D&H Pasture Mix or Cubes

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melbournesunrise

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Since I bought my horse, I have kept him on the same feed as the previous owner, and as far as I can tell she hasn't changed his diet since she bought him 5+ years ago. He's on Alfa-A original chaff and D&H Pasture Mix, although I have since added a calmer into the mix because he is a super spooky boy!

A friend of mine wonders whether switching him to the cubes instead of the mix would be better for him - in the sense that maybe it would help him to be less spooky.

For the record, he's a good-to-do ISH, and he has plenty of energy out hacking and for schooling - lazy at times, but not lacking in energy! He isn't a fussy eater, thankfully, so a change in feed would probably be relatively straightforward from that point of view...

I'm not sure whether changing this feed would have the effect my friend thinks it would, and I'm not willing to go through the hassle of switching his feed if it will make no difference. Has anyone here got any experience of this sort of feed change making a difference??

TIA
 
If he is a good doer, has enough energy for the work he does and enough to waste by messing about then why not stop feeding him anything other than hay/ haylage and grass, you can give a vit/ min supplement or balancer to get vits and mins into him but there is no reason to be feeding a horse like him on a high energy feed full of sugar and starch.
I don't feed any of mine unless they need it, they look fine and work well so no reason to give them a feed just for the sake of it, I do feed small amounts in winter or if they are working hard.
 
I definitely would not feed Pasture mix to a spooky horse it's full of molasses. I'd give molasses free chaff and a broad balancer. If I wanted to add more I'd give high fibre cubes my horse was OK on D&H high fibre nuts, but now just feed a handful of Heygates fibre nuts as cheaper.

You may not need a calmer once you've removed / lowered the sugar in his feed.
 
Having found your answers interesting, and what with them raising more questions in my mind, I asked the previous owner why he is fed what he is, given that she said he keeps well.

Turns out that he was on that feed when she bought him, and that whilst she said "good to do" before I bought him, she really meant "good to do as long as he has x amount of hard feed in summer, and y amount of hard feed in winter"... *sigh* Also, the amount of work he does with me is different to the amount of work he did with her, as well as the type of work being different. So I'm reluctant to remove the hard feed altogether, for fear that it will result in a weight loss that I struggle to rectify. He looks good on what he has now, good condition and what have you...

However, I entirely agree with the idea that there is too much sugar in his diet. Now just to find a suitable replacement that will do the job!!
 
Pasture mix is a very poor jack of all trades type of feed, supposedly for horses in lighter work or better doers, so it's not giving the ocnditioning you need for winter, and too much starch for a low cal feed. I would read around on feeding, there's a lot to learn. I like a balancer or supplement, iron free would absolutely be my preference, companies like Forageplus and Progressive Earth make them, and then add straights like beet pulp, alfalfa, linseed (for amino acids/protein as well as oil) and oats, though they do need to be selected and tried carefully to see what suits. They you know you're always feeding enough vits and mins but can increase and decrease the calories as needed.
 
Same as I recommend to everyone. A plain chaff (no molasses), micronised linseed and a good supplement (equimins, forage plus or pro earth only). A non-sugar'd beet if you like too (speedibeet, ultrabeet).
 
I would recommend Pure Feeds Easy - with Pure Feeds Working if you need more energy. No, they certainly don't sponsor me, I just rate their products :)
 
melbournesunrise said:
Since I bought my horse, I have kept him on the same feed as the previous owner, and as far as I can tell she hasn't changed his diet since she bought him 5+ years ago. He's on Alfa-A original chaff and D&H Pasture Mix, although I have since added a calmer into the mix because he is a super spooky boy!

A friend of mine wonders whether switching him to the cubes instead of the mix would be better for him - in the sense that maybe it would help him to be less spooky.

For the record, he's a good-to-do ISH, and he has plenty of energy out hacking and for schooling - lazy at times, but not lacking in energy! He isn't a fussy eater, thankfully, so a change in feed would probably be relatively straightforward from that point of view...

I'm not sure whether changing this feed would have the effect my friend thinks it would, and I'm not willing to go through the hassle of switching his feed if it will make no difference. Has anyone here got any experience of this sort of feed change making a difference??

TIA
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I would not be feeding mix, but then I am against mixes now anyway and would rather feed cubes so cubes is the way I would go and fibergy which is low mol and lami safe..

My horse is well rather was spooky and I went through many calmers till I found Horsefest base on calcium and it has really helped my queen of the spooks mare.
 
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ILuvCowparsely said:
I would not be feeding mix, but then I am against mixes now anyway and would rather feed cubes so cubes is the way I would go and fibergy which is low mol and lami safe..

My horse is well rather was spooky and I went through many calmers till I found Horsefest base on calcium and it has really helped my queen of the spooks mare.
Click to expand...

Why feed low molasses when you could/should be feeding no molasses.
 
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