Barefoot diet question

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Holidays_are_coming

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I took my last mare barefoot with little problems on a diet of fibre and proof balance, I hae just got a new boy her has been barefoot all hos life and if coping with the increased workload well (not rock crunching but not sore at all) but he desperatley needs more muscle (he fought for his life last year and has no muscle behind at all) I have spoken with saracen and they have recommended show improver pencils and that wil provide all his vits and mins, he doesnt seem diet sensitive, but he needs good quality protein, he is still out with access to adlib hay? Any thoughts or better BF options?
 
I wouldn't be happy feeding the show improver pencils to a barefoot horse personally. I'd recommend speedibeet with 2 heaped mugs micronised linseed and Dodson and Horrell ERS pellets to help with weight and muscle :)
 
I agree, I would opt for the linseed anyday as its so fiberous but so high in oils and as long as you are doing the right amount of work then you put on muscle with the linseed. Coolstance coprameal is another you could go for too.
 
I would get his work going with plenty of hill work to engage the hind end and see how he goes from there and leave out any mixes. They all contain either crap or sugar or both. I have a mare who had a bad accident as a baby so if she is out of work her hind end shrinks because she doesn't use it properly but as soon as I bring her back into work and start the hill work, her muscles build right up and she looks in proportion again.
 
Im no expert but I would say yes ddefinately. My mare was on that combination although fast fibre rather than alfa a because alfafa makes her footy, and she built up lovely. He should build up better than my mare in theory because alfafa is high in protein. You should move to where I am, you cant get away from the blimming hills, we are always up and down! I don't have a school so we have to go looking for flat areas:) I woudl reassess when hes been in regular, proper work for a few months. Two weeks as you say isn't really long enough to tell. Hope it goes well and if you have a school then do lots of pole work so he has to engage and work that hind end if not then find some logs while you are out hacking, set them up and use them each time:) Good luck
 
I'd go have a read of Sarah Braithwaite's site...'Performance Barefoot', she also runs her 'Forage Plus' site linked into it.

At the very least, it's got some extremely informative information on feeding barefooters and may help you to decide the way forward for your horse feeding wise!

Hope that helps you a little.
 
Are you feeding your new boy the pro hoof too?
I would add that or maybe one of the forageplus balancers. The latter has higher levels of key minerals in the recommended dose but does cost more.

You are feeding a fair amount of protein with linseed, alfalfa and copra, in a similar situation I went for Speedibeet, copra and linseed plus minerals/vitamins.
 
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