letrec_fan
Well-Known Member
Anyone know of any other than Equilibirum or Badminton Horse Feeds Care and Condition? Or does anyone feed care and condition and had good results?
Thanks!
Thanks!
All-in-one fibre conditioning feeds, Badminton Care and Condition
- Thread starter letrec_fan
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TGM
Well-Known Member
Are you looking for a chaff type complete feed? Or a fibre-based complete cube or nut, or even a soakable fibre feed? Are you looking for something that is completely grain free?
letrec_fan
Well-Known Member
We currently feed Equilibrium and seem to have had good results however it is hard to tell because we have started to get nice weather etc so there are other factors to his condition gain. I saw the Badminton version in a shop the other day and it is £3 cheaper a bag. It sounds the same but I wondered what it was like. So was just wondering if other feed companies did similar. Effectivley it is an all in one, fibre feed with chaff/nuts/balancer/heaps of oil that is designed to be digested slowly, keep them calm and put condition on. Oat free etc. 
teddyt
Well-Known Member
The difference in price is probably due to the HUGE advertising spend by winergy- someone has to pay for it!
The best thing to do is to compare ingredients and nutritional specification and see what that means to your individual horse. badminton feeds are very good quality, just not as well known because they dont spend so much on advertising but then the feed tends to be cheaper between comparable products.
The best thing to do is to compare ingredients and nutritional specification and see what that means to your individual horse. badminton feeds are very good quality, just not as well known because they dont spend so much on advertising but then the feed tends to be cheaper between comparable products.
TGM
Well-Known Member
Which Winergy Equilibrium product are you using? Most of them are cereal free, but the Condition version contains wheat. Remember that oat-free doesn't mean cereal-free and some cereals are actually starchier and more heating than oats!
I had a quick glance at the Badminton website and they don't seem to list ingredients on there, so I would email them and ask for a list of ingredients, plus the sugar and starch content of the feed, so you can compare it with other brands. They describe Care & Condition as oat-free, but that often means that it could contain barley, maize or wheat!
The calorie content is also important and this is expressed in terms of MJDE/kg - for example, Winergy Condition has 12.4 MJDE/kg and Badminton Care & Condition has 11.8 MJDE/kg so you would have to feed a little bit more of the Care & Condition to get the same weight gain effect as you would from the Winergy. If you are comparing costs, then also look at the bag weights, as Winergy feeds are sold in 15kg bags which are smaller than the average feed bag which is normally 20kg.
If you are not particularly wanting a chaff type feed then you could look at the Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes - these have 11 MJDE/kg and derive most of their calories from fibre and oil, so are non-heating.
If you want a more calorific feed, then you could consider Dodson & Horrell ERS Pellets, which have 13 MJDE/kg. They have a low starch level, being designed for horses that tie up, but I know people who have used them successfully as a conditioning feed for horses that fizz up.
I had a quick glance at the Badminton website and they don't seem to list ingredients on there, so I would email them and ask for a list of ingredients, plus the sugar and starch content of the feed, so you can compare it with other brands. They describe Care & Condition as oat-free, but that often means that it could contain barley, maize or wheat!
The calorie content is also important and this is expressed in terms of MJDE/kg - for example, Winergy Condition has 12.4 MJDE/kg and Badminton Care & Condition has 11.8 MJDE/kg so you would have to feed a little bit more of the Care & Condition to get the same weight gain effect as you would from the Winergy. If you are comparing costs, then also look at the bag weights, as Winergy feeds are sold in 15kg bags which are smaller than the average feed bag which is normally 20kg.
If you are not particularly wanting a chaff type feed then you could look at the Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes - these have 11 MJDE/kg and derive most of their calories from fibre and oil, so are non-heating.
If you want a more calorific feed, then you could consider Dodson & Horrell ERS Pellets, which have 13 MJDE/kg. They have a low starch level, being designed for horses that tie up, but I know people who have used them successfully as a conditioning feed for horses that fizz up.
letrec_fan
Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the advice. I will send them an email. We feed Pete (bearing in mind it warmer now) 3.5kg roughly of Equib a day. On the Care and Condition one it suggested a horse of 15.2hh be fed 4/4.5 kg a day. Which sounds about right looking at the energy they each give? In winter he also has sugar beet but we have just run out so we added an extra .5 to his breakfast. The Care and Condition is sodl in 15kg bags too. Since he has been so calm on this type of feed I would prefer to stay with something similar rather than nuts. Also the Baileys no.4 did nothing for him so not tempted to return to chaff/nuts.
TGM
Well-Known Member
Whether the feed is in nut form or chaff form shouldn't make any difference to whether he remains calm on it or not - it is more to do with the ingredients and starch levels. Some nuts are grain free and fibre/oil based and can actually be lower in cereals/starch than some chaff type complete feeds. Bailey's No 4, however, is not particularly low in starch and does contain wheat, so not an ideal choice for your lad, but doesn't mean you need to rule out other cubes (especially as they usually work out cheaper than the chaff type feeds).
letrec_fan
Well-Known Member
Very true. The thing about Baileys was it didn't exactly make him nutty but it didn't keep him calm either and he never put on any weight! I think the all in ones I have looked at also contain a balancer though aswell which costs alot extra to buy seperatley with chaff/nuts.