Basic is best I think.
yes I feed TB as there is no rubbish in them! lots of other feeds have other things added to them. I was feeding grass nuts for a while, but i could see that it was affecting the quality of my mares feet, as they're so much higher in sugar and mine are barefoot. I did also use simple systems haycare for a while but the price wasn't that different to TB. Also we have an new naylors shop 2 mins from my house and they're ordering in for me and giving me 10% discount, so it works out best to stick with them.
Rice bran is very calorie dense, I have fed it to my ex racer in the past though the omega ratio is off. You then need to balance that.
(though I do enjoy it- part of me faffing and complicating things is for me, not the horses tbh). With work and having to soak this and that etc it would just take too much time.Don't shoot me....
I think the way 'things' are going the price of horse feed will sky rocket (already did after the Ukraine war).
I feed mine all Saracen's feed though its starting to get more and more expensive.
I have 6 horses total... all warmblood, ISH, or Ex-racers.
When I had a livery yard I used to feed straights, I always had such a variety of horses I used to have:
Alfalfa cubes, grass pellets, chaff, sugar beet, linseed, rice bran, oats, bran and then supplements.
Do you think straights are cheaper? By the time I had added all my supplements and made this and that it was. It was also very complicated. I liked it a could make little tweaks, but at the same time, now for instance, the ex racer in work has a scoop of releave and a handful of chaff. The time it used to take me to make feeds...
p.s I am not getting in an argument of whether you should/ shouldn't have horses etc. I can afford to feed my horses whatever but the cost of living in skyrocketing. I have a good job now but less time but my feed bill is *a lot*.
Luckily we make our own haylage now so its just the cost of red diesel/ wrap etc to contend with.
If I had natives I think you could get away with feeding very cheaply, just good haylage and then a top of some vitamins and minerals, unfortunately poor doers like my elderly ex racehorse wouldn't winter well like that!
Sorry to hear about the accident - hope you're not off fun and games (or work ; ) ) for too long.Ric
Rice bran is very calorie dense, I have fed it to my ex racer in the past though the omega ratio is off. You then need to balance that.
Suppose every feed has its pros and cons.
I am still on the fence about what to feed. I buy in Stamm 30, chaff, releave mix and high fibre cubes. Then supplement wise everyone gets oil and salt, the older ones get glucosamine, and the thoroughbreds get a hoof supplement and the ones in work get pre/ probiotics. So the fat broodmare who is not in foal just gets balancer and chaff. The exracehorses get releave and some chaff. The rest get high fibre cubes and as they are not on a lot they get stamm 30 balancer.
When I did my own „feeds“ though I thought they looked better though I would spend hours in the feed room
I am telling a lie though… at the moment I am off work from having a nasty accident and so are the horses ( I know just as the nice weather hits as well!) so they are all out in a big field with a bale and getting fed once a day of chaff, conditioning cubes and balancer. They all seem to be ok while I sit around researching how to complicate things
forageplus.co.uk
Sorry to hear about the accident - hope you're not off fun and games (or work ; ) ) for too long.
Could I ask why you feed the chaff? Your thread made me look it up as chaff as a feed has always confused me. This article (by forageplus, who have some interest in feed but at least do not manufacture chaff themselves) seemed quite good, and goes into detail about the various benefits and disadvantages.
Horse Chaff Exposed: Essential Facts For Every Owner
Discover the surprising truths about chaff and its impact on your horse's diet and health. Essential reading for every owner!
A couple of extracts:
***
In essence, chaff was a cost-effective way to bulk out diets, manage digestion under heavy workloads, and maintain the health and performance of working horses in eras before mechanisation. Today, while horses are no longer powering society, the use of chaff continues, though its original purpose has largely been forgotten.
What does chaff do for horses?
This horse feed is marketed for its ability to:
While these benefits can be useful in certain management scenarios, they are often more effectively achieved by long-stem forage such as hay or haylage. These options naturally promote extended chewing, support gut health, and buffer acid through saliva stimulation, but more safely and economically than chaff.
- Slow feed intake
- Encourage chewing
- Act as a partial forage replacer
- Increase saliva production
- Buffer stomach acid
- Add bulk to feeds
***
and:
***
Is chaff better than hay for horses?
Throughout this article, you’ll notice a consistent theme: long-stem forage is superior to chaff in almost every context. Here’s why:
In most cases, chaff is a management aid, not a nutritional benefit, and it certainly isn’t a magic solution for digestive health.
- Chewing hay promotes saliva production and digestion more effectively.
- Long-stem forage supports gut motility and dental health better than chopped fibre.
- A haynet slows eating and reduces acid splash without the need for added bulkers.
- Chops are more expensive than hay and often wrapped in plastic packaging.
- For horses with dental issues, soaked fibre mashes (e.g. grass or hay pellets) are safer, more digestible, with higher nutrient availability than chops.
***
Generally their view seems to be that chaff is expensive forage & it would normally be cheaper to use other means to achieve the desired effect.
Interested to hear what you (& others) think.
Thank you that’s really interesting!Sorry to hear about the accident - hope you're not off fun and games (or work ; ) ) for too long.
Could I ask why you feed the chaff? Your thread made me look it up as chaff as a feed has always confused me. This article (by forageplus, who have some interest in feed but at least do not manufacture chaff themselves) seemed quite good, and goes into detail about the various benefits and disadvantages.
Horse Chaff Exposed: Essential Facts For Every Owner
Discover the surprising truths about chaff and its impact on your horse's diet and health. Essential reading for every owner!
A couple of extracts:
***
In essence, chaff was a cost-effective way to bulk out diets, manage digestion under heavy workloads, and maintain the health and performance of working horses in eras before mechanisation. Today, while horses are no longer powering society, the use of chaff continues, though its original purpose has largely been forgotten.
What does chaff do for horses?
This horse feed is marketed for its ability to:
While these benefits can be useful in certain management scenarios, they are often more effectively achieved by long-stem forage such as hay or haylage. These options naturally promote extended chewing, support gut health, and buffer acid through saliva stimulation, but more safely and economically than chaff.
- Slow feed intake
- Encourage chewing
- Act as a partial forage replacer
- Increase saliva production
- Buffer stomach acid
- Add bulk to feeds
***
and:
***
Is chaff better than hay for horses?
Throughout this article, you’ll notice a consistent theme: long-stem forage is superior to chaff in almost every context. Here’s why:
In most cases, chaff is a management aid, not a nutritional benefit, and it certainly isn’t a magic solution for digestive health.
- Chewing hay promotes saliva production and digestion more effectively.
- Long-stem forage supports gut motility and dental health better than chopped fibre.
- A haynet slows eating and reduces acid splash without the need for added bulkers.
- Chops are more expensive than hay and often wrapped in plastic packaging.
- For horses with dental issues, soaked fibre mashes (e.g. grass or hay pellets) are safer, more digestible, with higher nutrient availability than chops.
***
Generally their view seems to be that chaff is expensive forage & it would normally be cheaper to use other means to achieve the desired effect.
Interested to hear what you (& others) think.
Sorry to hear about the accident - hope you're not off fun and games (or work ; ) ) for too long.
Could I ask why you feed the chaff? Your thread made me look it up as chaff as a feed has always confused me. This article (by forageplus, who have some interest in feed but at least do not manufacture chaff themselves) seemed quite good, and goes into detail about the various benefits and disadvantages.
Horse Chaff Exposed: Essential Facts For Every Owner
Discover the surprising truths about chaff and its impact on your horse's diet and health. Essential reading for every owner!
A couple of extracts:
***
In essence, chaff was a cost-effective way to bulk out diets, manage digestion under heavy workloads, and maintain the health and performance of working horses in eras before mechanisation. Today, while horses are no longer powering society, the use of chaff continues, though its original purpose has largely been forgotten.
What does chaff do for horses?
This horse feed is marketed for its ability to:
While these benefits can be useful in certain management scenarios, they are often more effectively achieved by long-stem forage such as hay or haylage. These options naturally promote extended chewing, support gut health, and buffer acid through saliva stimulation, but more safely and economically than chaff.
- Slow feed intake
- Encourage chewing
- Act as a partial forage replacer
- Increase saliva production
- Buffer stomach acid
- Add bulk to feeds
***
and:
***
Is chaff better than hay for horses?
Throughout this article, you’ll notice a consistent theme: long-stem forage is superior to chaff in almost every context. Here’s why:
In most cases, chaff is a management aid, not a nutritional benefit, and it certainly isn’t a magic solution for digestive health.
- Chewing hay promotes saliva production and digestion more effectively.
- Long-stem forage supports gut motility and dental health better than chopped fibre.
- A haynet slows eating and reduces acid splash without the need for added bulkers.
- Chops are more expensive than hay and often wrapped in plastic packaging.
- For horses with dental issues, soaked fibre mashes (e.g. grass or hay pellets) are safer, more digestible, with higher nutrient availability than chops.
***
Generally their view seems to be that chaff is expensive forage & it would normally be cheaper to use other means to achieve the desired effect.
Interested to hear what you (& others) think.
Hydroponic grass, very tasty for horses, but users were ‘tied in’ to buying the most appropriate grains/ seeds from the same company, and the whole thing not cheap at all.thunderbrooks healthy herbal chaff for me as well plus Simple Systems Timothy chop. Then sugar beet and mole valley hi fibre nuts and a supplement. Most expensive part for me is vit E. That is so expensive but can't see much choice.
so much on here takes me back years. Boiling linseed (and having to clean the aga top afterwards when I let it boil over) milk powder although I used to feed actual milk and rice pudding. Micronised maize and micronised peas.
I remember the large machines you could buy for sprouting grain for horses. I think it was called hydrophonic grass possibly. Very expensive machine but the mats of "grass" were lovely.
I'm not sure that "cheap feed" and "horse" go together
Because I want to make sure they have their vits & mins.
Because most grazing is nutritionally naff for horses and the only reason to feed good doers is to effectively balance that out and (hopefully) prevent issues caused by defeciencies
Omega rice is rice bran + micronised linseed; it would be cheaper to buy RB oil and continue feeding linseed.
