Feed for novice eventer?

L

Landmark97

Active Member
Joined
29 September 2015
Messages
31
Visit site
Hello all

I have just moved yards and am looking at an alternative to redmills pro fibre 10% protein. My horse is a TB type who needs a cereal free low starch diet and is lacking topline. He hasn't been working as hard recently because of event cancellations and broken limbs! However, his workload will increase as he will be competing most weekends...Tweseldown novice on 23rd.

So I have been looking at these two options...

Balancers: spillers and baileys
Would you feed something extra with it eg. conditioning cubes or sugarbeet? These balancers seem to have a very high protein level (25%). Can this increase the risk of tying up?
Complete feed: redmills competition 10%
It is more affordable and has a higher fibre content.

Is it worth paying more for the balancer?

Also I am confused, these feeds both say they are 'complete', yet they have different analytical constituents eg. different minerals...

Thank you for reading
 
If you need the calorie intake of a full feed I wouldn't opt for a balencer. That isn't what they are designed for. They are more for something on a forage only diet to ensure vit & mins intake. They are that high in protein because you only feed a very small amount.

If you need cereal free personally I'd go for Allen & Page - our eventers are on either Power & Performance or Cool & Collected - but Calm & Condition might also suit for you. Give their helpline a ring on Monday and they can discuss it with you.

Either way with an event this close I would stick with whatever you are using for now!
 
If you want a low starch but high calorie competition feed then look at either Dodson & Horrell ERS Pellets or Saracen Releve.
 
Thank you for all your replies, they have been very helpful. Having run out of pro-fibre 10 I had to switch onto horse care 10 which contains cereals including oats! However it has all sorts of digestive supplements (prebiotics, yeast and acid buff) which is good for him as he is prone to digestive upsets! Anyhow, this feed seems to be working at he is laid-back and focused in his work and was the best-behaved he has ever been at Tweseldown (finished on his dressage score of 33 in the novice) despite having almost 2 months off eventing! So, after lots of research...the most affordable I found feeds which seemed most suitable plus had the highest nutritional value were Baileys No.19 balancer and Redmills Horse Care 10. So, if I would need to feed something alongside the balancer what would you recommend? And should I be worried about the high cereal content especially if I increase the feed as he will be competing every 2 weeks or so and the fact that it contains oats (he seems to be good now but have had issues with him being 'fizzy' in the past)? Also it is slightly confusing as it sais on their website that it is ideal for horses sensitive to oat starch...

Thank you for reading!
 
The horse I had in for point to pointing was fed on the Horse care 10, as are all the horses in the top racing yard nearby, he looked fab on it with the only additions being a handful of chop and some linseed, if yours is doing well on it why not keep things simple, it is a complete feed so no need to give extra balancers or supplements, the cereal content is fairly high but if they are really working hard it should be fine, our horses feet remained good enough for him to have shoes straight off once he stopped racing and continue to be exercised barefoot.
 
I use the red mills horse care 14 (just higher protein) for a similar style low level eventing horse who is a poor doer, has weird allergy and tying up issues and I find it great. Baileys endurance mix also seemed to work for him. But he looks great on the red mills horsecare
 
Thank you be postitive and Paddi22. P2 what are the advantages of using the higher protein version? I am not sure how much of it to feed? He has 4 hours turnout a day, about 8 kilos of hay and some chaff...It sais on the packet about 4kg for light/medium work which seems an awful lots...He is worked 1 hour a day 6/7 days a week.
 
Are you sure it is 4kg, and not 4L (which would be just over 2 Stubbs scoops) a day?

8kg of hay for a horse in full work doesn't seem very much - my pony mare gets 6kg and she's on a diet!
 
On the pack it sais for moderate work 0.6kg to 1.0kg per 100kg of bodyweight. My horse is max 550kg, so that would make approx 4kg of feed which is actually a little less than 2 Stubbs scoops.
The hay amount is an approximation...probably 8 to 10 kg...he also has turnout.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top