advice on the minefield that is feeding

vam

vam

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 April 2009
Messages
2,636
Location
West Sussex
Visit site
Just need a bit of advice on feeding my boy. Why is it in the effort to everything right by my horse, im likely to end up a jibbering wreck in the corner!
Anyway :o After talking to my trainer we decided to put him on a higher fibre diet, he's been on this for about 2 months, he is currently fed 1 scoop D&H high fibre cubes, 1 scoop D&H Fibergy chaff, brewers yeast, a bit of linseed oil in the morning then without the linseed but a multi vit supp at night. He also gets electrolyte as and when. He is out from 8 til 5 everyday on goodish grazing at times moving on to good grazing when changing fields (old cattle grazing but not as lush as the rest of the farm). Lots of hay at night, most days he eats it all but ive noticed that when i have worked him hard he doesnt always eat it all. Hay is good as produced on the farm.
He still lacks a bit of oomph so i have added a D&H comp mix, not noticed much difference but im not feeding loads (1/3 scoop each feed) and he has only been on that much for a day or 2.
He is worked 5-6 days a week show or lesson at the weekend, road work 2 days a week (walking out up and down hills) other days he is either boxed and hacked over the heath (fast work), lunged or schooled on the flat.
My problem is im really not sure if its right for him, he looks ok on it, he is not fat but not thin, a good weight i guess. He also has a tendency of dropping weight when cold, i often have to rug him at night after a show or hard work as he gets tucked up.

I think with all the resent posts about feeding have made me paranoid and i feel like a bit of a traitor as im not feeding him straights. :o I would like to keep it as simple as poss and when talking to my trainer we think that a high fibre diet will prob suit him best but he still lacks ommph for the work we do. Im wondering if ive shot myself in the foot by giving him a comp mix which might be to starchy for him.

So am i being paranoid? I dont think its the worse i could feed him but could i make it better for him. Im thinking of feeding a vit e and Selenium supp or even a plain vit e supp along side as i did for a while when i started on the linseed (was feeding to add a bit of weight on him but have since dropped that right down) and he seemed to be a bit more perky. Would i be over loading him if i fed that along side the multi vit supp? or was it feeding him more oil?
Would something like sugarbeet help? I feed it to him in the winter and he did ok on and had more ommph but that could be where he was in more as well.
I am worried that he lacks oomph so i will give the mix until the end of the bag and was then thinking about trying oats instead.
I cant tell you how much my head is spinning!

Unfortunately i dont take as much care over my own diet so can only offer giant choc chip cookies and ridge cut salt and vinegar crisps to anyone who get to the end let alone replies! :D
 
Whilst a high fibre diet is great - and one to aim for - you still need to feed enough energy to do the work required. And if your horse is in hard work, then what you are feeding simply won't supply his energy requirements.

Oats would be great to add for the additional umph you're after, or have you looked at the Spillers slow and instant release feeds?
 
I'm having similar thoughts re my 2. I feed them alfa & readigrass plus a balancer & in the winter I add TopSpec Cool Condition Cubes which are totally cereal free. They also don't contain any vits/mins so are great to feed alongside a balancer. This seems to work really well & having tried just about every mix/cube on the market I was going along quite happily.

However....one of mine has lost a bit if oomph recently & I am starting to think about adding something but I don't know what. I am always really careful to look at starch & protein content and it always frightens me how much starch is in all these mixes.

I am thinking of Spillers Response Slow Release Cubes, I've heard nothing but good about them & they aren't likely to make them silly. All I need to do now is work out whether I should be cutting down the balancer!

Yours seems to be doing a fair bit of work so I'm not surprised you need a bit more energy. I personally wouldn't go for oats though as I've always found that unless you feed them by the bucketful they don't seem to make much difference.

Have you looked at Baileys Endurance Mix, Winergy Equilibrium Medium Energy or the Spillers Response range? All are fibre/oil based & low starch but should give you a bit more oomph than what you've got.

Good luck!
 
You could try contacting Spillers, Baileys or any of the other feed suppliers. They all have a qualified nutritionist who will give you free advice after you have answered a few questions about your horse, the amount of work he's in, his condition at the mo etc. I've used the Spillers service online a couple of times and was really pleased at how helpful they were, even sending free samples to try. Obviously they'll recommend one of their feeds, but in both cases of mine they got it spot on. Plus I went from feeding all manner of supplements and oil to a really straight forward feeding regime! Maybe worth giving it a try? ;)
 
I limit myself to a maximum of three components in the feed:
For example Allen and Page Calm and Condition, is my main feed, Dengie Hi fi as the chaff which has a bit of everything in it, and a handful of Mare and Youngstock which has a mix of straights, I can fire up the diet with more of the Mare and Youngstock, or add more condition with more of the A and P, in your case I would be basing the diet on one of the A and P power or competition feeds instead of C and C. and if that is not enough I would use a Dengie chaff with Alfalfa.
I know the Mare and Youngstock does the job as I have used it for five years, in fact since I had a mare and a foal, it is palatable and non scouring, high quality fresh ingredients.
If using branded feeds there should be no need for supplements, as it is too easy to get the diet out of balance.
 
sonjafoers said:
I am thinking of Spillers Response Slow Release Cubes, I've heard nothing but good about them & they aren't likely to make them silly. All I need to do now is work out whether I should be cutting down the balancer!
Click to expand...

I've been using the Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes for my daughter's horse and it gives him the energy he needs to work, without making him silly. They are based mainly on fibre and oil, and have less starch than traditional competition cubes or mixes. At the end of a five day Pony Club Senior Camp he was still firing on all cylinders when fed on these cubes!

If you feed the recommended amount of cubes per day you won't need the balancer, but if you don't feed the recommended amount you can feed the balancer at a reduced rate. So if you fed half the recommended amount of cubes, for example, then you could feed half the recommended amount of balancer alongside it.
 
I totally agree that you are unlikely to get the energy you need from the diet he is on. I have been using D&H Staypower Muesli for my guy and it's really good, he's eventing on it so I am adding in oats too, I think it's probably D&H's equivalent of Spillers slow release.
 
ok so being a geek ive looked at the different stats on the D&H high fibre cubes and the spillers slow release cubes and there really isnt that much in it in regards to fibre and starch, if anything they are lower in starch. When ive used the 2 bags of D&H ive just bought :rolleyes: i will give these a go instead and maybe add in oats if i feel he needs them. I have upped his oil as he is looking abit lean at the mo even on better grass and i will keep him on the multi vit for the time being. Ive added a vit e supp as well while ive upped his oil.

Thanks all :)
 
Sorry, but you seem to want to make this a difficult process, I think you need to find a suitable feed, competition mix or whatever, there should be no need for supplements, the feed companies have done all the work for you, if you are working your horse regularly, he should be eating up, by adding supplements, you can put him off his grub, or cause an imbalance, there really is no reason to think that your horse is not getting trace elements, if you are really concerned about his diet you can send his forage for analysis.
 
In the British Riding club magazine a while back there was a feeding article and one of them was for a TB eventer that needed a suitable diet.
Spillers advised a scoop of the slow release cubes in the morning and night with a scoop of their conditioning chaff and thats it! Apparently that was 3k a day of cubes ( a stubbs scoop carries about 1.5kg of cubes).
He didnt need any more supplements because the cubes themselves were fully supplemented and high in oil ect.
Just a thought if your going to feed the slow release cubes then if you feed enough you should be able to tet ride of everything else apart from chaff :). Nice and simple then :)
 
To be honest feeding doesn't have to be a minefield. All mine get is grass/hay and anything else the browse and nibble from the hedges. I think there's too much grain in many horse diets at the moment. But hey that's just me:)

PS they're worked hard as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top