Does anyone actually feed "good-doers" that much feed?!

becca1305

becca1305

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 March 2011
Messages
1,764
Location
Leicestershire
Visit site
Im hoping to swap my horses' feed as I realised that I'm not feeding the right quantities according to the bags so am worried (in particular with the balancer) that they aren't getting enough vitamins/minerals. I thought I would probably end up just feeding the right amounts of balancer and nothing else but thought ho hum I'll fill in the form for a feed brand's nutritionist to see what they think :).

My horses I guess are "good-doers" but aren't the type that "get fat off air"; they are fed large amounts of hay/haylage which they chomp through but dont need a lot of feed and are about perfect weight. I explained in their current diet section that they were being fed 2 scoops balancer a day and 1/2 scoop chaff and that they were meant to be on 4 scoops balancer (what I was worried about) and doubtless loads more chaff but I wasnt too concerned with that. The form had all the information about current feed, amounts, turnout, exercise, their weight etc. So the report finally comes back and suggests a chaff fibre feed with a balancer in it with the feed being doubly concentrated so only need to feed 1/2 as much; brilliant thinks I before scrolling down....amount to be fed- 1kg each per day!! :eek: :eek:. By my reckoning thats a good 3 stubbs scoops of feed each per day!

Now I'm assuming the nutritionist must believe that this extra feed (chaff) wont make them fat, but then if its not doing anything why do I need to feed it?! My TB wont even eat 1/4 of a scoop chaff 1 cup balancer in one go he always has a little left in his brekky dish which gets tipped into his night meal of another 1/4scoop chaff 1 cup balancer. Because of turning out in the morning I couldnt feed any more so at least 2 1/2 scoops would have to be in his evening meal. Theres no way he will eat all of that unless I reduce his hay/haylage amount which is made at minimal cost off our own fields and replace it with this expensive feed!

The bags are 15kg each with 3 horses eating 1kg each a day thats not going to be very pretty on my bank balance so I dont want to do it unless necessary.

Am I being really daft here? :confused::o do my maths not add up? or do people really feed their good doers that much? Unless someone reckons Im being a complete moron :rolleyes: (feel free to tell me Ive messed up!) I think Im going to go with my original plan of feeding the correct amount of balancer and nothing else except an apple!

Just realised how long this is! Sorry!
 
Frankly, there is no way I could feed the recommended amount for my good doer - he would be like an hot air balloon. He is in regular and quite intense work, but he doesn't have anything like what the bag suggests. This is compensated for in a low cal balancer. My thoughts are use your eye - if your horse has enough condition, then you certainly don't need a single calorie more!! Have to remember though, feed companies don't get rich on selling fewer bags of feed!
 
Nope! Alongside ad lib (or as close to as possible) forage I feed a handful of hi fi lite/speedi beet and pink powder. Maybe the additional carrot :D

:)
 
I am in the same 'boat' and find that the amounts recommended to feed is just too much for my ponies to handle in one session. Horses should eat constantly because their digestive tract is designed to always be digesting small amounts of forage as they graze nearly around the clock. It makes sense that since that’s the way it works, that’s how we need to feed for them to be most healthy.
Here’s a quick reminder of a few reasons why horses need constant access to quality pasture or hay:
• The equine liver is continuously secreting bile. Since there’s no gall bladder to store it, the bile is continuously delivered into the small intestine directly from the liver.
• The stomach constantly produces acids for breaking down foods and activating enzymes for digesting proteins
• The horse’s stomach is relatively small and can only hold so much at one time
• Most of a horse’s energy comes from fermenting forages in the hindgut
Feeding a few large meals can lead to digestive imbalance. This can then lead to body condition and performance issues, and even serious health conditions like ulcers and colic.

It all depends on the management routine you have, if they live out it is easier to ensure they can follow the eating pattern nature designed for them.

Fibre is very important to keep the gut moving and viatmins are important too. I use a combination of hay, plain chaff (no alfalfa or molassis) and provide a salt and a mineral lick.
 
Last edited:
All of good doers are on about 1/4 to 1/2 their recommended ration of *anything* and they always look well and have energy, etc. They also have hay and grazing which gives them most of what they need I guess, depending on season!
 
I thought a stubbs scoop was 1.5Kg? That's for Hi-Fi lite anyway. For balancer it would be more dense, so a whole scoop would be nearer 2, I'd have thought!

Aside from that, your horse get vits and minerals from hay and haylage too. A balancer is meant to be just that (and I think they're a con, anyway). It's not a substitute.

I don't understand where they get recommended rates from sometimes. There's no way I'd feed either of my exmoors the recommended weights of any feed.
 
thats what I thought I just found it crazy that she thought I should feed that much especially as I expressed my concerns about not being able to feed the recommended amounts atm of balancer and chaff and so concerned about them not getting the right vitamins and minerals! I did explain that they get a lot of hay/haylage too! Im defo just going to order balancer and feed that in the right quantities. They have lovely quality hay/haylage and grass and enough of all of it so they can continually 'graze' its only my silly human instincts of wanting to have a little "variety" to their feed that I gave them chaff in the first place. Will feed recommended amounts of balancer and an apple from now on and will see how we go! they also have a little garlic to help digestion and aid in keeping flys away in summer so will keep them on that too. Glad to know I'm not crazy! :)

Fransurrey - According to my bag of Topchop original alfalfa theres 300g of that in a standard scoop so I think to feed chaff with balancer in it would need about 3 scoops per day to get 1kg.
 
Last edited:
No a Stubbs scoop is approx 1.5kg of cubes. Chaff is lighter so a scoop of chaff weighs 400-500g. So 1kg of chaff would probably be two heaped scoops of chaff.

I never feed my TB the reccommnded amount. He has mostly HiFi with some nuts and kwik beet and pink powder. With ad lib hay he doesn't need anymore and I wouldnt especially call him a good doer as he is a TB.

When I did have good doer ponies they weren't really fed anything. Hay only in the depths of winter and a handful of pony nuts after they had been ridden.
They lived out 24/7.

:)
 
Instead of a balancer why don't you look into feeding a broad spectrum vits and mins supplement and just mix it up with a little chaff or beet?
 
I feed mine in winter half a scoop to a scoop of happy hoof with pink powder, in summer its a handful with pink powder. As long as they get enough grass/hay as well (there is some kind of formula you can use but dont ask me what it is, something to do with body weight all i know is approx how much mine need per day and then I can weigh the hay out in winter...approx!)
 
I feed my good doer (retired 10 y/o WB) the daily recommended amount of Topspec lite, with a handful of good doer chaff (about 200gms), plus forage (haylage), but it's so mild that she's even on restricted levels of that at the mo. She is also out 24/7 and left unrugged to help her burn calories.

Aside from balancers I don't think I've ever fed the recommended amount on the bag to any horse. The idea of feeding 4kgs of cubes or mix to a horse in a day sounds, well, scary!
 
Both my tb and cob are still only on 2 level scoops of dengie good doer (1 scoop morning and night) with a general vitamin supplement. Both are perfect weight. They get plenty of hay and are on semi decent grazing.

Yet every feed company i have spoken to says I should be feeding them way more. Why? They look in the peak of condition (bright eyed and glossy coats) and have more than enough energy for the work they are doing.

I say feed as little as possible. Then you know how much they actually need and will probably save a hell of a lot of money.
 
Hadnt thought about feeding a GP vitamin and mineral supplement :) but one of mine is funny about supplements *rolls eyes* we can get away with some powders but it is hit and miss (and expensive mistakes!) but wont touch anything thats got a liquid supplement in it!

May investigate into supplements pricings etc to see how much I would save IF pest will eat it!

Puppy - I agree! VERY SCARY!
 
You really don't need to. My very good do-er is in foal. She has a big-red (I think that's what its called) lick and big bale haylage (first bale in on Saturday). This will be all she gets - no hard ration at all. And just to prove that will be fine, my really poor TB doer (scanned not in foal last year at 30 days) wintered out on this last year and gave birth to a strapping healthy foal, no balancer etc just the lick and the forage. I think you have to bear in mind that the firms are making a profit.
 
scarymare said:
Just what I was going to say

Most horses would survive happily enough on grass and hay, they used to do in the old days. Of course if they are working hard they would need something else. Also a good supplement makes sure there are no deficiencies.

I think the feed companys work around the fact that most owners like to give their horses a nice feed or two every day. I know I do, even though I know they dont need it.
Click to expand...
 
Mine gets formula4feet (due to bad feet) in a treat ball.
The other one gets a small scoop of high fibre nuts in a treat ball.

Some of the daily recommended amounts on bags are just plain scary.
 
Under no circumstances would I give a 'good-doer' that amount of hard feed.
We have a retired cob who used to be able to live off fresh air, a draft horse who came to us massively overweight and is on a diet and an Appaloosa who is about right for this time of year.
They all get as much haylage as they can sensibly eat, barley straw to supplement it, if appropriate, a small feed of dried grass with Pink Powder, which is a balancer, and the cob also gets speedi-beet, grassnuts and more dried grass. They all have access overnight to a Himalayan Salt Lick.
The feed companies are in business to make money, not to keep horses healthy. Their nutritionists are not paid to give independent advice.
Feed what you think is right and ignore what the feed companies say.
 
Last edited:
My 2 very good doers get 2 tiny feeds per day which consist of a small handful of happy hoof, sugar beet just to wet it and a supplement with their vits and mins in, also they get grazing and hay am and pm. There both unrugged and still a bit over weight :rolleyes:
 
My welsh D is feed:
Very small handful of hi-fi lite & 1 mug of baileys lo-cal x 2 per day

Her hay is soaked 12-24hrs and is always in a grazing muzzle when turned out so i feed Lo-cal to make sure she is getting vits/mins.

There are a lot of feeds out there i.e Happy Hoof that recommend feeding large amounts to give the horse the required vits/mins on a daily basis. You'd go through a bag so quickly, easier to get something like hi-fi lite and buy a general vit/min supplement if required, thats if they really need to be 'fed a feed' at all
 
Pearlsasinger said:
The feed companies are in business to make money, not to keep horses healthy. Their nutritionists are not paid to give independent advice.
Feed what you think is right and ignore what the feed companies say.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I think. I would take advice from a nutritionist who was paid by a feed company with, erm, a pinch of salt. :D
 
:) I agree was just making sure I wasnt some evil owner denying her horses vitamins and minerals that they need! Im still shocked at the level of what I consider to be excess feed particularly when I stated my specific problem was not being able to feed the "right" quantities. They make a balancer as well so seems very silly. If it wasnt for their rather handy 50% off first purchase offer I think I wouldnt buy from them just because of them offering a service and their advice being ineffective and designed to create extra cost IMO. Not entirely sure I will use them again after taking the offer either! :)...Im not an evil feed-denying mummy YAY! :)
 
I feed the same feed from the company offering 50% off and they recommended I feed a lot less than what I was feeding already.
Spillers too have told me that you can feed half the amount recommended on the bag and reach full vit and min requirements.
So to ignore all advice from the company's nutritionalists
 
Sorry iPhone posted before finished was going to say not all nutritionalists attached to companies are trying to get you to buy and feed as much as possible.
I would feed a good doer just bit and mins as a balancer or powder with small amount of chaff
 
we use baileys lo-cal and our 2 boys only need 2 mug fulls a day.... both are 16-16.2hh and weigh around 600kg.
they then get alfa oil and speedibeet added according to their weight and workload (up to a max of 1kg chaff and 1kg (dry weight) speedibeet, per day, each. once we start feeding haylage it is ad lib and we end up using about 2 small bales per day.

at the moment they are just on balancer however as we still have loads of grass.

Ron is hunting long days twice a week on grass and balancer and is actually a bit too fat (struggle to feel all but the last of his ribs!). Tom is unrugged but unclipped. Ron is hunter clipped and in a rainsheet. they are still out 24/7 too.
 
scarymare said:
You really don't need to. My very good do-er is in foal. She has a big-red (I think that's what its called) lick and big bale haylage (first bale in on Saturday). This will be all she gets - no hard ration at all. And just to prove that will be fine, my really poor TB doer (scanned not in foal last year at 30 days) wintered out on this last year and gave birth to a strapping healthy foal, no balancer etc just the lick and the forage. I think you have to bear in mind that the firms are making a profit.
Click to expand...

Exactly, Mine don't get anything. They get as much forage as they want and a bale in the morning and a bale in the evening. They get literally a handful of nuts after a ride, just to keep them occupied. It's all I can do to keep weight off them (yes they are working)
I don't think many people will change their feeding routines, as everyone thinks they know best ;) but really it's not half as complicated as the feed suppliers and lots of owners would have us believe.
 
I don't feed my good doers unless they are being confined to the stable for their weight - then they get a slice of hay in a small holed net.

In their paddock they have a multi mineral block so that when they are out they can access it themselves.

They are in the peak of health year round, shiny coats and plenty of energy
 
catkin said:
Instead of a balancer why don't you look into feeding a broad spectrum vits and mins supplement and just mix it up with a little chaff or beet?
Click to expand...

This is what I started doing this summer. I feed super Codlivine with Joint supplement to my very good doer. He still gets a fair amount of chaff -- but that's more that I am trying to give him a variety of short fiber, long fiber and make him "work for his food" by giving him different things to keep him chewing longer.
 
A couple of years ago my boy went on a feed trail. I gave the feed company all his information and they supplied the food with the amount to feed - more food than my boy ever got! After a week I contacted them and told them that his weight was already increasing, so they told me to reduce his feed by half. A week later I contacted them again and said that he was still increasing in weight. They told me to reduce the feed again and then said that I couldn't reduce any more as he wouldn't be getting the correct amount of minerals.

From this I realised that the original amount of food recommended was actually overfeeding 4x the amount of required vitamins and minerals. Encouraging overfeeding?
 
My two are good doers. One is a 14 yr old TB x Sec D and the other is a 3 yr old Sec D x Trad Cob. Neither of them are getting any hard feed yet just ad lib hay in the field as they live out. The 14 yr old is rugged in a MW but that is the only rug she will have on all winter even if it snows like it did last winter. The 3 yr old is naked and has a coat like a bear. Last winter the youngster got a scoop of Healthy Hooves to start with increased by 1/2 scoop over the whole winter with apples and carrots while the older one got a handful of HH and carrots and apples. They both came out of winter looking very good and about the right weight


I judge their weight and condition by eye and if they drop weight then they will get hard feed. I don't see the point in giving them something they don't need in order to line the feed company's pockets and empty my purse quicker than it already has the ability to do ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top