CoolStance Copra - worth the £?

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I am thinking about moving my 9yo tb and 3yo tb x who are both fairly poor dooers onto Coolstance Copra, how do people find it for weightgain? And for horses prone to ulcers and barefoot?

I would feed it along side linseed and grass nuts (and vitamin supplement) - i feed speedibeet with these at the moment but the 3yo doesnt really like it.

They have adlib hay and are out 12 hours a day throughout winter so no lack of fiber, just need some extra calories in them to keep weight on. Note i do not feed volumes the bags recommend, i feed based on how they look.
 
I absolutely adore the stuff and only wish my two would eat the stuff, the just pick at it and will eat it if last resort kind of thing :(

It's fab for putting weight on without making them hot up, gives a lovely sheen to their coats and smells delicious when made up with warm water!

Baggs my 20 year old is prone to ulcers and both my lads (Rabbit is my other horse who is 2.5 years old) are barefoot and when they were on it for a short while, it was fine for their feet and didn't cause any issues. It also didn't cause any issues with Baggs and him being ulcer prone. It's low in sugar and starch (below 11% combined I believe?) which is great news in general.

Coolstance is high in phosphorus so has to be balanced correctly to avoid any issues, as calcium can leach if not balanced correctly (something I remember when looking at diets for young horses) - but I can see that you feed a vitamin supplement so I would say that it should be alright as it is :)

One thing I did do when feeding it was drop the linseed and up the coolstance - I've not fed both together so unsure of how they work with/against each other - hopefully someone who uses it regularly will be along and can shed some light :)
 
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AppyLover1996 said:
One thing I did do when feeding it was drop the linseed and up the coolstance - I've not fed both together so unsure of how they work with/against each other - hopefully someone who uses it regularly will be along and can shed some light
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I feed both and they do overlap but my horse is a bit fussy about linseed so I feed just enough for the omega oils and copra for the weight gain.

I don't add calcium but feed alongside sugarbeet which is high in calcium as is our grazing. I also use my own mineral mix and don't supplement phosphorus.

Barefoot tb prone to loose weight.
 
Brilliant stiff for weight gain and maintenance- I have found you need to introduce it very slowly or mine wouldn't eat it. I started with a small scoop of 20ml in a feed and build up by one scoop a day.
 
I used to feed it and really rated it but unfortunately even with the industrial grinding plates they use you still end up with small bits of coconut shell in the feed.
 
Mine all decided they didn't like it last winter having eaten it happily before. It wasn't even a new bag so I couldn't put it down to that.
 
I used it to keep weight on my old horse over his last two winters. I still have an unopened bag that's probably gone out of date now. Great stuff , never had a problem with palatability, and highly recommended by my barefoot trimmer for condition.
 
I found it good to keep weight on my very sugar / starch sensitive PPID horse. I did still feed micronised linseed alongside. If feeding in large quantities either feed something high calcium alongside or you may need to supplement (unless you’re in an area where your soil is already high in calcium in which case you may be ok)
 
I think equi jewel is better than copra. Neither cheap but equi jewel certainly kept my 17.2 ancient hunter in a nice condition right up to his loss.

On a slightly different note, Baileys Horse Feeds must be doing well, they have just paid 85k for a yearling at Tatts Ireland. Good luck to them, it is more usual to see them and other feed companies sponsoring events rather than competing horses.
 
My horse used to be at a yard where they fed this to all of the horses and he wouldn’t eat it. I recently bought some horse treats made by copra but didn’t read the ingredients - turns out they were very similar to the coolstance and must have tasted the same because he wouldn’t eat those either. I think it does work but it’s a gamble as to whether they will like it or not although to be fair most horses at the yard ate it. Maybe contact them to see if they can send a sample out first for them to try?
 
I feed/fed it to one of mine when I'm having issues with his weight.

He's a bad doer who managed to stress himself laminitic after doing a tendon hooking around the field so I had to take him off the feeds he was on and he dropped weight extremely quickly ....im talking looked like a rescue case within a month!...and nothing I tried seemed to help him back up to a healthy weight. He also has a history of ulcers and it doesn't take much to blow his brain which further limited feeds we could try.

In the end a nutrionist suggested trying Copra alongside his other feeds but I didn't find it made any difference to his weight but he would only eat it for a few weeks and then was leaving half his feed so it may have worked if he'd been on it for longer.
 
Id recommend equijewel it's been magic for my 23 year olds weight and no issues with palatability. It's expensive but you don't need much for a big impact.
 
I feed copra to mine in the winter alongside linseed. As said above, it's got an adverse Ca : P ration so I add limestone flour - but then again, linseed also has an adverse Ca : P ration and should be calcium balanced too!

I've fed this to so many horses and never had any issues with palatability - but I introduce it slowly, as I do anything.

It's IMO a brilliant weight gain feed.
 
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