Can you feed too much fibre?

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peanut

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People always remark on the size of my horse's feed as if I'm over feeding. Yes, it does look quite a bucket load but it's mostly fibre and she takes ages to munch her way through it. I have a horse who is the perfect weight, fit, healthy and even tempered/contented - basically a gorgeous horse - so what's the problem ?

Morning: One scoop Alpha A oil, half scoop of soaked speedibeet, half measured amount of balancer, carrots

Evening: Two scoops Alpha A oil , one scoop soaked speedibeet, other half of measured balancer, carrots

She lives out but there is very little grass so she also has hay in the field twice a day.

Am I over feeding??
 
No. Nothing wrong with that diet at all, if she looks and feels well, whats the problem!? ou are feeding a much more natural diet than someone that pumps their horse with hard feed!!
 
That sounds fine! Mine gets even more fibre, he has the most Alfa Oil that he is allowed, which is 3 scoops morning and night, plus beet
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People gasp when they look in the bucket
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. I keep having to explain that it is only fibre and no different to feeding ad lib hay etc!

I can't understand why I get so many remarks.
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Well hay is mostly fibre.... it's not like horses evolved to eat cereals!
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If you're happy and your horse is happy than great, just ignore them!
 
My mare has a monster feed as well! She has 2 kg Alfa A, 1kg of Fast Fibre, Seaweed, Carrots and Corn Oil. She has a small scoop of Hacking Mix if she has worked really hard. Add to that ad lib hay. She is a fully clipped ISH but her breeding works out at 7/8ths TB and she is keeping her weight on fine. She is worked for 1 - 2 hours a day hacking or shorter periods jumping and schooling/lessons. I do add electrolytes if she sweats up though.
 
i get the same thing. i think it's because most people put mostly/all hard feed in buckets, so seeing a bucket which has a lot of feed in it, scares them.
fwiw one of mine is on 4 scoops of Readigrass, 1/2 scoop Alfa, 1/2 scoop speedibeet - mostly so it takes him ages to eat so he doesn't nick the youngsters' feeds, but it does look like a humongous feed.
 
That's almost identical to what my girl gets! As others have said, the bulk of the feed is no different to ad lib hay/grazing.

Sadly my greedy girl still chows through it pretty quickly, I dread to think how quickly she'd hoover up a hard feed only portion!
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She definitely needs it bulked out to slow her down!
 
Your feed is almost identical to what I feed my two, and they are both good doers, except that they get some soaked oats (only the equivilent of a mugfull) in the evening feed. As they are in at night they also get haylage. I don't feed carrots though.
 
Hello, Yes this happened to me when I was at a livery yard. Think the reason was because people at this yard either didn't feed anything other than the grass and haylage which was included in the price or bought a sack of nuts and just gave random scoops. No one understood that you have to feed recommended amounts or add vit supplement, or that food in a bag such as alfalfa wasn't always a concentrate and could be fed in large amounts. Was great getting feeding advice from people at this yard !!!!
 
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i get the same thing. i think it's because most people put mostly/all hard feed in buckets, so seeing a bucket which has a lot of feed in it, scares them.

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That's just what I would have said too. It's "traditional" to feed concentrates, say a scoop or two in a feed. So when people see a scoop or two of roughage feed, which looks like more, they think it's a lot. In fact it's the best kind of diet IMO, and I reckon people over-use hard feed these days. Everyone seems to think their happy hackers are in hard work, and will need those three scoops of competition mix for the 20 minutes' hack round the block they do once a fortnight. I think it's much better for the horse to get as much energy into the horse in fibre form, and when the horse stops eating all you give him because he's full and he still doesn't have enough energy, then switch to concentrate feeds which are higher energy.
Don't be put off, it's your horse and by the sound of it if he's healthy and happy you're doing a good job!
My poor horse has a grazing muzzle on and gets multi-vit biscuits posted through the hole every morning! She'd much prefer a scoop or two of chaff!
 
They would have a fit if they sew what i give my oap,she gets 2 trug buckets full of suger beet and fibre nuts soaked,has she cant eat hay due to any teeth.
 
Your feeds sound great. I feed Ralph Dengi hifi lite, with Baileys low cal and he gets large feeds, mainly fibre, you cant feed too much, its a horses natural feed stuff. People always comment on what he has, I ignore them, he's blooming
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jay is going to get 4 scoops hifi,4 scoops fibre beet & 3 scoops top line cubes along with BOSS 3 times a day when we move yards in a few weeks
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I get this too, I feed Mr T who is worked once or twice a week and lives out - two large wedges of hay in the morning out in his field, then a large stubbs bowl of Alfa A, 3/4 scoop of high fibre nuts, 2 cups of Ultimate Balancer and soya oil with four large wedges of hay at night, Murphy, who has come for a holiday with me and was is in hard work schooling upto 6 days a week sometimes twice a day, now hacking three to four times a week and lives in over night gets large scoop of Alfa A and scoop of High Fibre Nuts AM plus hay and 2 scoops of Alfa A, generous scoop of High Fibre Nuts, scoop of Speedibeet, soya oil and vits and mins spread into two buckets to give him more to do and a mountain of hay at night. A girl at the yard remarked on how much it is and given our pasture is a bit sparse I said I felt it was required, her laminitics are on a half scoop of happy hoof and a slice of hay each and are on mud. She says they get fizzy if they get anymore! I've always bulked on fibre based feeds before I've gone on to proper concentrates by choice and never, touch wood, had any problems. Both of mine tend to the fat side and Murphy is fresh enough on the feed he gets, no competition mix needed!
 
[quote). A girl at the yard remarked on how much it is and given our pasture is a bit sparse I said I felt it was required, her laminitics are on a half scoop of happy hoof and a slice of hay each and are on mud. She says they get fizzy if they get anymore!

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Grrrr, it makes me so angry when people like that think that they need to starve laminitics. It can exacerbate the problem, not prevent it. And that's without the probability of the ponies having ulcers and the like through lack of food, excess stomach acid etc.

As everyone else on the thread agrees, fibre is a good thing. She could always soak the hay for a few hours first to leach the sugars out and then feed it ad lib.
 
Firstly, I want to say that as a general rule giving plenty of fibre is great. However, I can think of two scenarios where you CAN feed too much fibre.

Example one would be a very good doer on good grass and/or adlib hay/haylage and receiving two large tubs of fibre food a day, and as a result becoming obese. In such a case the horse is being over-fed.

Example two is the opposite and would be a poor doer with a small appetite. Because fibre is bulky and fills them up quickly, it might actually be difficult to persuade the horse to eat the required amount of calories a day. In this case it would be wise to cut back on the fibre a little and feed some more concentrated sources of energy.

But as a general rule I do agree that plenty of fibre is a good idea!
 
hi there any ideas on feeding a 28 yr old, semi retired horse, he is finding eating hay hard and i am worried about him gettting enough fibre in his diet. he is fed 3-4 times a day, hifi hi fibre cubes and 16+. i seem to remember reading about feeding hay replacement but am unsure about exercise in conjunction with eating "hard feed" ad lib!! please any suggestions!!!! thanks
 
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