Baileys Keep Calm feed - your opinion please

[npage123]

Hi

Just wanted your thoughts on this feed please, which I have recently seen advertised for the first time.

http://www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/whatproduct/general/keepcalm.htm

My horse is a semi-retired veteran TB in good condition, so I want to keep him on a non-heating high fibre diet. He has ad lib steamed hay when stabled and is currently being fed (twice daily) a soaked feed containing speedibeet, grass nuts, alfalfa pellets, micronised linseed, seaweed and brewers yeast.

This Keep Calm feed by Baileys just seem so much more convenient to use compared to his current feed!

Thank you.

 

[gina2201]

I'd be interested to know too, I ordered a sample from their website recently (possibly still offer this?) and it also came with a £2 off voucher for a bag of Keep Calm. I tried feeding it to my mare before her usual feed but she wasn't all that keen, I then fed her some of her usual feed and she ended up eating it after that. I'm not sure whether to buy a whole bag incase she turns her nose up at it!

 

[Caramac71]

We've been using it for a month or so now and it's done exactly what we hoped it would. We have a 5 year old mate, she's field kept and fed twice daily on nuts and chaff, with hay round in field. Early November she dropped quite a lot of weight so we started bringing her in for extra haylege but it didn't make a huge difference. We gave her 6 weeks off and wanted a non heating feed we could give as an additional feed in the evening.

She loves it! And she's back to a good weight with a lovely shiny coat. She looks a million times better than she did a month ago.

My daughter rode her today for the first time since her little holiday and she was lovely. Forward going but not silly or spooky (which she has been in the past).

 

[Silmarillion]

I won a bag from Baileys. Just finished it now and horse is back on SpeediBeet as my other one is too, but we definitely noticed how chilled he was on it. He also loved it - usually leaves tiny scraps of beet, but he licked the bucket clean of Keep Calm.
I won't be continuing with it myself, but I'd recommend it as worth trying.

 

[npage123]

Thank you for your replies. I've given my horse a sample of this over the weekend, and he really liked it. Caramac71, that's great to hear that your horses look good condition-wise on it while still remaining calm. Guess they've chosen a very appropriate name for this feed!

 

[ThoroughbredStar]

Personally i feel the feed he is currently on is much better than this- loving your current diet in fact!

If you have a look at the ingredients there are a few No No's (imo) for a horse's diet, wheatfeed, molasses, soya hulls and vegetable oil.

If your ned looks and keep well on what you're currently feeding stick with it.

I'm a sucker for constantly investigating and debating other feeds etc but always seem to stick with what I feed, which is pretty much the same as yours!

 

[dianchi]

Pretty much the same as Calm and Condition from Allen and Page, if it were cheaper i would look to swap but as its not i wont be.

For what its worth my girl loves these types of soaked feeds
But yet wont touch speedibeet on its own!

 

[npage123]

Hi, thanks again for all your replies.

I have decided to buy a full bag of the Keep Balm as my horse has started taking a huge dislike in what he used to eat (see my initial post). In truth, he went off of those qiute a while ago, so I bought a big 5l jug of molasses to add to each feed, thinking this is the last thing i want to glug into this feed, but at least the feed itself which he then will eat, is good natural stuff. The sticky molasses got very messy in the end so I bought apple mollichaff, not for the nutritional value at all, but for the lovely apply aroma and again molasses, and had this mixed in with his soaked feet. Bottom line is he just didn't enjoy his bowl of feet so it had to be changed. He is now fed the Baileys Keep Calm with a little bit of hifi with apple mixed in - he loves it and licks the bowl clean, every time. Too soon to say how it will affect his condition but his temperament is still his laid back self. Think I'll keep him of this for as long as the current and a next bag of Keep Calm will last him, and then try him with fibre-beet and grass nut pellets mixed in. Dona a little experiment the other day and gave him only 2 cups of fibre-beet, soaked it for 15 minutes in hot water, and he finished the whole lot with gusto. I bought the Fibre-beet a while ago when my speedi-beet and alfalfa pellets was starting to run out, and thought I'd make it a bit easier for myself as the Fibre-beet contains both speedi-beet and alfalfa. Glad that I won't have to give away the Fibre-beet bag as my own horse does like it!

 

[Casey76]

It looks interesting, but I was immediately put off by the wheatfeed and soya hulls I'm afraid. And linseed expeller... what is that when it's at home?

I have mine on Light Chaff and speedibeet as they really don't need anything; but chaff adds bulk and speedibeet is wet for thier powdered supplement, so I'll be sticking with that.

 

[npage123]

Thanks for that Casey76.

Maybe I'll next feed fibre-beet + graze-on grass pellets + micronised linseed + a feed balancer.

To be honest I don't like the wheatfeed in there either! Apparently wheatfeed and soy hulls could potentially have been in contact with loads of fertilizers. Was considering Veteran Vitality or Calm and Condition but that again contains wheatfeed, and Fast Fibre has straw as their first ingredient listed.

 

[southerncomfort]

It's an absolute minefield isn't it?

My welsh D has Veteran Vitality and Fast Fibre but she's really whizzy on them so I did wonder about trying the new Baileys feed. Having said that, I've tried one of mine on Calm & Condition once and it sent them in to orbit so I'm a bit dubious about feeds that claim to be non-heating after that!

 

[twinkleandtommy1999]

if you want to keep him calm I would recommend science supplements prokalm. works amazingly!

 

[npage123]

Thank you Twinkleandtommy1999. I have bookmarked that product, in case there's a need in future to supplement his feed with something like that. He's got no behavioural issues at all. I don't think it's possible for him to be more relaxed and content at the livery yard. The reason I started this thread was more to ensure that whatever I decide to feed next, doesn't have the unwanted effect of providing him with too much energy and 'winding him up', thereby causing him anxiety etc. However I am currently giving him Magnitude, more as a preventative measure, and because a lot of people told me how good it works, and it's so economical! But I was very surprised to read that the Science Supplements people says there's not scientific evidence that magnesium has a calming effect on horses.

Incidentally he's on his second bag of Baileys Keep Calm now and he absolutely loves it. After a third bag, I will be changing him onto Fibre-Beet, micronised linseed and a feed balancer.