D&Hugh Winter Health Mash - A Good Thing Or A Con?

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Elf On A Shelf

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As the title really! Does it do anything more for your horses or does it have a snazzy name and only appear at certain times of the year (like Cadbury Creme Eggs! ) to make you want on buy it?
 
Composition:
Wheat Bran, Barley, Unmolassed Sugar Beet, Maize, Alfalfa, Mint (5.0%), Vegetable Oil, Oatfeed, Wheatfeed, Echinacea (2.0%), Distiller's Wheat Grains, Extracted Sunflower, Nutritionally Improved Straw, Peas, Dried Carrots, Mint (1.0%), Dehulled Soya Bean Meal*, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Full Fat Linseed, Salt, Cinnamon, Magnesium Oxide, Glucosamine, Chaste Tree Berries, Fructose Oligosaccharides, Comfrey, Dandelion Leaves, Blackcurrant, Kale, Spinach, Beetroot, Rosemary, Rosehip, Pomegranate, Burdock Root, Nettle Leaves, Celery Seed, Olive extract

I wouldn't let it within 10 feet of my ponies...
 
As a treat possibly - never as a feed. Certainly very little healthy in it. It probably smells nice though.
 
I'm inclined to agree with Casey, I wouldn't feed it to mine. If your looking for a conditioning feed, look at more of a straight like Copra or sugar beet or something similar. It'll more than like be lots cheaper too xox
 
Oh I wouldn't ever feed it! I just noticed a lot of people talking about it excitedly - the same as chocoholics talk about creme eggs at easter and stock pile them lol! And thought I would ask you lot as you guys don't hold back!
 
I don't think it looks too awful to be honest, not from that list of ingredients alone. I've never come across it, but I should think it's likely that there is a certain of human warm fuzzy feeling marketing to it.
 
I bought some last year, and Alf thought it was utterly delicious. Mind you, he thinks pretty much anything is delicious, so not a great advert for it. It definitely gave me a a warm fuzzy feeling, giving him a nice warm mash on a cold morning.

However, at around the same time, his halo fell off in a big way. I'm not sure whether it was the Winter Mash, or just him being an arse, but I didn't buy another bag, just in case!
 
cant imagine why people are condemning this. it sounds good. basically bran, brewers grains -- lots of b vits there and quality protein-- with maize and sugar beet with additives to balance it and lovely mint and other herbs. whats not to like? horses should do very well on it. I'm almost wishing my fatties were skinny so I could buy some. the straights were what I fed my horses back in the 1970's and my goodness they did do well on it hunted looked great kept condition and there were no balancers available then so this is an improvement on that.
 
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Downton Dame said:
cant imagine why people are condemning this. it sounds good. basically bran, brewers grains -- lots of b vits there and quality protein-- with maize and sugar beet with additives to balance it and lovely mint and other herbs. whats not to like? horses should do very well on it. I'm almost wishing my fatties were skinny so I could buy some. the straights were what I fed my horses back in the 1970's and my goodness they did do well on it hunted looked great kept condition and there were no balancers available then so this is an improvement on that.
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Its full of crap! When you take out the herbs which are there in neglible amounts you are left with

Wheat Bran, Barley, Unmolassed Sugar Beet, Maize, Alfalfa, Vegetable Oil, Oatfeed, Wheatfeed, Nutritionally Improved Straw, Peas, Dehulled Soya Bean Meal*, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate

So wheat mainly with an added portion of wheat and oat feed, then sugarbeet, maize and alfalfa. Some NIS to pad it out and some cheap veg oil to add calories. Some peas, because, well why the devil not! I'm not sure what the purpose of the dehulled soya bean meal is.

I feed pink mash which is soya hulls and mine looks amazing on it, but soya oil and soya bean meal can send horses off their rockers! I cant understand why they would take off the hulls which are the fibrous bit.

Did you really feed your horse wheat, alfalfa, peas and soya beans in the 70's?
 
It seems a rather odd combination of ingredients. Looks like it is aimed at the poorer doers given the amount of cereals and oil in it, but then padded out with ground straw which is of low nutritional value. And advertised as oat-grain free which makes people think it is not heating, but it actually contains significant amounts of barley and maize! (Which might explain why Alf turned into an arse, Auslander).
 
Leo Walker said:
Its full of crap! When you take out the herbs which are there in neglible amounts you are left with

Wheat Bran, Barley, Unmolassed Sugar Beet, Maize, Alfalfa, Vegetable Oil, Oatfeed, Wheatfeed, Nutritionally Improved Straw, Peas, Dehulled Soya Bean Meal*, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate

So wheat mainly with an added portion of wheat and oat feed, then sugarbeet, maize and alfalfa. Some NIS to pad it out and some cheap veg oil to add calories. Some peas, because, well why the devil not! I'm not sure what the purpose of the dehulled soya bean meal is.

I feed pink mash which is soya hulls and mine looks amazing on it, but soya oil and soya bean meal can send horses off their rockers! I cant understand why they would take off the hulls which are the fibrous bit.

Did you really feed your horse wheat, alfalfa, peas and soya beans in the 70's?[/QUOTE
fed wheat in the form of bran and brewers grains, peas and soya beans, yes, high quality protein ( like bran) but only of working hard eg hunting and only in small amounts, peas and beans were traditionally fed to horses ploughing to maintain weight and muscle. I also fed sugar beet ( molassed) maize barley oats and linseed. didn't feed alfalfa because I couldn't get it but my old 1950s horse book recommended it as an excellent feed if it was available.
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For a poor doer, it sounds great. I only have one poor doer on the yard though and he's looking good at the minute on Pure feeds veteran and D&H build up cubes. But if he drops weight, I will get him some of the winter mash, for sure.
 
Why would you feed (and pay for) all those different ingredients when chances are most horses don't need any of them - and if they do, you can add them in the correct amounts for that individual? And there's rather a lot of wheat products, which are high in starch/sugars and really bad for anything with a history of laminitis
 
Downton Dame said:
fed wheat in the form of bran and brewers grains, peas and soya beans, yes, high quality protein ( like bran) but only of working hard eg hunting and only in small amounts, peas and beans were traditionally fed to horses ploughing to maintain weight and muscle. I also fed sugar beet ( molassed) maize barley oats and linseed. didn't feed alfalfa because I couldn't get it but my old 1950s horse book recommended it as an excellent feed if it was available.
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Fixed your post. The HHO gremlins had jumbled it all up with mine :)

If peas, soya and beans were fed to horses in very hard work why are they in a feed aimed at the leisure horse market? i have no issue with straights. Mine gets oats, but he gets them as and when his workload dictates it. And they are crushed oats, not by products.

Bran is different from wheat and wheat/oat feed. The bran available now is vastly different to the bran available in the 70s as well.

Its each to their own though :) But you couldnt pay me enough to feed that to my horse. Its the equivalent of a supermarket ready meal and I dont eat those myself either :)
 
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Granny has insisted I buy a bag of this as she had said decidedly clearly that no, she will not touch speedibeet or fast fibre anymore thank you very much. This was the only thing she would eat last winter too and I need to get her joint supplement and vits and mins down her somehow.

It certainly smells good but it's a last resort type feed for me. Granny isn't in work and is aged enough to be able to get what she demands.
 
Got a sample, pony picked through it, rather unenthusiastic about it. To me it didn't really smell much and I wouldn't bother buying it again as pony likes her fast fibre :)
 
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