A stripped back diet.

[Noble]

Hi, any advice would be gratefully received.

If I fed a diet of dried grass, grass nuts, speedibeet, oats, micronised linseed and salt would a balancer or supplement be required? I am trying to strip back his diet and do the best by him and if it helps my purse all the better.

This would be fed to an 8 year old 16'3 TB who has ad lib haylage overnight and there is still grass in his field during the day. He is ridden for 30-45 minutes 4/5 times a week mainly in the school with the odd hack. He is a good weight but obviously as a big TB in winter I would really like to maintain this.

I have never fed oats so advice as type and quantity would be appreciated or if there is a way to improve the above . Many thanks.

 

[paddi22]

I feed a lot of oats and talked to a feed specialist about it. Oats can knock out the phosphorous or calcium balance as far as I remember, so you need to feed a balanbcer with it. I use the bluegrass oat balancer cubes, but baileys and redmills have versions too. The bluegrass cubes contain oil, so I actually knocked out my oil supplement and the biotin one as well, as it contains that too.

I use equerry condition mash if I need to bulk any up apart from that. Its brilliant stuff and works out very cheap to feed. My feed room consistes of the oats, oat balancer, turmash, and then the equerry for any skinny rescues. I spent ages researching feed and talking to various feed companies, and this plan has worked out the cheapest and best for me.

 

[Red-1]

Mine has a stripped back diet, ad lib hay and a grass based chop with salt and a vitamin supplement mixed in. She is positively blooming! The once a day bucket feed is just for the vitamins, I use Progressive Earth Pro Hoof.

I have had several horses who previously were hard keepers, and found that ad lib haylage and a warm rug (I will duck now for fear of being shot at!) is the best answer. That and a stress free life.

Mine were also in work, and still required very little hard feed. I had one competing at BE Intermediate and a few CCI* on a couple of scoops of Spillars Horse and Pony nuts. That is not the feed I would choose now, but it was a while ago and was one of the first feeds with low starch and sugar.

If one loses weight I use NAF Thrive, but be careful, it increases their appetite and makes them very fat! I am talking being able to eat a bale of hay in a day! Most saddlers don't stock it but can order it in.

 

[Carrottom]

I stopped feeding oats for a few years as I could not find any good quality supplier local to me, probably because no one was selling enough of them. I have now found a feed merchant who sells a lot and they're good, smell freshly rolled and not dusty. I would introduce oats slowly up to about 1 kg daily for the light work you horse is doing and reduce the quantity if you have any behavioural changes or he gains weight. They do make one of mine a bit more spooky.

 

[DD]

I had my hay analized. discovered it is rich in vits and minerals. no need to waste money on balancers. best get the hay and /or grass analized it could save you hundreds of pounds and your horse from being over dosed . ETA my horses have grass, hay, hi fi lite rolled oats and micronized linseed and do very well on it.

 

[Leo Walker]

You can get a Progressive Earth balancer that works out about a tenner a month. I tend to feed that so I know I'm covering the bases and balancing the excess iron out a bit.

 

[Noble]

Thanks for your help and taking time to reply, I will look into the suggestions.