CBFan
Well-Known Member
Ok, I have, at great expense had my grazing analysed and a diet plan written for my boy.
He is a tricky candidate given delicate tootsies (very sensitive to sugar and still lacking concavity... but getting there) but also his lack of energy for the work I would like to be doing with him (tires after 20 minutes of schooling or half an hours hacking) so I was looking at giving him a bit more energy... I think he has low grade shivers too, resulting in muscle tightness in his back end and supplementing vit e and selenium has helped this...
anyway, my minerals ran out before my new diet plan was ready and on reading a thread on here it was reccomended that I try D&H ERS pellets to help both his muscle problems and his energy levels... so I thought 'why not!' and after just a few days of 1kg of these a day I saw a noticable difference in him. so much more forward going but not silly and not as easily tired. he was on them for 2 otr 3 weeks and was brilliant the whole time.
Unfortunately one of the findings of my grass analysis was that my grazing is high in methionine making it dificult to balance with Zinc (which he is being supplemented with in quite high doses) and also with methionine linked to fatigue if it is present in too high a dose.... and you've guessed it, the ERS pellets are also high in Methionine so not reccomended for my horse... and it was suggested that I put him on Coolstance copra instead, which I have done (introduced slowly) and well, what can I say... he just doesn't seem the same horse... for the worse... it's only been a week and he is still on only a quarter of what I was reccomended (1kg per day) but still... he just doesn't seem to have the 'oompf' and at times I think his skin looks puffy (not full blown hives or anything glaringly obvious) and he is itchier than normal... I think. So I am seriously considering putting him back on the ERS pellets... would that be stupid of me??!
Has anyone gone against advice and still achieved the desired result? has all this forage analysis stuff kinda brainwashed us into thinking that if we go against it we will somehow harm our horses? yet we've all been feeding them 'whatever' for years, some with little negative consequence...
helpful replies only please - I've got a headache!!
He is a tricky candidate given delicate tootsies (very sensitive to sugar and still lacking concavity... but getting there) but also his lack of energy for the work I would like to be doing with him (tires after 20 minutes of schooling or half an hours hacking) so I was looking at giving him a bit more energy... I think he has low grade shivers too, resulting in muscle tightness in his back end and supplementing vit e and selenium has helped this...
anyway, my minerals ran out before my new diet plan was ready and on reading a thread on here it was reccomended that I try D&H ERS pellets to help both his muscle problems and his energy levels... so I thought 'why not!' and after just a few days of 1kg of these a day I saw a noticable difference in him. so much more forward going but not silly and not as easily tired. he was on them for 2 otr 3 weeks and was brilliant the whole time.
Unfortunately one of the findings of my grass analysis was that my grazing is high in methionine making it dificult to balance with Zinc (which he is being supplemented with in quite high doses) and also with methionine linked to fatigue if it is present in too high a dose.... and you've guessed it, the ERS pellets are also high in Methionine so not reccomended for my horse... and it was suggested that I put him on Coolstance copra instead, which I have done (introduced slowly) and well, what can I say... he just doesn't seem the same horse... for the worse... it's only been a week and he is still on only a quarter of what I was reccomended (1kg per day) but still... he just doesn't seem to have the 'oompf' and at times I think his skin looks puffy (not full blown hives or anything glaringly obvious) and he is itchier than normal... I think. So I am seriously considering putting him back on the ERS pellets... would that be stupid of me??!
Has anyone gone against advice and still achieved the desired result? has all this forage analysis stuff kinda brainwashed us into thinking that if we go against it we will somehow harm our horses? yet we've all been feeding them 'whatever' for years, some with little negative consequence...
helpful replies only please - I've got a headache!!
.