Cheaper way of feeding my Thoroughbred?

tonitot

tonitot

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Just bought Ethels feed all in one go, I normally buy each bag as I need it, and it cost mrle about £35. Just wondered if there were any changes to her diet that could be made to make it cheaper. She I'd feed Alpha A Oil, Dondson and Horrel Build Up Mix and Speedy Beet, plus pretty much adlib hay but grazing is quite poor. She isn't doing any work due to me injuring myself, she's 4 and currently in good conditon. Cheers :)
 
First forget all brand names - the moment they stamp them on the bag it increases the cost to you.

Plain old crushed Barley, meadow chaff, sugarbeet, 1 cup fresh ground linseed, and a mineral lick for in the field or stable.

It's what I feed all my TB's off the track and they thrive on it.

For the linseed - buy whole and grind yourself in a coffee grinder.

This boys were on the above each winter (approx 2litre container of Barley)
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I feed my TB chaff about £4 a massive sack, sugar-beet - about £6, rolled and crushed barley about £5 and a good supplement. All non-brand cheap feed and she seems to do well on it :)

Oh yeah - ad lib hay too :)
 
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Have you looked at Pure Feeds? That's everything in one. Am in the process of moving my ex-racer on to it, the horse he lives with is on it & it's done wonders for him both condition & temperament wise.
 
If shes having ad lib hay and in good condition/not working i'd be tempted to cut down the build up mix to just a handful either until you feel she needs it or until she's doing more work.
 
You could cut way down on the hard feed and change the hay to haylage. If she isn't in work she should only need some chaff and a scoop of nuts or even just a balancer once a day. But she will need lots of good quality hay or haylage.
 
Can you buy linseed from a feed shop? Don't think I've ever seen it. Will look into purefeeds :) will definately be forgetting about brand names from now on!
 
Dodson and Horrell Suregrow about £14 for a 20 kilo bag, feed as a balancer has the same ingredients bar 1 as their Ultimate Balancer that retails at about £36. Feed it at the ratio you would a balancer, e.g. 16 hh approx 60 grms twice daily. You can feed this with an alpha based chaff and barley if you need to keep the weight on. You need to make sure you have balanced vitamins, minerals and proteins for TB's or they lose condition quickly, combining the balancer (suregrow) with straight feed (barley) will ensure you get balance right. Mine is currently on box rest and on suregrow and Hi Fi and doing well with ad-lib hay, it is also non-heating. When in work he was on Build up and Alpha A.
 
If she's on nearly ad lib hay then she should be getting plenty of fibre. Speedibeet and Alfa A are both fibre based so I would cut them, use a cheaper chaff and add a splash of oil if you need (buy oil in a big bottle at the supermarket).

You can keep up the build up mix if you want or swap to barley/oats with a suitable vit/min supplement if necessary.

:)
 
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