Best conditioning feed without the fizz

[Louby]

Hi,
Moved my boy a couple of months ago after 9 years at his last yard and he has dropped condition through stressing. Hes much happier now, although seems to stress a bit when in his stable. They are out 24/7 but grass is getting sparser and I dont want to bring him in at night as hes more stressy away from the others, so Ive been giving him a decent feed each night and bringing him in for a while to eat some hay but he'd rather be out.
He is a stressy spooky type anyway, so got minimal feed on our last yard (hifi, hifibre cubes) but I need to up/change it to try and put a bit of condition back. Sugarbeet inc non mollassed blows his mind and a allergy test a few years ago said he is borderline to alfalfa, so any ideas what I can add to his feed. I bought topspec last month and he gets hifi and hifibre cubes.

Thanks for any advice

 

[Spyda]

Best bet is feeding ad-lib good quality hay. My mare's very stressy and highly strung but does better on ample forage than high cal hard feed.

 

[Louby]

Thanks, I wish I could. He is in with other horses, most are fatties, so I cant put hay in the field and hes not liking being in at the mo as that seems to be whats stressing him out. He came form a yard where he was on individual turnout and hes loving his new friends! We will be getting haylage in soon for the winter, so Im sure that will help things, when they all come in at night but at the moment, Ive just got hay, as they are out unless the weathers vile.
Im sure he will be fine, he isnt skinny but I dont want him to lose any more.

 

[thatsmygirl]

Add micro linseed to his feed, great stuff. Google Charnwood millingo

 

[tallyho!]

Best thing is more fibre split into a few feeds. How about top spec fibreplus, fibrebeet and a conditioning balancer like blue chip or micronised linseed?

Obviously, you need to take him out the field to have his ration, but you could then pop him back in.

 

[Zargon_91]

Ordinarily I'd be saying alfalfa and sugar-beet! You'd be best trying adding oil to his feed, you can safely feed upto a pint of vegetable based oil a day. As a rough guide 500ml of oil is the same energetically as about 1.5kg oats.

 

[[69117]]

My 28 yr old poor doer looks incredible on -

Red Mills Cool N Cooked Mix
Blue Chip Original
Mollichaff Showshine
Corn Oil

The Red Mills is my favourite feed of all time...it smells like flapjacks, and everything looks incredible on it. I feed it to box rests as it keeps condition on without the fizz

 

[Louby]

Thanks for replying.
Was thinking of adding Ready Mash??? Well the solution mash one. What do you think?

 

[tallyho!]

Ordinarily I'd be saying alfalfa and sugar-beet! You'd be best trying adding oil to his feed, you can safely feed upto a pint of vegetable based oil a day. As a rough guide 500ml of oil is the same energetically as about 1.5kg oats.

I would be very interested to see how it is safe to feed horses 500ml of oil a day...

OP, please be wary about suddenly adding 500ml of oil to your horses diet.

They do not have gall bladders and produce just enough bile to deal with the small amount of fats they may get from forage. Unless a horse is conditioned to digest such huge amounts of fat, this is not a safe way to add condition.

The most anyone should feed a horse oil, after very slowly adding it in over time is a teacup full (an old fashioned Grandma's size! 200ml max.).

Even then, if your horse has liver problems, oils is contraindicated! The liver produces just enough bile to digest small amounts of fat only and if it cannot produce bile, it cannot process fats and will cause problems in the caecum if undigested.

The best way to add fats is by using whole foods. Like linseed, soya (not that I advocate it), or copra as it is then digested evenly and slowly mixed in with the plants fibre and retaining much of it's Omega oil balance.

Having said that it has benefits fed in SAFE amounts.

I feed oil to my old horse as he cannot have too much starch but only after I made sure with vets it was ok.

 

[oldywoldy]

Balanced Horse Feeds Show Mix - we have rehabed many thoroughbreds on it for many years. They have a website etc.,

 

[Louby]

Thanks everyone
Off for a nosey now

 

[MrsMozart]

I am a great fan of Saracen's Re-leve and their Equi-jewel.

Feed small quantities, which is good for my dingbat DWB who gets bored easily.

Adds weight nice and steady/maintains weight. Both without adding fizz.

Used it for ex-racers as well to good effect.

 

[Oberon]

Thanks for replying.
Was thinking of adding Ready Mash??? Well the solution mash one. What do you think?

The Solution Mash is good.

It was just too pricey for me at £16 a bag.

If your horse can't take beet, then you could use Fast Fibre.

I use Fast Fibre as a 'haynet in a bucket' for my old boy with dodgy teeth.

Linseed is also very good for providing the omega oils that are dying off from the grass.

Soya hulls is another calorific source of fibre (main ingredient in the Solution Mash).
http://www.kwalternativefeeds.co.uk/products/view-products/soya-hulls-/

You could look at this balancer too

http://shop.forageplus.com/epages/es137718.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es137718/Products/FPP