Ethel has had her shoesies taken off, now feed ideas..

tonitot

tonitot

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Ethel has had her shoes taken off :) Now time for us to start the journey off barefootedness (I probably made that word up :p)

I'm still unsure about the best feed for her though so I'd be grateful for advice on this. So, she's a 4yo Thoroughbred, poor doer, currently not in work and on poor grazing ... Go!! :D
 
I think that ideally you should have started any dietary changes prior to the shoes being removed but as you may already be on a suitable diet this is what I would do.
Ad lib haylage, if the grazing is poor I would rather use than hay.
3 feeds minimum a day of low starch,low sugar feed, I use Fast Fibre but it may not give your horse enough calories to maintain weight, oil, linseed, plus vits and mins including magox and brewers yeast.

i would also make sure she was well rugged so not losing any condition keeping warm.
 
She is well rugged :) feels the cold easily so currently has two on. I made the desicion for her to go barefoot permanently a few days ago, the day after I bought her feed. Once I need to buy her more I'll change it :)

She gets fed alfa a oil, d&h build up mix, speedi beet and ad lib hay. I made another post about cheaper feeding and people recommended purefeeds and someone mentioned crushed barley, linseed, chaff and sugarbeet, would either of these diets still be suitable for a barefoot horse?
 
I have never used purefeeds so cannot help with that.
I would keep her on the speedibeet that is fine, chaff [low sugar one] linseed, oil , you may be ok with barley, it should be better than the build up mix. I would add the brewers yeast it really helps with digestion and means they get all the goodness out of the feed.

You may find that she does better anyway without all the sugars in her diet, they often just go through without contributing to weight gain or get burnt off by excessive exercise.
Several small feeds are better than 1 or 2 bigger ones for putting weight on.
 
Mulledwhine she doesn't seem to be doing that well weight wise on this diet so was looking to change anyway, now she's barefoot I may aswell feed her something that will do her feet good too :)

So a diet of crushed barley, sugarbeet, chaff, linseed (would micronized be better or is it the same?) and oil with brewers yeast and mag ox added would be suitable? Can you get brewers yeast and linseed from a normal feed shop?
 
MrsD123 I have tried to search the other threads but I find it much easier to do my own. I don't know if I put the right words in but I can't seem to find a post that matches mine exactly. Plus with the amount of questions that pop into my head it makes sense to do my own :)
 
A bump with some more questions :p

1. Can you buy linseed, brewers yeast and mag ox from a feed shop?
2. What is the best linseed? Micronized? Ground? Or are they the same?
3. How much linseed and brewers yeast to you give per feed?
4. Do you have to boil crushed barley? Read somewhere about it being boiled but unsure if it's necessary :)

Thanks!
 
tonitot said:
A bump with some more questions :p

1. Can you buy linseed, brewers yeast and mag ox from a feed shop?
2. What is the best linseed? Micronized? Ground? Or are they the same?
3. How much linseed and brewers yeast to you give per feed?
4. Do you have to boil crushed barley? Read somewhere about it being boiled but unsure if it's necessary :)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi
I feed my TB speedibeet, which is the unmolassed beet with readigrass and add magox, brewers yeast and micronised linseed. She is doing very well off that. However Rowan Barbary have just brought out a new feed called "Solutions Mash" - it's less than 1% sugar, 4.75% starch and 26% fibre. It has no cereals or alfa in. It might be worth having a look at that.
I buy my magox from online - I get it from naturalhorsesupplies.
I use micronised linseed - I think I get it from Pegasus Health, but I can't remember exactly
I give about half a mug of the linseed per day and I only give about a tablespoon of brewers yeast.
Dont' know about the barley - I don't use it.
 
Hi

Just search "barefoot" and its bound to come up with a whole load of posts, its been hot topic recently. You will find a whole load of great advice, from diet to trimmers, good luck
 
Holly Hocks, thanks :) where do you get brewers yeast from? I'll have a look at Solutions Mash and see what it's like.

TheCurlyPony, thanks will do that and see what comes up :)
 
Why is going without shoes such a hot topic?

I just took my boys shoes off, never even entered my head that diet and management should be changed !!!

Perhaps I was lucky, abc yes when he was still with us :( we did not have much road work, but I am willing to understand why such things like feed have to be changed,

And perhaps why I got away with doing nothing more than taking his shoes off!!

Even the new pony has them off, and is doing just fine!
 
I feed my barefoot tb unmolassed sugarbeet, Coolstance copra and linseed.
Copra is great for condition and I know a few barefoot people feeding it with no problem.

He then gets brewers yeast and minerals (including magox) balanced to his pasture.

I think Progressive horse on ebay do a good all round supplement if you don't have an analysis of your pasture.

Equimins are good pricewise for the mag ox and brewers yeast until you decide you want to buy bigger quantities but you have to ring them to get this price list, it's not on their website.

Most feed shops will order in the linseed for you from Charnwood who also do big sacks of brewers yeast.
 
mulledwhine said:
Why is going without shoes such a hot topic?

I just took my boys shoes off, never even entered my head that diet and management should be changed !!!

Perhaps I was lucky, abc yes when he was still with us :( we did not have much road work, but I am willing to understand why such things like feed have to be changed,

And perhaps why I got away with doing nothing more than taking his shoes off!!

Even the new pony has them off, and is doing just fine!
Click to expand...

Any "new" management technique is a hot topic as it gathers interest.

You were lucky to have a horse that managed so well without a change in diet, I think so many owners of barefoot horses have got there as a last resort because of other problems and they actually have horses that are metabolically challenged which could have played a part in the initial problem too.
Not having much roadwork can actually be counter productive for barefoot horses, roads are a great surface for stimulating the feet.

OP - low sugar is always best, that may mean restricting grazing too!
Speedi-beet or fast fibre are a good base, micronised linseed (try Charnwood Mills) is great for condition and copra (google cool stance) often suits TB types too as it adds weight but doesn't hot them up.
Brewers yeast and mag ox are usually cheapest on ebay unless you're buying bulk.
I'm not a fan of barley, I've always found it causes more problems than it solves, I do quite like soaked whole oats - whole oats have a higher fibre content than most other cereals and soaking them makes them a living enzyme which makes them easier to digest.

Try posting on UKNHCP too for advice. :)
 
Bran alters the mineral balance and makes the horn separate into layers. Bare foot may well be best for your horse but just make sure you use someone who knows how to trim properly.
 
tonitot said:
Farrier69, thanks for the warning :) how does bran ruin their feet?
Click to expand...

It contains too much potassium and not enough calcium and the potassium also latches onto the receptors for calcium that you might be giving in other feeds, preventing it from being absorbed.

It can cause tying up and "bran head disease" where the bones soften due to too little calcium and the head swells!

Bran serves no useful purpose in a horse diet these days ,since milling got so "good" that all the calcium is removed.
 
Thanks guys, wont be feeding bran then. Right, for a new diet idea, would Coolstance Copra, Chaff, Linseed, Mag Ox and Brewer Yeast be a good diet? Would sugarbeet still be needed or can it go?
 
Personally I made the decision to go for unmolassed sugarbeet instead of the chaff.

Most Chaffs are a mixture of straw and alfalfa in varying proportions with a coating,
Some barefoot horses don't do well on alfalfa and straw is just a filler really.
Then you have to be careful of the sugars alot of them are coated in.
Straight straw chaffs are good if you have a good doer and you want a really low calorie carrier for supplements but it doesn't sound like that applies here.
I have fed alfalfa with no problems but i used the pellets which have additives at all and at the moment I don't need it and want to keep the feeds simpler.

BTW the Copra is a bit more expensive but a little goes a long way. I only feed about a 1/3 of a stubbs scoop split between 2 feeds a day and it swells right up once you add 3x water.
 
Both of my horses are barefoot (one an arab, and one a high % of TB). Both just have haylage at night and grazing is very good quality where there at, so they just have a balancer to ensure they get all the things they need. Both have extremly good and hard feet.

I prefer for them to have as natural and simple a diet as possible. :)
 
mulledwhine said:
Why is going without shoes such a hot topic?

I just took my boys shoes off, never even entered my head that diet and management should be changed !!!

Perhaps I was lucky, abc yes when he was still with us :( we did not have much road work, but I am willing to understand why such things like feed have to be changed,

And perhaps why I got away with doing nothing more than taking his shoes off!!

Even the new pony has them off, and is doing just fine!
Click to expand...
Yes you are lucky, and maybe not doing much roadwork, or riding off road, the reason for changing the feed is that we have to feed the feet, which are now the barometer of the horse, that is to say, the shoes masked many problems which an owner may now have to face.
When we remove shoes most horses have to transition, at least until the hoof has grown past the nail holes, and they often chip in the first month, so need rasping round the edges.
We know that biotin and linseed are good for horn and skin, so most will feed these, as we now need the hoof to grow at a rate to compensate for wear.
In an ideal world after the feet have been barefoot for a few months they will be stronger, the frogs will be more natural and the heels more "impressive", the sole should also show concavity and be less sensitive. The white line should "tighten up".
Some horses have such a good hoof and are not sugar sensitive, their owners have no problems, but when we start the barefoot regime we don't know how it will progress.
Cereals and other starches and sugars [grass and concentrates], will often lead to footiiness, as they tend to stimulate the lamellae in the hoof [cf laminitis].
Magnesium is also used to counteract footiness, it is often in short supply in the UK anyway, and is needed for all sorts of metabolic processes.
The reason taking shoes off is such a hot topic is that the barefooters and the anti-barefooters are polarised, a new kind of sectarian divide.
 
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