Am I feeding too much? Feed questions

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littlen

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Hi,

I am still trying to find a feed that suits my horse. I have tried lots of things and some are working, some were a complete waste of money.

So, he is a 15.2 arab. Normally a good doer but his field has very poor grazing. He cant move fields for a number of reasons too long to go into, so I am doing the best I can with limited grazing!
I am currently trying to feed him to help him gain weight.

At the moment he is on:
Baileys Topline Conditioning mix.
Vegetable oil.
Hi Fi original.
Sugarbeet.

He is also coming in at night and getting haylage replacer, along with 2 feeds a day (not feasable to go up 3 times)
Condition wise he is okay, bit a little on the lean side. He is very undermuscled which makes him look worse. I do work him in an outline etc but he always looks very 'angular', I finds building muscle impossible. I am aware no feed will increase topline but I like to feed topline feeds incase it helps him gain muscle. I also cant work him too hard as I dont want him to drop weight. He also has very well sprung ribs so can look decieving as he has a grass belly, yet no muscle etc anywhere else. His ribs are slightly visable.
He is gaining weight steadily but I have a few questions about the stuff I am feeding!

- The conditioning mix was recomended by feed man. I have searched online and most people seem to reccomend the cubes. What difference is there and should I switch?

- The Hi Fi I am wondering about as I was looking about in feed shop and there were feeds such as molichop showshine etc. They seem much more economical to feed but are they as good nutritionally? (alfa oil sends him loopy as does all of the Alfa A range, hence hi fi)
Is there a cheaper chaff that will do the same job?

- Is vegetable oil safe to feed to horses (it was in feed shop?!)

- And finally, I have been reading up on Pink Powder by NAF. Would this be any good for a horse like mine? What actually would it do and has anyone used it before?

Thanks!
 
My Arabs are fed on Baileys Lo cal balancer and Alfa oil, plus speedy beet. If I want to add condition I add Baileys Conditioning cubes.

First have you had a blood test to see if there is anything not right.

You do not say what you do with your lad (Work wise)

I would give your boy the following.

1 mug of Lo Cal morning and evening
A big scoop Hi Fi with each feed
A scoop of speedy beet with each feed.
About a pound of Conditioning cubes with each feed.This can be increased if need be.

Pink powders are very good too.

Outshine by Baileys will help put weight on too.
 
paulineh said:
My Arabs are fed on Baileys Lo cal balancer and Alfa oil, plus speedy beet. If I want to add condition I add Baileys Conditioning cubes.

First have you had a blood test to see if there is anything not right.

You do not say what you do with your lad (Work wise)

I would give your boy the following.

1 mug of Lo Cal morning and evening
A big scoop Hi Fi with each feed
A scoop of speedy beet with each feed.
About a pound of Conditioning cubes with each feed.This can be increased if need be.

Pink powders are very good too.

Outshine by Baileys will help put weight on too.
Click to expand...


He is ridden about 3 times a week, he used to be ridden more but I have cut back on his work since he started to loose weight. He has veen vet checked and is fine the vet says its just lack of grazing. He has also seen a dentist and physio.

He used to be on lo cal but I found it did nothing to improve his conditon or weight and its expensive stuff to not be doing anything? The conditioning mix was reccomended as it is higher in calories, but I am concidering switching to the cubes?

I have looked at outshine but its far too expensive.


Thanks for your help!
 
amymay said:
Why not feed hay or haylage instead of a replacer??
Click to expand...

Our area has ran out of both! You can either have rubbish dusty hay or this years cut which is too early to feed I believe?

He is currently getting equalage the replacer in the bags?
 
littlen said:
Hi,



- The Hi Fi I am wondering about as I was looking about in feed shop and there were feeds such as molichop showshine etc. They seem much more economical to feed but are they as good nutritionally? (alfa oil sends him loopy as does all of the Alfa A range, hence hi fi)
Is there a cheaper chaff that will do the same job?
Click to expand...

Just a quick comment about what these are.

Hi Fi is a mixture of straw and Alfalfa and Molasses (more alfalfa than straw)
Mollichaff (and other chaffs) are straw and Molasses,
Showshine has straw, molasses and oil.
Alfa A is Alfafa and Molasses

So if your horse is sensitive to Alfalfa, be careful of increasing the Hi Fi. Two scoops of HiFi will have more alfalfa than 1 scoop of Alfa A and you will be increasing the levels of sugar too.


Both Badminton horse feeds and Horsehage do a hi fibre alfalfa product which is the same as hi fi - they may be cheaper.

But if you are feeding the Equilage haylage then I would up that rather than hard feed. I know it's expensive compared to hay or big bale haylage but it generally works out cheaper than buying hard feed.

You could add micronised linseed which is fantastic for adding condition and really shiny coats.
 
You need to read the nutrition section on your bags of feed! I use conditioning mix as it contains higher protein levels than the same product in nuts form. Sugar beet is great stuff for weight gain too, and the additional liquid does no harm at all in this recent hot weather. As long as your horse is gaining weight steadily, I wouldn't worry all that much TBH. Many Arabs do tend to be a bit leaner quite naturally. Can you do hillwork which helps build muscle and means you get more fitness for your time and money if you can only ride 3 times per week? What about small bale haylage? I use Wrightpack which is £7 -ish per bale and one bale lasts about 3 days. Yummy stuff- you could put milk on it and have it for breakfast yourself!!. Yes, expensive compared with large bale, but guaranteed quality and I can always get it.
 
Cubes are often better for a number of reasons:

1) You get more cubes weight for weight than with mix ie a scoop of mix weighs less than cubes so you have to feed more mix to get the same result.

2)Cubes are cheaper

3)Cubes usually have the same nutritional value but are more readily digested by the horse.

4)Cubes often contain more fibre and less starch than a mix.

Mixes are often made to look attractive to the human eye. Cubes are the feed of choice to those not taken in by the cosmetic appearance of mix.

Baileys Topline cubes contain 26% starch where as the mix contains 32%!

Hi Fi is described as a maintenance chaff so if you need to feed for condition then you will need a higher calorie chaff. If your horse not not have an Alfalfa intolerance then this is a better and more calorific chaff to use. If your horse can be sensitive to Alfalfa then you could replace with a grass chop such as Readigrass which is also high in calories with the added benefit of no mollasses.

Sugarbeet is an excellent source of fibre and energy.

Oil is also very effective and contains twice as many calories weight for weight if compared with a conditioning feed.
 
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I would try bagged Horsehage if you can't get hay. The blue bag seems to be a good one for all horses. Also I was put on to Spillers Lay Off Cubes - amazing results. Many top eventers/racehorse trainers use them as they are basically a horse and pony nut with added vitamins and minerals. Brilliant for difficult to feed horses with any sort of intolerance. I only feed these now and NOTHING else for all our horses including veterans and laminitic ponies and very hot TBs.
 
hello,
when my friend was trying to put weight on her mare she fed her...
soya oil and linseed (which helps weight gain) in her feeds
with hi-fi orgional sugarbeet and conditioning cubes.

you could also try feeding you horse ready grass, you can litterally feed loads of this, if you put it in a bucket in the the field your horse can just munch all day
 
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