Barefoot! Standing on frogs! Help!!!

Hi all

I'm hearing a lot about 'good diet' can someone recommend what is a good diet for a transitioning BF? I'm a little confused now as to what I should be Feeding him?! Thanks :) x
 
High fibre low starch low sugar. U should look for under 10% starch etc.

Degie products r generally good.
Balancer eg spillers *original has vit c in which can help stressed .ir injured horse . Normally they produce enough themselves. or Bailey's low cal balancer etc or vit and min sup such as equivit.
Quickbeat or equibeat if u can get it.
Magnesium Is helpful too.

Then if u need more energy/ weight gain u can add products such as ers pellets (7%starch). Baileys outline is oil based but already has vit e and selinium balanced for u to save u working that out if u fed oil separately.
X
 
Thankyee, hopefully the ulcers are gone / going as he is certainly weight gaining now and is feed balanced minerals so i should see an improvement in his feeties. As to the boxy hoof i will pack the trushy frog with sudocrem for the time being as he is off for treatment for other issues this weekend so hopefully, fingers crossed things will start to improve.
 
xxtasha21xx said:
Hi all

I'm hearing a lot about 'good diet' can someone recommend what is a good diet for a transitioning BF? I'm a little confused now as to what I should be Feeding him?! Thanks :) x
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It's up to the horse individually.

Many horses can eat anything and still be hoof healthy.

With humans, our diet affects our hearts. With horses, it affects their hooves.

To some horses, the health and comfort of their hooves relies on finite dietary input.

We've all known for years that a diet high in molasses, sugars and starch can make horses uncomfortable.

In the earlier days of barefoot, we found that adding magnesium helped too.
A few years ago the recommendation was to add brewer's yeast, seaweed and magnesium to a low starch/sugar base. It was affectionately termed 'Magic Barefoot Powder'

Nowadays we are finding balancing the mineral profile in the forage will make even the most metabolically challenged horse comfortable.

We have moved onto doing analysis' of the forage and balancing the diet from that - I need zinc, copper, lysine, magnesium, salt into my horse's diet and I have to steer clear of high calcium and phosphorous feeds (like alfalfa and bran).

For those people who don't want to do that, there are some commercially available supplements created to mimic the common traits of UK forage;
Pro Hoof
Pro Balance +
Equimins META Balance
ForagePlus' Balancers

If you think that horses would naturally browse for different plants and herbs for many miles a day in the wild.
But my horses have been in the same fields for the last 7 years, eating the same grasses....you can understand why they may be lacking in a few essentials :o
 
Oberon thanks very much for the feed advice...I'm definitely changing his diet!! :-)

Another problem I have now...he can walk & trot without looking 'sore' in the manège on the back however his front feet/legs look really short in trot?!?! He's not fully extending?! Is this because
I've removed the back shoes and not the fronts?!?! X
 
Bit difficult to say via a forum :o.

Give him some time and take it easy with him while his hinds improve - then review.
 
I've not done anything with
him for the past 3weeks since the backshoes were removed...just turning him out everyday...decided to lunge him today for 5mins in walk and
put him up into the trot to see how he went - very frustrated.com!! x
 
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