Barefoot diet?

[Tegan]

Hi

I have a horse with very poor feet due to coronary band dystrophy (an auto immune problem). We have had to take his back shoes off as there is literally no wall left to nail to.

He is being seen by our vet and farrier but I am wondering whether a change in diet could help. He is currently on 1 round scoop of hi fi and 1/2 scoop of Dodson and Horrell pasture mix twice a day and also has formula 4 feet, garlic and synequin. He has carrots and apples added (one or two carrots and half an apple in each feed max). He is out 24/7 on a bare paddock with a small strip of grass opened up each week . He also has 1.5 sections of hay at night. He is about the right weightwise.

Can anyone recommend an alternative diet?
Thanks
Tegan

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

No pasture mix, no cereals [oats if in work are ok], no carrots no apples, no sugar no molasses/moglo no lickits

non molassed s/beet [quick beet etc]
50+ to 200gms [winter] gms micronised linseed
salt
25-50gms minerals with hi magnesium eg pro earth balancer. [I would phone up pro earth and ask for advice].
make sure the chaff is molasses free.
plenty of hay so no greedy guts gobbling grass..............

 

[Tegan]

No pasture mix, no cereals [oats if in work are ok], no carrots no apples, no sugar no molasses/moglo no lickits

non molassed s/beet [quick beet etc]
50+ to 200gms [winter] gms micronised linseed
salt
25-50gms minerals with hi magnesium eg pro earth balancer. [I would phone up pro earth and ask for advice].
make sure the chaff is molasses free.
plenty of hay so no greedy guts gobbling grass..............

Thanks

I will look into this. Would the pro earth stuff replace the formula 4 feet? I would be hesitant to take him off the formula 4 feet as it is recommended for the coronary band dystrophy. Can you recommend any good web pages on barefoot feeding. I own this horse jointly with a friend so we need to make any decisions together.

Thanks
Tegan

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Thanks

I will look into this. Would the pro earth stuff replace the formula 4 feet? I would be hesitant to take him off the formula 4 feet as it is recommended for the coronary band dystrophy. Can you recommend any good web pages on barefoot feeding. I own this horse jointly with a friend so we need to make any decisions together.

Thanks
Tegan

You can check ingredients and see if you are getting value for money, maybe best to stick with it, and add a small amount of a general mineral like feedmark or equimins original, its difficult to know what is best to do.
The Rockley Farm site has info on all sorts of rehab horses, and they have lots of blogs,
Nic will probably advise you better than me on your feeding advice. The amount of magnesium seem to be relevant, I found 10gms MgO per day was fine, it is impossible to meet the exact needs of every horse, so to some extent it will always be an educated judgement, even though it is possible to get forage and grass analysed, to my mind this is not really economic for one horse.