Feed advice please!

[littlen]

Hi,

I have a gelding who at the moment is fed nothing due to a large grass belly.

In winter my grazing is very poor, and he will i suspect need some form of hard feed, although I havnt had him long and dont know how he will fare (he is however an arab and his previous owner said he did drop condition in winter previously) I dont want to put weight on him, but rather maintain his condition. I also want a feed that will improve his general health if possible.

I was looking at Spillers happy hoof, or Hi-fi light as the main bulk, as both seem to be low calorie. Which is best?
Im leaning towards happy hoof i think as It sounds better.

So if i was to feed happy hoof what would i feed with it.
Someone said i wasnt allowed to feed speedibeet with happy hoof, why is this?
Why would i need to feed speedibeet? is it neccessary to a good diet (someone said it is essential in a feed) Does anyone not feed speedi or sugerbeet?
If so what do you put in your feed instead?

What sort of balancer would i need to feed along with this type of diet?

Ideally i was thinking happy hood, with a balancer (any reccomendations??) but then im worried this still may not be enough!

Can someone please shed some light on this

 

[Birker2020]

First of all Speedibeet is 97% unmolassed sugar beet. Sugar beet is very useful to feed horses as it produces slow release energy. It is also a good way of feeding fibre. Look at feeding fibre as you would feed coals on your open fire. Fibre helps to keep a horse warm in winter. That's not to say you can't feed it all year round but most people choose to feed it in winter. In fact when I first had my horse we had a fantastically hot summer (hard to believe i know!) and I used to take speedibeet with me, dilute it in water and give the water to him to drink to rehydrate him when tied to the trailer all day long at shows. Horses tend to like speedibeet water. Secondly there is no reason why you can't give speedibeet or anyother beet to horses and chaff also at the same time. I refer to speedibeet as it is easier to feed, a little goes a really long way, and it only requires soaking for five mins in hot water and is it ten or fifteen minutes in cold, wheras a lot of other beets require 24 hours as sugar beet swells in the horses stomach if fed not soaked enough. My particular horse won't touch hi fibre light, he snorts at it and refuses to eat it - very peculiar so I give him apple chaff. As for a feed balancer you can't go wrong if you feed Pink Powder. At circa £15.00 a tub you will find this will last you many weeks, and is a feed balancer in its most simplistic form. Pink Powder contains live probiotic yeast and prebiotics to optimise gut function and balance the diet, allowing your horse to fully utilize his feed intake and cut your feed bills costs. Your horse should be fed more than grass if he is in work although you don't state this is your post. A horse cannot really work adequately off grass and he will need some form of supplementation i.e vitamins/minerals (which can be given in powder form or hard feed form). Just because he has a grass belly does not mean he is over weight, so many people believe this to be the case, but this is a common misconception. A grass belly is a buildup of fluid and fermentation gas in the hindgut of the horse, caused by a high-fibre diet such as grass or hay. It’s not a sign of poor health or being overweight but it can be hard to get rid of, if your horse is out all the time at grass. Instead why not bring him in for part of the day and feed him soaked hay and buy him some cool mix or something suitable. The best thing to do in all honesty is to decide which food manufacturer you wish to go with, ie. Dengie, Allen & Page, D&H, etc and ring their nutritionalists and discuss with them. Dengie to an Alfa Beet which is Alf alfa (chaff) with sugar beet in it.

 

[littlen]

Fantastic thankyou applecart!

I was thinking something along the lines of happy hoof, speedibeet, and a balancer, how does that sound?

I was recomended pink powder and baileys low cal so will certainly look into these certainly.
I am unsure why people said you couldnt feed happy hoof and beet together, but i thought it would be best to ask incase there is a reason behind it!

At the moment he is in very light work, hacking or schooling twice a week since he is coming back into work this summer, but I hope to up the work levels once he is fit and hope to ride 3-4 times a week in winter.

He is currently out 24/7 hence the grass belly, but i do not feel he is overweight. I can feel all ribs and he has no fat pockets etc. I have tried bringing him in, but I havnt worried about the grass belly as much as I know it will reduce come September when he is in at night again, hence why i am trying to find a feed that will work for him as once he is back in at night he will have less forage therfore will need something to keep him going over winter.

 

[angiebaby]

A low sugar chaff; ie Happy Hoof, Dengie Hi Fi Lite, Good Doer, or D & H Fibergy, a balancer and Speedi-beet ( or D & H Kwikbeet) sounds like a good plan!

Exactly what I feed my three natives; although Ben who is an 18 year old welsh x Arab gets a scoop of D & H Pasture mix too as he is ridden 4/5 times a week.

 

[JenTaz]

I feed my horse dodsen and horrel safe and sound as it is an all in one feed but he gets competition mix along with it over the summer or pasture mix over the winter and some speedi beet he loves it and he gets ridden every day i wouldnt bother with baileys low cal balancer its about £20 a bag if not more which i thought was ridiculous for a bag of feed that was recoomended to last you two weeks :O

 

[Guinness]

Have to say our Arabs at work are all very good doers, they live out 24/7 (with ad lib haylage in winter) with no feed and still fat as pigs! If you feed happyhoof you wont need a balancer as I think it contains all the vits and mins your horse needs.

 

[spookypony]

If I were you, I'd wait and see how he does before starting to add hard feed. Mine lives out 24/7 with ad-lib hay in winter, and has no difficulty whatsoever with his workload. If he needed extra supplements or feed, I wouldn't hesitate to feed them, but if I had fed them from the start, I would never have found out that he doesn't need them. Will yours be getting ad-lib hay in the winter?

 

[Birker2020]

Just out of interest do you know that a magnesium deficiency can cause spookiness in a horse? Just thought as your user name is spookypony you might like to know that. Might be a shot in the dark but there is a lot of evidence to back that up - if you google magnesium deficiency symptoms in horse you will find that all the sites mention spookiness/nervousness in the horse can be put down to a magnesium deficiency

xx

 

[TGM]

The most important thing in the winter is to ensure your horse has plenty of hay or haylage, preferably adlib. If this is the case, then if your horse is a good doer you may find he maintains condition on this alone. I would suggest you weigh tape once a week to work out whether he is losing, maintaining or gaining weight. If he is maintains weight on adlib hay/haylage alone, then if you are worried about vit/min intake then you might like to feed a balancer or vit/min supplement instead. A supplement works out cheaper, but doesn't contain the protein and probiotics that a balancer will. A balancer would be particularly useful if the protein content of your hay is low, if you feed haylage instead the protein content is usually higher and you may find only a supplement is necessary.

If you find he is losing weight then you will need to give additional bucket feed. You can either opt for a commercial cube/mix, or combine a balancer or supplement with straights such as alfalfa, beet, grass products or perhaps oats or barley if they suit your horse.

The amount of condition that a feed will put on your horse depends on its calorie count which is expressed in MJDE/kg which you should be able to find on the bag or on the manufacturer's website. The higher the number, the more fattening the feed, so take this into account when assessing products.

 

[TGM]

[ QUOTE ]
If you feed happyhoof you wont need a balancer as I think it contains all the vits and mins your horse needs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Happy Hoof does contain vit/mins but does need to be fed at approx the recommended rate to supply the full intake - recommended amount for a 15hh cob is 3kg a day, so a handful of Happy Hoof won't actually make any significant difference to the horse's vit/min intake! So if you are worried about vit/mins then either feed near the recommended amount OR feed a supplement or balancer alongside it. If you feed half the recommended amount of Happy Hoof, then in theory you should feed half the recommended amount of balancer or supplement.