Cutting feed in favour of forage- I'm very impressed!

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Over the last few weeks, what with all the snow and ice and whatnot :rolleyes: I cut my TB's hard feed right down and increased his forage, as I've read and been informed you should do (he had to be in for a few days- YO's orders- and I was unable to ride too) to avoid a crazy horse.
Well, although his craziness has been not entirely removed (wasn't expecting miracles! ;) ) he was definitely much saner than he would otherwise have been, despite limited turnout for a while.
He is now on less than a quarter of a scoop of Alfa A Oil, twice a day, with a handful of pony nuts in the evening (which I think you'll probably agree doesn't seem much for a 16hh ex racer- although I know there are many exceptions to the 'poor doer TB' stereotype) and lots of haylage and hay, mixed. I'm really happy with how he's kept his weight and condition, and his coat is still shiny as ever!
Think I may well be sticking with this kind of regime (although obviously once he's in proper hard work in spring/summer he's probably likely to need more hard feed)...even with hay/haylage prices as they are, I reckon it'll still work out cheaper especially if we can buy in bulk for the yard.

Bit of a pointless post, but impressed/a bit surprised he's actually done well on it! Anyone else had similar sucess? :)
 
Funny you should have posted this. This is the first winter I haven't religiously fed my TB a 'feed' to keep weight on. She hasn't had a feed for over a month and she is a bit fat if anything! lol She gets free choice hay anyway.
 
We feed all ours a forage based diet. This started years ago when we had a sugar/cereal intolerant horse.
Currently we are feeding 4, including a retired cob mare on grassnuts, dried grass, haylage and straw in varying proportions according to their particular needs.
I wouldn't be surprised if you find that you can maintain your current regime in Spring/summer. If you find that you do need extra, you could try grassnuts. There are people who event on grassnuts!

I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised at how happy and healthy their horses were, if they tried a forage based diet (and how few rugs they would need to use1).
 
We use no hard feed at all for all of ours, did use a veteran mush for the old Appy, who in her 30's had no teeth. We use grass nuts for extra condition if we feel it necessary. The vetran has a goodly amount of grass nuts, the others varying smaller amounts. We are very careful with cereals as we had one that was intolerant of all cereals, the current Appy is not able to tolerate alfalfa. We feed good qualkity forage, mixed with straw for the good doers and are often complimented on how good our lot look :) If I were you I would try and stick with the high forage low ceral diet. We also feed vitamins and minerals in a supplement, to make up for any lack.
 
Don't mean to be rude but it's one of the first rules of feeding. My horses don't get much
'hard ' feed anyway and thrive on a high fibre diet.

unless horses are working hard ie hunting 2 times a week, eventing or such like, hard feed is usually given by owners to make themselves feel better!! ( oldies and skinnies apart)
 
TicTac said:
unless horses are working hard ie hunting 2 times a week, eventing or such like, hard feed is usually given by owners to make themselves feel better!! ( oldies and skinnies apart)
Click to expand...
I agree and in my case it was because she is a TB! lol All mine do get a forage based diet anyway but I was under the illusion that TB's are different. :o :D
 
TicTac said:
Don't mean to be rude but it's one of the first rules of feeding. My horses don't get much
'hard ' feed anyway and thrive on a high fibre diet.

unless horses are working hard ie hunting 2 times a week, eventing or such like, hard feed is usually given by owners to make themselves feel better!! ( oldies and skinnies apart)
Click to expand...

Oh no no offence taken, I'm definitely not claiming to be any kind of feed guru, have just based my horse's diet on advice from others really, and what he looks and feels good on- and it just hadn't really occured to me ( :o ) to cut hard feed almost completely, especially as he came to me in March as definitely a 'skinny' despite being on 2 scoops of a mix a day + beet.
I guess largely because my first horse was on part livery, and I was definitely a novice owner, so I went along with what YO told me to feed, and then the next horse I had was on loan + full livery at a competition yard, so again I wasn't really in charge of his feed. So I guess I missed out on the rules somewhere along the way :o (although I do know now, just hadn't thought to apply it to mine.. :o ) Will be doing so from now on though, having seen first hand that hard feed isn't much needed.
 
Mine are both on haylage and a very tiny feed of unmolassed beet/linseed to mix the old boy's Danilon. They both do very well on this and it works out much cheaper than bucket feeds
 
My pony is on a tiny handfull of happy hoof mixed with some alfa beet - just to keep him occupied at breakfast / dinner time while everyone else is being fed.

He's getting adlib hay and a bit of haylage and is looking really good.

At the end of Jan I'll need to cut it down even more as we have huge amounts of grazing so will need to ensure he goes into spring leaner than he is now! Hopefully, by then he will be back in proper work again (have only been able to ride once in the last month due to the snow)
 
mine has ad lib haylidge and a handfull or two of dengie origional, a couple carrots and a half scoop of equilibra and some naf 5* supaflex liquid.
She is a 16 yo tb and is a good doer so doesnt need tonnes although im not stopping her feed although she is in a lot more and not being ridden due to snow, she doesnt hot up and id rather a bit more weeight on her in winter than not. Even though she is perfect weight now, i dont want her to drop cndition, i can soon make her loose weight in spring so keep her on her routine.
 
horses should be on a forage diet. I have always kept them on grass, then on adlib haylage with a tiny meal. They were until the deep snow just haveing a scoop of beet with linseed and brewers yeast once a day. In the snow they get the same at night with a handful of grassnuts and a scoop of beet before going out in the morning. All four look well covered shiny and healthy. A TB, a DWBxTB, an IDxconn and a 3yr old DWBxTB. My horses are all totally sane on it. Most horses will be far far more sane on a forage only diet as hard feed has a tendency to send them over the top, with the high levels of sugar and starch and the rush it gives to the blood. Forage keeps the horse warmer and its gut occupied for far far longer. Hard feed goes straight through after delivering the initial rush. The majority of mixes and feeds are not for the benefit of the horse they are for the benefit of the owner so they can feel they have been good to their horse. Tb ex racers normally have spent a life eating shorts and no forage, they are stables 23/7 with one hour out at gallops. They are kept lean, with small high energy feeds fed regularly. So as a result they frequently have stomach ulcers, their gut is meant to have forage going through it all the time so the stomach acid is constantly produced. Without forage taking the long time to digest the stomach acid works on the stomach lining and causes ulcers. moving an ex racer of hard feed and onto a forage diet can cure stomach ulcers completely. In my experince you will improve a n ex racers sanity 100% by using a forage diet because you take away the head rush, you occupy its mouth and gut for longer and you remove or ease the ulcers. As a result the horse is far far far more relaxed and therefore retains weight far easier.
 
My 2 are both good doers - but I have been there with stressy TB's who don't do well in winter and in his case, it seemed like I was almost constantly feeding him, constant hay and 2 large feeds. The 2 I have now are always on a high forage but atm, due to complete lack of work, they aren't even getting their feeds (nuts in the mares case, competition mix in the gelding) - they are just getting hi fi and thats more to do with ensuring their supplements can be mixed in. Until I can start working them both, they will stay on this - both have held their weight.
 
In the cold weather digesting forage creates internal heat--warmer horse, less weight loss
Horses designed to eat at least 18hours a day so plenty of fibre available means more content horse, less stress, less weight loss
No brainer really

My 3 are on grass nuts, Speedibeet a few pony nuts all soaked together--warm water added before feeding, twice a day
Ponies on hay
Cuffey on hay plus haylage

All are at least age 20, in medium weight rugs, they have not had many nights stabled this winter
 
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