Advice please!

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Emmie&Max

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Ok, I'm not going to go into too much detail here but basically horses who are fed a HUGE amount of hard feed daily with no exercise and very little turnout (sometimes none at all for days on end)

This is really bad right??
 
How much forage? What hard feed? What condition score are they? How much grass is there? How are they behaving?
But generally yes feeding should be tailored to suit the amount of exercise and the condition of the horse.
 
calmgirl said:
How much forage? What hard feed? What condition score are they? How much grass is there? How are they behaving?
But generally yes feeding should be tailored to suit the amount of exercise and the condition of the horse.
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3 huge hey nets a day, not a great deal of grass in the fields. They are fat but don't exactly look conditioned. They have (I think) chaff, conditioning cubes and some sort of bran or something I believe. (Apparently this makes them fat) and behaviour = spooky/frustrated :-/
 
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and does the second person actually want advice off the other person or is that person the one who should be concentrating on their own horse?
 
If they are your horses adjust their feeding to what you feel would be better, if they are not your horses - sorry but keep out of it, no friend or fellow livery will thank you for getting involved.
You could drop the odd "well it might save you money to feed them less" or "if he's naughty why not turn him out more" etc.type comments but these often fall on deaf ears when people think they are doing the right thing.

So a gang of fellow liveries want to tell another livery how they should be feeding their horse - honestly think what this will do to the atmosphere on the yard!

Of course it's not right to over feed and under exercise - but look how many people struggle with this for themselves let alone their pets.

Keep well out of it IMHO
 
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The horses are owned by a husband and wife, non of which are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to horses. The husband has asked the wife during a disagreement about how they are being fed to 'prove' that his way is not good for them.
 
If you want to do anything lend them a book on feeding horses, otherwise keep well out of it, even more so if it is a husband and wife falling out about it.
 
Suggest that the horse owner signs up to the free online equine nutrition course at Edinburgh Uni. No entry requirements, lasts a few weeks and they will learn a lot. And then keep well out of it all!
 
Emmie&Max said:
3 huge hey nets a day, not a great deal of grass in the fields. They are fat but don't exactly look conditioned. They have (I think) chaff, conditioning cubes and some sort of bran or something I believe. (Apparently this makes them fat) and behaviour = spooky/frustrated :-/
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Generally speaking, horses that are in no/minimal work who are not getting turned out should not get hard feed (unless they are a poor doer). Some good doers will even go on very little hard feed in heavy work. My WB is like this.

Having said that. This sounds like a messy situation and you would be better staying out of it.
 
Emmie&Max said:
So she asked me to find out what others think, thinking that she will then be able to say 'this this and this can happen'
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So then the wife says to her husband "Emmie&Max say we should feed this way" do you think that is going to be helpful for 'relations'? Tell the wife to contact a feed manufacturer via helpline - they are free and the feed manufacturer cannot be told to 'but out' by the husband when you next see him!

3 huge hey nets a day = not excessive if fed over 24 hour period - my mare will happily eat nearly half a bale in a night.
They are fat but don't exactly look conditioned. = how fat
They have (I think) chaff = you think? chaff can be high fat or very low
conditioning cubes = not necessarily heating at all
and some sort of bran or something I believe - or something?= bran is non heating but I personally do not like it.
 
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