BF horse bored of food

stencilface

stencilface

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Hi, I wondering if anyone can offer some inspiration. My horse has been ridden without shoes for oevr a year now and we have had some setbacks, and an abscess but otherwise I'm pretty happy. But he's not - not with dinner at least!

He gets currently a square scoop of speedibeet, a couple of handfuls of dengie hi fi molasses free, pro balance, yea sacc, linseed and spearmint. But he just doesn't seem interested.

I've tried him on fast fibre before on its own, and that was ok for a while but he got bored, and I can't help but think horses with functioning teeth get tired of eating slop! I am considering maybe giving this a go again, but spicing it up for him with some oats (he could do with more sparkle anyway), but is there anything else I could try? Any good grass nuts out there? I'm not keen on simple systems namely as getting it delivered is a complete PITA.

I've been told he's gone a bit bonkers when on oat straw before, but I was away then and it was 8 years ago now so I think I'm willing to try oats again as they might have less effect on a 15yo! :)

Thanks in advance :)
 
I have had good success recently with a picky eater with fengreek seed powder and it wasn't very expensive.
 
I feed Dodson and horrell just grass to Frank, speedibeet and oats he is fussy about (with other bf stuff) :p This has made a big difference.
 
Adding a handful of grass nuts (I use Graze on) or Topspec fibre nuts to the sugarbeet usually gets my little mares interest for bit, but I've decided once i've used my bag of beet up i'm just going to not bother and just let her have the handful of soaked nuts with her supplement in, it just seems stupid to waste it when it isn't really providing any benefit and she isn't enjoying it!
 
Mine gets on ok with bog standard alfalfa pellets and I know someone whose horse won't finish their feed without dried copra sprinkled on. That said I'm in process of trying some products from red rufus / agrobs feeds that I think are fairly new over here, mainly because they do a version of a grass nut type thing (no molasses or any other rubbish added) that's about the size of a normal horse treat and I'm sick of nearly losing fingers when doing physio stretches with the pony using the alfalfa pellets. Anyhow they've sent me a bunch of samples of other feed as well and they do a few different mix type products that have no molasses in with various herbs, grasses and dried apple and carrot and such that look and smell rather yummy. I won't be actually buying any of them apart from probably the grass pellets but I figure if it's free I may as well use it as treats and pony seems to rather like it
 
The pre-alpin is absolutely gorgeous. I was gutted when my supplier (who was over an hour away from me) stopped stocking them. You can feed the cobs dry as treats, but when soaked they puff up enormously (which is why they need to be soaked - and I definitely recommend hot water). However you can choose the level of "puffiness" - a bit like putting milk on weetabix - you can leave then a little crunchy or make it really wet.

I think (and this is going back a good couple of years) I used to use 200g of cobs and 1.5L of water and it made decent sized bucket feed - probably between 2 and 3L

Of course you can use more, and use as a total hay replacer. I used mine instead of hard feed, and becasue they smelled so gorgeous my boy used to consider them a meal rather than ordinary hay.
 
I had similar problems and swapped speedi-beet and hi-fi for fast fibre and thunderbrook herb chaff and now they love it, which is a big deal as the shetland has refused everything other than sugar coated happy hoof until now!
 
Firstly, do you honestly need all of that in there?

My horse is bf and gets nothing but grass and she has never been better! Normally, this time of year we are battling abscesses but none whatsoever since I stopped everything. I switched from anything alfalfa based to grass pellets and grass chaff as a bucket "feed"... Really it's just to keep her happy when she comes in.

The hoof capsule is amazingly concave, it's never been better. The white line has tightened and there's a job to find it! She hacking out on stony roads, forward going and the most relaxed she has ever been.

I've learnt that overdoing it on the supplements is often worse than not supplementing at all. Less is more.

Each horse is different of course but I also found pretty much the same with my gelding of a different breed.

Just a thought.
 
Thanks all for your replies, so many! I'll have a look at a few of them. And no, I'm not sure I need the yea sacc, I fed it when I though he had sensitive feet last year due to grass, but it turned out to be an abscess. The pro balance I think he needs, along with the linseed, I'm loathe to stop them to get a footy horse again. And the spearmint is there purely to mask taste.

Is there any of these grass nut you don't need to soak?
 
stencilface said:
Thanks all for your replies, so many! I'll have a look at a few of them. And no, I'm not sure I need the yea sacc, I fed it when I though he had sensitive feet last year due to grass, but it turned out to be an abscess. The pro balance I think he needs, along with the linseed, I'm loathe to stop them to get a footy horse again. And the spearmint is there purely to mask taste.

Is there any of these grass nut you don't need to soak?
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You don't need to soak grass nuts, they are just like horse and pony cubes. I soak them though but only so it's fluffy and dry so I don't put much water in.
 
I too really recommend the agrobs pre alpin products,the hay cobs are yummy to all my horses but do need soaking for 20 mins, The aspero chaff is great too. If there is no stockist near you they will deliver free if you order 4 bags,pretty sure your horse will love it.
 
stencilface said:
I think many grass nuts you do, and even the ones that don't seem prone to causing choke unless soaked from my experience.
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The ones I buy says no need to soak so I would just check the brand and read what it says on it.

No one else on my yard soaks theirs. It's become habit for me from when she was a foal. She has teeth now so I suppose I don't need to, and funnily enough I do give it dry out of my pocket for a treat lol! I'm just mad... Lol!
 
That's the issue I have with ordering feed that you need to order in bulk to make it worth your while when you don't know if they'll like it! I will have a better look at grass nuts thankyou :)
 
stencilface said:
That's the issue I have with ordering feed that you need to order in bulk to make it worth your while when you don't know if they'll like it! I will have a better look at grass nuts thankyou :)
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Ah no worries sf... so many companies do it now I lose track! Lol!

It's worth checking though like you say. Bulk is cheaper but if they don't like it it's a ****** isn't it!
 
Sounds like you've got a good base going there. There is nothing wrong with mixing the beet pulp and oats 1/2 and 1/2 and the fenugeek powder is loved and safe for IR horses. I'd just change up the spearmint. I add an apple a day to keep the vet away and 2 carrots for their daily needs for Vit. A, naturally. Half my garden goes to the horses, with cucumbers being the star player. Some horses like pumpkins also. Everytime I go to the barn, I raid the fridge to see what kind of salad I can make of their meal. Sometimes I will take them for a walk and let them show me what they are attracted to and go get that and throw it in there as well. I think "salads" and cross the fence to get it, because they can't. If you research safe foods for horses, you'll be surprised just how much is safe to feed to a horse.
 
stencilface said:
I think many grass nuts you do, and even the ones that don't seem prone to causing choke unless soaked from my experience.
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The only time I didn't soak grass nuts my completely healthy fit mare choked on the first mouthful and then died from EGS within 24 hours. I always soak them now. They do seem to be about the only tasty thing in the barefoot diet (oats are good too). Cool stance copra i think is a marmite taste depends on the horse.
 
FfionWinnie said:
The only time I didn't soak grass nuts my completely healthy fit mare choked on the first mouthful and then died from EGS within 24 hours. I always soak them now. They do seem to be about the only tasty thing in the barefoot diet (oats are good too). Cool stance copra i think is a marmite taste depends on the horse.
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Crikey!!? That's awful! So sorry for your loss :(
 
FfionWinnie said:
The only time I didn't soak grass nuts my completely healthy fit mare choked on the first mouthful and then died from EGS within 24 hours. I always soak them now. They do seem to be about the only tasty thing in the barefoot diet (oats are good too). Cool stance copra i think is a marmite taste depends on the horse.
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the choke may have been an early sign of the grass sickness as it effects the ability to chew and swallow so the dried grass nuts may be a red herring so to speak. choke does not cause EGS.

sorry for your loss all the same it is heart wrenching to loose them
 
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For all that you're feeding supplement wise you could just feed haylage balancer. It has mint and I'm sure fenugreek, too. Mine love that on Saracen slim chaff, but you could add it to grass nuts or beet if your horse needs more.
 
One of mine is super fussy & super sensitive, we started winter on oats,speedibeet,top spec conditioning cubes & solution mash until a couple of months ago when he suddenly decided he couldn't possibly eat this combo anymore. He's a very poor doer as well so I have to keep him eating, I tried Allen & page veteran vitality in desperation & he loves the stuff! Looks like boring brown slop but he was eating 2 big feeds a day of it along with his oats. He also absolutely loves oats,he's very easily hotted up by feed but oats have no adverse affect on him.
 
I think it might be the Hifi, not really very exciting for horses!

How about getting some liquorice and melting it in a mug of boiling water and adding that to his feed, or maybe try a bit of diluted apple juice?
 
I guess because I'm aware I'm supposed to keep sugars low in the feed? But then my normal brain says that his amount of feed is minor in comparison to the amount of grass he chomps on a daily basis which will have far more of an impact than 3-4 handfuls of nuts (enough to mix the supplements)

Also, because I don't do the feeding most of the time (I do mornings and sister does the evenings as its harder for me to do with mini SF after nursery pick up etc) its needs to be simple, simple enough to be done by my mum and dad on occasion! I make the supplements up in those mini tub trugs at the start of the week. So maybe I might just try the lowest starch non-soaked cubes I can buy and some oats for some oomph? I also have 2 ponies to feed who get the linseed, and whatever else I'm feeding so something inoffensive and low calories for them would be good too (otherwise we will run out of room in the feed room!). Mind you, they don't mind the speedibeet and hifi lite, they scoff anything!

The mention of veteran feeds makes me remember how old my boy is now!

FW sorry to hear about your horse, that sounds awful :( Our oldie we lost i 2013 used to get choke quite a lot if we didn't make sure his feed was the perfect consistency, and it was horrid to watch - thankfully it always passed, but horrid nonetheless.
 
spillers HDF cubes seem to be well tolerated.

step away from the veteran feeds :eek3:.

I kind of started to feel the same about amount of feed. The energy/sugars in grass chaff is perhaps higher than one would like but I thought by weight am not actually feeding much and Frank thinks it tastes nice ;)
 
Yes, that what I'm thinking now, the best I can do for him in the summer is restrict his grazing by putting him in the stable during the day a few times a week I think, a few handfuls of feed makes bob all differences compared to the sugars in grass etc. But when you start BF you want to do everything 'right' to make it work, and so far it is working (although think we have an abscess brewing as its warm and he's footy :( but I think thats a hangover from winter and me not making sure I washed his feet and got rid of thrush early enough)

Is that the spillers hdf layoff cubes with the low (10%) starch?
 
I couldn't get mine to eat a whole range of things so after a month I gave up and left him out 24/7! Not yet got him out the field two weeks later so no idea if that's worked :p
 
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