have to leave the trailer with me :w00t:300 bales , just myself and mum:w00t: , but HA HO we did it:thumbs: I am really pleased that i got my winter stock in.

So what prices are you having to pay for this year's cut ?

suppliments

smudge — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:47:16 GMT

Ok, My TB has been on 24/7 grass, for once this year she didnt drop weight and is looking slightly porky, (very unusual for her)

Recently she has had a cold, and has been doing some wierd things..... she chews everything she can see, her rope is shredded, she will chew wood and most recently caught her picking up small stones and chewing them, and spitting them back out. I feel she most definatly is deficient in some way, have put a mineral /salt lick in her field. But going to go off and hunt down some food/suppliemts to give her today. After looking on internet at what is on offer i am totally agog with it all.

Basically i want to make sure she has everything she needs without fattening her anymore, and also she has started to creek like a piece of dried out wood, so need some kind of oil. Do any of you have any tried and testing recomendations???? Before i go and waste a whole load of time at millbury hill,

Any help will be totally appreciated, :thumbs:

Respiratory supplements?

White Winter Widge — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:18:05 GMT

Just wondering if anyone can recommend a good respiratory supplement?

Charlie suffers with mild COPD which is controlled well as he lives out 90% of the time, but we are surrounded by oil seed rape this time of year where we live and he gets a flare up. Jack is also suffering with a type of hayfever.

I know how they feel, I only have to breathe in if we're near it and my chest tightens.

Neither of them are bad enough for ventipulmin, but just something to help them would be good.

Ive used Dodson and Horrell Breath Free but it's not wonderful and also a liquid supplement, but cant remember what it was called - again not great!

Linseed

Tally Ho — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:21:18 GMT

Do any of you feed it?

My friend used to have a "Burco" boiler thing, and she boiled it for a couple of hours woth whole barley and fed it to her poor doers, and it seemed to really get flesh on them. It's also meant to give them shiny coats. Some people feed it boiled on it's own, some feed Linseed cake, and some give Linseed oil.

It seems to be a very versatile and possibly useful addition to the diet, but do any on you guys use it?

Frickers

Tally Ho — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:34:57 GMT

We went to visit the stallion to collect for out mare on Thursday and though Katie had already met the stallion, I hadn't so I admired him. I then admired the others, young, old and everything in between and they looked fantastic. She said she feeds "Frickers" and nothing else. She had bags and bags of it - just wondered if anyone else has used it, or knows someone who does and any feedback?

Which Feed Now?

Jersey Girl — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:24:31 GMT

I wondered if any of you could suggest a good feed for Bob for me.

I ran out of carrots the other week (he usually gets a couple twice per day in his feed and ever since and in general before that but even more noticeable now he seems to really lack energy).

Now I am more confident and doing more with him I think it may be wise to give him something with a bit of energy giving in it but I don't want to energise him too much.

It must be as slimline as possible as he will bloat.

At the moment he is on half a dipper of chaff a day twice per day (using up mollichaff nearly gone then he will be on Denji Original) and a cup of cool concentrate once per day.

I'm looking to replace possibly the cool concentrate with something that is low fat and vitamin providing still that will perk him up a bit.

Any suggestions anyone?

Otherwise he is out 24/7 grazing supplemented with soaked hay (haylege is impossible to get over here at the moment - we appear to have a mass Island shortage that started January :w00t: )

Thank you everyone.

Feeding a youngster

Ditsy Mare — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:07:48 GMT

Hey all. Well you know about Apache now so was just wondering if anyone could suggest a good food regime for an 8 month old? He's to make 16hh and at a guess i'd say he was standing at about 13.1/2 at the moment. He's ID x TB x WB.

I've been suggested Saracen Stamm-30 and Sarcen Level-Grow or something.

:) Any help greatly appreciated. :)

Veg

Indiangel — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:17:25 GMT

What veg do your guys have then?

Joey has some in his dinner every day, but it varies as to what veg it is. He will eat ANYTHING so I have to be careful what goes into his bowl as he would quite happily munch on a dandy brush if I put it in there :doze:, right now he has a variation off:

Apples (less often due to the sugar content)

Carrots

Suede

Parsnips

Celery

Other people have said they feed theirs cucumber, beetroot, lettuce etc but I've neither done nor not done this lol

I'm always on the lookout for new things for him to try, so what do you put in your horses feeds/treats?

Weight Stabilisation

Jersey Girl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:16:48 GMT

:) Bob's almost at his target weight now another ten kilos to go (i need a new girth too)!

He's lost 40 kilos since the initial vets visit.

So now I need to stabilise him but not let him put it all back on. I'll finish off the last of the hay I have this satuday. Ive swept out my hay barn and got rid of all the stuff under pallot board all ready for a lovely fresh new batch.

I figure I have three options to stabilise his weight (unless anyone has a suggestion):

Give him additional soaked hay say perhaps three slices morning and night (half a bale a day)

Give him four slices a day unsoaked which is the same as what he has at the moment soaked.

Increase his chaff (he gets a dipper in all a day).

What would be the best way do you all think.

I am thinking trying him again on dry hay as it's a new supplier and should be better quality but continue to give him the same amount?

And maybe giving him a dipper of chaff morning and night?

Obviously I don't want to go overboard and swing him back to putting on weight as spring grass will very soon be here and then he will get nothing but one tiny token feed a day of chaff.

He's 14hh and his weight will be 450 when the diet stops.

Readigrass ?

LornaM — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:41:49 GMT

Has anybody used this? I have a horse that I am trying to put weight on and although he is already looking great and I realise its going to be a slowly slowly affair someone at the yard has suggested this. I am going to pop over to feed merchant at lunch time but its going to be a squeeze for time so wont have time to stand about chatting about it so doing some 'research' of my own. The horse that is on it has been on box rest for 4 months and gets a bucket of it every day (alongside all her normal feed) and is looking fab but she looks like a good doer anyway whereas mine is not. Thoughts ?

REACTION TO OATS .

beck — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:16:53 GMT

Hi i keep my horse on field livery at a working farm . The other week the farmer gave my horse oat straw without my permisson instead of the hay that he would usely get . My horse has had a really bad reaction to it its made him so ancous { sorry carnt spell } that i carnt get him to come over to me it the field , he loves he s food and wont even come for that when i try to go to him he trys to kick me . The oat straw was taken off him as soon as i found out but that was 5 days ago and hes no different . I ve had him 10 months hes always been a little nervous but never like this ive always been able to catch him . Has anyone come across this before please help .x