Feed advice for a poor doer wanting to go barefoot

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DHB00

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Hi Folks
I have 13 year old tb who is an absolute sod to keep his weight on. I would like to take him fully barefoot this year (had his backs taken off last year).
He is a bit of a stress head and weaves in his stable and field :rolleyes:

I had an email off the simple feeds people who suggested feeds which would cost me a fortune per month.

He is currently on Alfa A chaff
a glug of linseed oil (only been on it a week)
Speedibeat
and conditioning cubes.

he is in at night with 2 nets of haylage
and given a couple of slices of hay out in the field during the day

His feet are pretty pants to be honest.

Is there a more natural feed regeime I could feed him which would help with the crappy hooves and put a little weight on him.??

Thanks in Advance
:)
 
My WB who isn't the best do-er (but he's been living out since Nov as he's at Rockley) but has put weight on eating the following:
1kg Speedibeet
1kg Alfa pellets
1kg Copra meal
1kg Oats
Linseed

Plus sups split over 2 feeds.
 
Is there grass in the field if he only gets two slices? I'd want him on adlib hay all the time.

My mare is getting fast fibre, speedi beet and micronised linseed. She is not a poor doer but has not got a very big appetite. She has put on weight since having this. She is 14.1 and gets per day (dry weight) 750g fast fibre, 500g speedi beet 600g micronised linseed. This is split into two feeds. Adlib hay. She will not eat any more than this which is exceedingly frustrating!
 
My tb is a typical poor doer, who has been barefoot for 5 years now. I try to keep the sugar content of his diet down. He is fed a scoop of alpha beet, 1 scoop of conditioning nuts, and a scoop of chaff. He is fed adlib hay. This works for him and he keeps his weight on and shoes off.
 
Ad lib forage but for hoof health it needs to be low sugar forage. Late cut meadow hay,soaked.
For extra feed you could try fast fibre,micronised linseed,copra and oats if needed.

My warmblood was a skinny stresshead. He has not needed hard feed this winter because he always has hay available. I think he may have gone for long periods without forage as a youngster(as do many TBs) and the worry this caused lead to more weight loss despite my efforts with conditioning feeds.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Is there grass in the field if he only gets two slices? I'd want him on adlib hay all the time.

My mare is getting fast fibre, speedi beet and micronised linseed. She is not a poor doer but has not got a very big appetite. She has put on weight since having this. She is 14.1 and gets per day (dry weight) 750g fast fibre, 500g speedi beet 600g micronised linseed. This is split into two feeds. Adlib hay. She will not eat any more than this which is exceedingly frustrating!
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two slices doesnt sound much but they are big bales so large slices takes him the day to much through them
 
Sounds like my tb used to be. Best advice J got was to fax no cereals or alfalfa. He has two feeds a day of 1 scoop of kwikbeet (lowest sugar) and 1 mug of micronised linseed. He also has Progressive Earth's pro hoof and yeasacc. He has ad lib hay and is turned out on a regime mindful of sugar levels in the grass.

He is in amazing condition now. Holds a good weight, has a glossy cost and amazing feet. For him cutting out alfalfa was very iimportant
 
I would be tempted to try an anti-acid supplement for a month or two as he is stressy. Protexin acid-ease as worked well with my mare.
Otherwise, or for something more long term, you could try adding magox and yea-sacc (probiotic). I add a spoon of limestone flour as well in my mare's tea if I know she might be a bit stressed because of transport or competition.
You could possibly replace the linseed oil by full fat micronised linseed.
 
My guy is serial poor doer got on going treatment with vet atm. I changed him to pure feeds a month ago and I have had him on linseed for 2 weeks now and this is how he is looking:

From this:
collageweek1.jpg


To this:
collageweek4.jpg


Cannot rate it enough!
 
FfionWinnie said:
How palatable is the copra meal?
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I've found it very palatable. Well the horses have. :D It smells scrumptious especially when soaked with warm water.

I'd also switch the linseed oil to micronised when you've used the oil. It contains omega oils etc. the oil loses unless it's cold pressed.

With my tb getting a low sugar forage was an important part of her hooves improving. I have to soak hay but there are other options such as a good quality, well made haylage. A good balancer and gut support (yea sacc??) too will help.
 
amandap said:
I've found it very palatable. Well the horses have. :D It smells scrumptious especially when soaked with warm water.

I'd also switch the linseed oil to micronised when you've used the oil. It contains omega oils etc. the oil loses unless it's cold pressed.

With my tb getting a low sugar forage was an important part of her hooves improving. I have to soak hay but there are other options such as a good quality, well made haylage. A good balancer and gut support (yea sacc??) too will help.
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Thanks. May try her on that too then. She is on micronised linseed, has been for about three weeks, oil prior to that.
 
I've got a tb that is a reasonable doer but lives and a selle francais that need a bit more to keep weight on.

Both get in varying quantities depending on work, time of year and condition

Speedibeet (or other unmolassed sugarbeet)
Copra
Micronised Linseed
Minerals (pro hoof or forage plus winter balancer are good premixed options)
Brewers Yeast (or yea sacc)

When I have fed Alfalfa, I've fed the Dengie pellets as they have less added to them but they don't need anything else at the moment.
 
My poor doer is looking better than ever on her barefoot diet, far less ribby than she did on conditioning feeds. She gets Speedibeet, micronised linseed, pro-hoof (which contains yea sacc as well as vits and mins), extra magnesium, and salt. If she starts to drop I increase the linseed and speedibeet. She also has as much haylage as a small elephant can eat.
 
The problem I had with my mare I'd that by the time the speedibeet and copra had been soaked they were 3x the volume. This made for absolutely huge feeds and she would leave most of it. She's not a particularly poor doer but soon started dropping weight. I upped the linseed meal and added oil to try to get her right but she still wouldn't eat up. I ended up back on conditioning cubes to get the weight on in a way that I knew worked before she got too poor. I'll reassess diet once the weight is right but am loathe to go back to the hoof friendly diet and risk weight loss. She's been barefoot for about 5mths and doing well enough but still has quite flat feet which a better diet might be key to - if only I can find a low volume, conditioning, non sloppy, non powdery feed with crunchy cubes in that is also barefoot friendly!
 
I think splitting feeds to two three and four a day is helpful if you can do it time wise. The ad lib low sugar forage is the best way for my mare tbh. Now she doesn't need anything extra except minerals and vitamins and linseed in a token amount of speedibeet and holds her weight very well, even gaining a bit too much last summer on soaked hay and no grass. lol
 
unicorndreams said:
The problem I had with my mare I'd that by the time the speedibeet and copra had been soaked they were 3x the volume. This made for absolutely huge feeds and she would leave most of it. She's not a particularly poor doer but soon started dropping weight. I upped the linseed meal and added oil to try to get her right but she still wouldn't eat up. I ended up back on conditioning cubes to get the weight on in a way that I knew worked before she got too poor. I'll reassess diet once the weight is right but am loathe to go back to the hoof friendly diet and risk weight loss. She's been barefoot for about 5mths and doing well enough but still has quite flat feet which a better diet might be key to - if only I can find a low volume, conditioning, non sloppy, non powdery feed with crunchy cubes in that is also barefoot friendly!
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I think there are some cubes that some barefooters use to encourage horses to eat up. I think it might be spillers high fibre codes but check with oberon.

I don't give a massive volume of speedibeet to mine, just one scoop of soaked beet in each feed (two a day) if she is lookng a bit poor I increase the micronised linseed. You can feed up to 500g a day.

I also make the speedibeet up on the dry side as mine won't eat "slop", it is properly soked but I drain off any excess liquid and aim to have it the consistency of cous cous rather than rice pudding.

I think the yeasacc and lots of forage is key too. You could also consider doing three or four feeds a day, there is no point giving huge feeds, better to give several smaller ones. If you could get someone to put a feed in at lunchtime that would probably help.
 
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