feed advice please!

[frb]

Need your help and advice please guys! Getting myself in a pickle...Right, got a new horse three weeks ago. 12yo part welsh/part arab (we think) 15.1 gelding. Done a lot of jumping in previous home. Now will be doing dressage/hacking etc. Needs to learn to go forward off my leg, but has had a lot of work done on his teeth. Goes nicely but needs a bit more of an engine, and is a bit weak behind and needs a lot more topline. I have put him on hi-fi and calm and condition, but the c and c has made him go super spooky, which is very unlike him.So...I need a completely non heating feed that will add topline. Have been warned off balancers and speedi beet as have been told sends some loopy. What about baileys lo-cal? Heard this has got barley in it? Advice please! He lives out at the mo and is on two haynets a day.Thank you, getting seriuosly stressed!

 

[TGM]

Calm & Condition does make some horses spooky because although it is advertised as oat and barley free, it does contain maize. You could try Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes which are grain free and supply calories from fibre and oil.

Alternatively, you could try a balancer - Top Spec is low in starch and so is Bailey's Lo Cal (which does not contain barley). You will probably need to feed something alongside to add extra calories, options are beet, grass or alfalfa products.

At the end of the day, you will always find someone who says that a certain feedstuff heated their animal up, but you can only find out for certain by trying it on your horse. But as a general rule, the lower in sugar and starch the feed, the less likely it is to have a spooky effect.

 

[Shay]

Both Balenced horse feeds and simple systems do a cereal free type feed as well.

These days pretty much every major manufacturer does every type of feed. I would suggest you pick a make you like or get on with - or can get easily - and phone thier help line.

Personally I tend to use Baileys. But that is just because I always have. Not the same feed each time - but the same make. I know people who's views I respect who swear by Dobson & Horrell, or Simple Systems. Or Balanced. Or Spillers........