Barley Rings?

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lcharles

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Are barley rings good for weight and condition? Also, you they send your horse hyper!! x

I have a highly strung ID X TB and he is a slight psycho at the best of times but needs to put a bit of weight and condition on for winter. He is super fit at the moment, and will be maintained in his current exercise as well as hunting, but dont want him to have barley rings if he's going to go nuts on them. He rears and bucks if he has sugar beet so dont want this to happen with barley rings?

Any experience with feeding them? Also why did you feed them and for how long? x
 
I feed the barefoot diet and it is good for behaviour:
Summer daily feed:
500gms Fast Fibre [8.0 MegaJoules per Kg]
50gms Micronised linseed meal [Equimins or Charnwood Mill]
Some Non molassed lo alfa chaff Dengie
30gms Minerals and vitamins: Equimins/Feedmark/pro hoof
10gms Magnesium calmer from Feedmark [very small dose],
Salt one teaspoon
This is a high fibre diet with oil for energy/condition.
You have control over everything you are feeding, and is cheaper than branded mixes.
I throw in a handfull of oats if he needs a boost, more or less dependant on his work/energy levels.

In winter I feed extra non molassed sugar beet pulp, this is lo sugar, unlike SB nuts, and more micronised linseed meal [up from 50 to 100gms for a 15.00hh standardbred]
Mins and vitamin requirements can be determined by analysing the forage, but this is not essential.

I am convinced that UK horses need a plain diet to offset the sugars in grass. Feeding all year round has meant better hooves, cooler skin, better hair colour, and better behaviour [we are talking spooky boy] He is carrying more condition this year, but I don't think this is due to his hard feed, as he only gets 50gms of linseed.
I know that he is getting less processed food than pony nuts, and no molasses or wheatfeed!
Fast Fibre is easy and cheap to feed.
http://www.allenandpage.com/Products/Rest-and-Light-Work/Fast-Fibre.aspx
I have seen people feeding barley rings with molassed s.beet nuts, all soaked, [they were all rather fat native ponies who would have been better fed with a scoop of pony nuts], feed this diet to a highly strung horse and you will have problems.
I start feeding mine his winter diet in September, so that it is fully established by end of October, and I maintain his condition to March, when I like to slim down in anticipation of spring grass in May.
 
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I would feed oil and/or oats instead if you need extra condition.. My understanding of barley is that it is not digested well by the horse and can lead to hind gut disturbance which is what causes the nutty behaviour in some horses. Contrary to what people believe, oats are not usually rocket fuel unless they are being given to horses who don't need the calories that they contain.
 
Remember most horse in the UK are overweight, so we tend to think of this as the norm, you won't harm your horse by keeping him trim as long as he gets vits and mins, if he is hunting fit you should be able to see well defined muscles and a few ribs by the end of the season.
As long as he has a good bum and muscle tone along the spine, you are doing the right thing!
Oats are the best feed for horses in work, barley is fattening but oats are strengthening.
P.S. Meant to say I would think you would need to feed 150 to 200gms [3-4 coffee cups] of micronised linseed to maintain condition in winter.
plus a pet scoop [when dry] of non molassed sb per feed
Ad lib hay when stabled.
 
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Yes, barley has a bit of a rep for sending horses bonkers. Probably the high starch, which horses have not evolved to cope with. Better to use high oil sources of calories such as linseed. Or as cptrayes says, oats.
 
barley rings ARE heating, however you can get barly nuggats (made my marksway horsehage) that are NON heating but are also a conditioning feed
 
Barley rings do hot some horses up although by no means all. I feed them to my oldies though, and anything else that needs a bit of extra help to put or keep weight on. They're especially good for the oldies or for shy drinkers (or both in the case of Flynn!) as they soak up plenty of water and become very soft to eat.
 
Oh, best sell my bag of barley rings then!! :o

I don't really know why i got them, i saw the 'add weight and condition' bit on the bag and chucked a bag on my trolley but in the car thought that surely adding extra calories would make him like a child on E numbers!! He definately doesnt need any added oomph, its actually nice when he has a 'lazy' day where he wants to keep all feet on the floor for a change!! x

He's just recently, last 6 weeks been winning his showjumping classes because i've managed to control him so really don't want to upset this!! x

He's at his best being fed nothing but grass and hay but he will lose too much weight with the cold winters if i dont add something x Last year, after hunting he was less muscley than now could see his back 3 ribs and i didnt like him being like that! x
 
thers other options as others have said, oil, you can also can linseed flakes etc, or a feed like equi jewel etc, if you want a complete feed then again theres a million options, mollichaff do a conditioning chaff which ive found to work well.
 
used them when i first got a TB lad who was VERY underweight along with some other things and he put on weight very quickly along with no hotting up.
However the next year I put him on his normal chaff etc with a large cup of black sunflower seeds in each feed (twice daily) his weight, coat and feet are amazing now , would definately recommend the seeds
 
Oh thanks! Might be worth a go with sunflower seeds then! x Might try the barley rings gradually introduced and see what happens!! x :eek:
 
They are the ONLY feed that big Ruby (RIP) ever reacted to badly, and yes i know that its hardly a useful sample statistic, but she went loopy and had big lumps all over her, normal service resumed once barley rings removed from feed.
 
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