Dodson and horrell pasture mix

[Bee121]

Hey everyone,

I have been given a bin full of Dodson and horrell pasture mix to try my mare on.
I don't have the bag so unaware of feeding guide ect.
(I found the feed to weight guide but not how to feed ect)

Can I feed straight from bin into feed?

Or does it need to be soaked for a set amount of time before feeding?

(adding gradually of course)

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[gallopingby]

You don’t need to soak pasture mix, it’s a ‘mix‘ of various things with lots of nice smelling herbs. I reckon it’s manufactured to tempt the buyers but it’s easy to feed and useful if you want to ‘hide’ something. I occasionally feed it as it’s convenient but there are probably more cost effective feeds.

 

[TPO]

Pasture Mix

Pasture Mix - For horses and ponies in light to medium work. - Oat-grain free - Low Protein - Garlic, Mint and Carrots - Pasture Herbal Blend of garlic, mint, basil and oregano

www.dodsonandhorrell.com

The ingredients and composition is available online.

I personally wouldn't feed it. It's high starch, high calorie and the highest quantity ingredients (oatfeed, wheat feed, flaked barley & molasses) aren't great for horses.

I wouldn't start on a new feed just because it's been gifted.

What does your horse need from a feed, what do you need from a bucket feed and what do you currently feed?

Pasture mix doesn't tick many boxes. It's a sweet, sticky molasses mix that is handy for disguising meds, when feeding them is a priority, rather than something good for horse health/diet IMO.

 

[Bee121]

Pasture Mix

Pasture Mix - For horses and ponies in light to medium work. - Oat-grain free - Low Protein - Garlic, Mint and Carrots - Pasture Herbal Blend of garlic, mint, basil and oregano

www.dodsonandhorrell.com

The ingredients and composition is available online.

I personally wouldn't feed it. It's high starch, high calorie and the highest quantity ingredients (oatfeed, wheat feed, flaked barley & molasses) aren't great for horses.

I wouldn't start on a new feed just because it's been gifted.

What does your horse need from a feed, what do you need from a bucket feed and what do you currently feed?

Pasture mix doesn't tick many boxes. It's a sweet, sticky molasses mix that is handy for disguising meds, when feeding them is a priority, rather than something good for horse health/diet IMO.

My vet recommended it to try and give my mare a bit of a boost in energy. One of my friends had some and gave it to me.
The vet said it would be better than oats or sugar beet as it's not high in sugar and should give her the little boost she needs

 

[gallopingby]

I would follow the recommendation of your vet rather than someone who doesn’t know your horse!

 

[TPO]

My vet recommended it to try and give my mare a bit of a boost in energy. One of my friends had some and gave it to me.
The vet said it would be better than oats or sugar beet as it's not high in sugar and should give her the little boost she needs

Vet is wrong - and I wouldn't usually say that!!

It's 11.8mj/kg, very high starch (21%) and contains pretty garbage ingredients.

Oats and sugar beet are very different types of feed from each other and from molassed commercial mix.

You'd be better phoning all the different feed companies and speaking to their nutritionist, or better yet engage with an independent advisor.

If you wanted to give breed, age, height, weight and what work your horse does in an average week you'd get some decent (& probably some not so decent!) feed suggestions on here as a starting point.

There is nothing about pasture mix that says "good energy boost" from ingredients to nutrition analysis

Edited because autocorrect punked the spelling of nutritionist

 

[holeymoley]

Vets aren’t always up to date with feeds or as knowledgeable about them as you would expect. It’s not something that I would feed for the same reasons mentioned above but, no harm in trying, maybe it will work for you.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I used to feed it, it’s terrible stuff nutritionally but it smells divine and all my horses have loved it. Like us eating coco pops when we ought to be having a bowl of unsweetened porridge .

It doesn’t need to be soaked, though you can if you want to. It must be dampened before feeding or the horse could choke.

 

[ihatework]

My vet recommended it to try and give my mare a bit of a boost in energy. One of my friends had some and gave it to me.
The vet said it would be better than oats or sugar beet as it's not high in sugar and should give her the little boost she needs

I might change the vet rather than the feed then

 

[poiuytrewq]

I use it, literally a handful to hide a cushings pill in for a fussy pony. I’d not feed any more and can see a little weight gain on that much!
Smells nice though!
He will go off it soon and I’ll have to chuck it all away and move onto something else so it’s not a long term thing!

 

[sbloom]

I would follow the recommendation of your vet rather than someone who doesn’t know your horse!

In this instance the vet is lacking basic nutritional knowledge. A few thought PM was low sugar back in my early horse owning days, 2000 ish, but there's no excuse now. If they don't know enough in this area they should recommend on. Just look at a handful, maize being the highest sugar grain there is!

 

[ycbm]

I would follow the recommendation of your vet rather than someone who doesn’t know your horse!

Pretty much the last people I'd take nutritional advice from, closely followed by nutritionists directly employed by feed companies.

My last experience was vet not recognising a late winter vitamin E deficiency when it hit him in the face.
.