Fed Up - Feed for a picky horse

[MagicMelon]

Thought Id found the perfect feed but picky horse has gone off it. He seems to like new feed for about 3 months, then goes off it and will rarely finish a feed.

What are peoples recommendations for a TB type horse who holds condition, but could do with more! (he looks like an eventer basically!). He also needs something which gives decent energy for eventing. And of course, I want to make sure he's getting all the right vits & mins.

I was thinking of going back to my original sugar beet, chaff, conditioning cubes of some type and a balancer (amount would obviously need to be worked out to work alongside the other feeds). I thought I could change the chaff to something similar time-about to keep his interest? Ive thought about trying mint etc. but I know he'd like it to begin with but go off it as usual. AGHHHH!

 

[K_T]

The chaff I use is Fibergy which is alfalfa/straw mix with some mint added, my horse loves it and it has a MJ/DE of 9.5 because of the high oil content of 7.4%, I feed this with speedibeet, grass nuts and BOSS - delicious!!

 

[buzzles]

My pony is like that, he likes feed for a while and then goes off it, he's just decided he doesn't like his senior mix anymore so is now on topline mix. He doesn't like nuts and will spend ages eating so he picks out all the nice bits and leaves all the nuts in the bucket, he also doesn't like oats which is a pain because he definitely needs them to give him some energy. To give him an energy boost I used to give him glucose during the comp season. I now just change his food when he's fed up with it or else add something to give it a different flavor like honey, apple juice, sugar, garlic or chaff. It is a pain though esp when they need condition and energy, balancers are good as you don't need to feed a huge amount of them and oils, like linseed, are a good source of energy.

 

[air78]

Balanced horsefeeds show mix might do the trick. It's very palateble (sp) and is fully 'balanced'. It helps with condition, and for extra energy, if you need it, I've fed it with extra oil or oats for some fizz.

 

[passie]

I had a pony once who would only eat her food if you put Ribena in it! Very strange, but it worked. Not sure about the nutritional value though!

 

[Scarlett1980]

SPILLERS mollasses free mix has fenugreek added which is the flavour they found horses most liked in that study they showed on BBC news a while ago.

might be worth a try?

or you could call their care line and see what they recommend.

 

[Scarlett1980]

just had another thought!! SPILLERS conditioning mix and cubes have exactly the same values so you could swap between the two without it upsetting his digestive system or making him fizzy.

Then you could also just change the brand of chaff you buy each time to keep it varied.

you wouldn't need the balancer with SPILLERS feeds either so that should save you a few £'s

 

[MagicMelon]

Thanks everyone - will definately look into everything you've recommended. Bloody horse, why wont he just eat!! Although saying that, yesterday I split his feed up so I put his mix in one bucket on its own and his soaked stuff in the other, and offered him both. He has so far eaten the soaked stuff first (and all of it) and MOST of the mix (ie. more than usual). So Im wondering if he just likes his feed split up!!! Need to change his feed still anyway though as its too damn expensive!

 

[Scarlett1980]

Oooh, that's wierd. I spoke to someone yesterday who said her horse had a phobia about it's feed touching each other - like some budgies do apparently. she puts each component in a different bucket.

I just thought she was a bit odd but maybe there is something in it!

 

[MagicMelon]

Yeah, it is a little weird. Im still doing it now whilst slowly changing his feed. He seems to prefer it and as long as he eats it, I dont care! Im a bit like that, I hate my food touching each other too......... so I can understand a bit!

 

[buzzles]

Not that strange, my pony doesn't like beet pulp because he takes so long to eat that the mix goes all soggy and then he won't finish it, so he also gets wet food fed seperately from his dry mix!! Also he prefers 3 or 4 small feeds insted of 2 big ones, I think he's intimidated by a big bucket of food!!