Feeding Barley - How do you cook yours?...

Chloe_GHE

Chloe_GHE

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My instructor has suggested I try feeding my boys Barley, pop a cup in the slow cooker in the morning and then they can have a mug full added to their feed at night.

She said it is really good for fattening (much needed quality for slinky tbs!) and is also pretty cheep (also good feature as they recently ate a bag of Baileys No4 each last week!!!!!!!)

I know it's fairly unusual for peeps to feed straights theses days, so anyone feed Barley?... any stories to tell, horses go mad/itchy/colicy on it?....

Barley better than Linseed?... Advice needed really, have a slow cooker being given to me so just need to buy the grub and get cooking!!!!

Oh also massive thanks to the HHOer who suggested Zoflora to me, have blogged about it and my other 'money saving tip' on my blog see here - http://www.gifthorseeventing.co.uk/2010/12/false-economy-bad-smells.html

hot choc and thermal socks for all contributors :)
 
I'm rubbish at cooking so probably not the best person to advise!, I've never fed home cooked Barley, but it is very very good for adding condition and a shiny coat- quite a few years ago I used to feed my old SJ pony Oats and Barley Rings that you soak, when she was in hard work and it really did keep the condition on , she loved eating it and as you say, it is a cheaper way of feeding them too.

Some (but not all) horses can be allergic to barley- itchy lumpy skin/hives and can get swollen hind legs or they can get a bit over the top on it- I have one who I cannot feed barley too as he gets too sharp on it, you would just know if it wasn't suiting your horse or they were allergic to it.

Thats a really good idea though, to put it in the slow cooker!-
 
good and bad things to say about cooked barley!

the good - does put the weight on and is quite cheap, though (probably dont need to say this) watch it doesnt unbalance what you are already feeding

the bad - unfortunately it does tend to blow some of their brains a bit, i think people say to cook it to get rid of the starch but if you boil rice it still has the starch - not a good comparison - sorry think the snow has froze my brain we have just had another foot fall up here argh :mad:

my TB has got through a bag of conditioning cubes this week so know how you feel! I have a big bag of readi grass so have been giving him a bucket to munch overnight, though he is a grubber and the human equivilant of a person with hollow legs lol :D
will be interested to here others experiences.
 
I used to boil barley in the old days, but if I feed it now I just use micronised flaked barley - I can get it in 25kg sacks which work out really cost-effective. One of my old horses did use to get skin lumps when fed it, but others have been fine.

Linseed is probably better though, as low in starch, less likelihood of allergies, gives a fabulous shine and lots of good Omega 3s. (But again easier to buy ready micronised these days).
 
Another fan of Supa Barley Rings, when mine had to live out as stable build was delayed I gave them these and they looked super on them, did not hot up and it made me feel better soon as they were getting something warm :rolleyes: Sad I know, they probably didn't care if the food was hot or cold as long as there was plenty of it! :)
 
Does the micronised barley have the potential to hot up horses - I'd love my boy to be a bit less laid back - he's a v good doer so have to be careful how much he eats - he managed to put on weight despite being out in these temps just because he had a lot of haylage out in the field.

Oats do nothing to fizz him up. Have tried NAF energy which helped a little.
 
Yes you can do boiled barley in a slow cooker. Iam not a great fan of it and have never really bothered with it, only when I worked in hunting and boss insisted on it. I think it does nothing if you look at the horses' droppings the next day, they are full of it and it looks exactly the same as when it went in, so they dont even digest it.
There are far better and easier thing to feed to get weight on.
 
Hhhhmmm mixed responses.....

I'm using straights because have been advised that barley rings are not as good
Apparently it needs to be cooked all day so that it is fully broken down so that they can digest it all, and as a result you shouldn't see it in the droppings as it should be totally digested

Fingers crossed what everyone said about it being fattening works as Soap has a show champ in March and he looks more like a whippet than a show horse atm!!!!!

I hope they don't go loopy on it! eeeeeeke
 
I gave up boiling barley when the Steam flake variety came on the market . The smell the mess and the power it used really didn't save me much. MIne all get barley when I am feeding - which I don't often do these days. Fresh ground Linseed for the oils & Omegas.

For TB's it is great for plumping them up and I've not usually found thatit hypes them up - being out 24/7 generally keeps a TB sane and happy.
 
Soaked barley rings are great.

Used to feed them to my TB instead of sugar beet in the winter.

Current horse is a good doer, so doesn't get let within 100yds of a barley ring.
 
It is a rather old fashioned idea, to give boilded barley once a week to keep condition on. I can remember some hunt horses having trouble with internal fat from being fed too much boiled barley (I think they died) and don't hear about it much now.

I can remember having a large saucepan of boiling barley on the stove one day and I was going through a "healthy wholefood" diet at the time for he family. My OH came into the kitchen and saw this saucepan bubbling away and said "Oh no, that's not our dinner is it?" I eased off the wholefood after that, poor chap.
 
I used to boil barley but now use the mincronised flaked and barley rings with as much success and not nearly as much mess!

The Zoflora was my tip - nearly everyone in our indoor barn used it now - its brilliant isn't it!
 
Chloe_GHE said:
Hhhhmmm mixed responses.....

I'm using straights because have been advised that barley rings are not as good
Apparently it needs to be cooked all day so that it is fully broken down so that they can digest it all, and as a result you shouldn't see it in the droppings as it should be totally digested

Fingers crossed what everyone said about it being fattening works as Soap has a show champ in March and he looks more like a whippet than a show horse atm!!!!!

I hope they don't go loopy on it! eeeeeeke
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im trying not to hijack your post chloe but i have a slinky TB and he needs fattening up but i have to be really careful he gets illuminated on sugarbeet, so hes on firbre first a&P and calm and condition does anyone have any recomendations on feed to fatten,,,, but deffo not blow brains????????????
 
Argh just read that uncooked Linseed it poisonous! I didn't know that, think I may try Barley first because being on a livery yard you never know what might happen if people don't realise what the feed is etc....
 
Trigger was on barley over summer when YO was trying to fatten him up. It did bugger all apart from send him loopy.

Henry was fine on it when he was alive!
 
Chloe_GHE said:
Argh just read that uncooked Linseed it poisonous! I didn't know that, think I may try Barley first because being on a livery yard you never know what might happen if people don't realise what the feed is etc....
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You can buy micronised (ie precooked) linseed, if that is your worry. (Although the subject of whether uncooked linseed is poisonous is rather a hot potato - been lots of debates over it on t'internet.:cool:)
 
ORANGEHORSE said:
It is a rather old fashioned idea, to give boilded barley once a week to keep condition on. I can remember some hunt horses having trouble with internal fat from being fed too much boiled barley (I think they died) and don't hear about it much now.
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TBH, that is not a problem specific to barley itself. Any feed fed to excess can cause a horse to lay down too much fat, which can cause all sorts of problems (laminitis being one of them).
 
kez1001 said:
correct me if im wrong but does soya oil not have more energy than linseed??
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Any of the pure liquid vegetable-based oils (eg soya oil, linseed oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil) will have more calories (ie digestible energy) than whole linseed. However a lot of horses can be fussy about pure oil in their feed, so then high-oil feeds like whole linseed can be useful. Whole linseed also contains quite a bit of protein, which isn't present in pure oil.
 
Chloe_GHE said:
My instructor has suggested I try feeding my boys Barley, pop a cup in the slow cooker in the morning and then they can have a mug full added to their feed at night.

She said it is really good for fattening (much needed quality for slinky tbs!) and is also pretty cheep (also good feature as they recently ate a bag of Baileys No4 each last week!!!!!!!)

I know it's fairly unusual for peeps to feed straights theses days, so anyone feed Barley?... any stories to tell, horses go mad/itchy/colicy on it?....

Barley better than Linseed?... Advice needed really, have a slow cooker being given to me so just need to buy the grub and get cooking!!!!
Click to expand...

Old Person Alert! :D

Will keep it simple as don't want to get drawn into new-fangled vs old style feeding systems,;) - we feed all ours boiled barley and linseed from Opening Meet to the end of the hunting season. For 12 horses (yep, the Baydale eventers get it too, even though they don't hunt - didn't want to start a riot :rolleyes:) I soak a scoop of whole barley and 1/3 scoop linseed in the morning, put it on to cook at teatime and voila, it's done by morning and ready to be mixed into their evening feeds. It bulks up a lot so I'd say each gets about half a jug (3/4 pint) of the gooey soup-ey stuff.

Here endeth the post of an old-person-with-very-fat-and-shiny-ponies.:D
 
TGM said:
Any of the pure liquid vegetable-based oils (eg soya oil, linseed oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil) will have more calories (ie digestible energy) than whole linseed. However a lot of horses can be fussy about pure oil in their feed, so then high-oil feeds like whole linseed can be useful. Whole linseed also contains quite a bit of protein, which isn't present in pure oil.
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ah thank you :)

had a dumb bimbo moment there and thought OP was talking about linseed oil! feeding my boy soya oil at the moment and just wondered if i would be better swapping to linseed. Though as already mentioned he eats "like a horse" lol but is putting weight on slowly which i guess is good as he is full TB and it it minus 10 up here!
 
Got to say we have fed linseed and boiled barley glupe for years - never sent anything loopy and all looked well in their coats. It was especially good for fussy pointers who were racing. We haven't fed it to the rather rotund WBs they are resembling v shiny hippos already! :o

Right off to make my wisp and practice my thatching whilst making a few haynets from old bailer twine................old v old!:D

ETA Whatever you do don't let it boil over its a complete nightmare to clean up - turns to superglue like concrete substance
 
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help1 said:
Got to say we have fed linseed and boiled barley glupe for years - never sent anything loopy and all looked well in their coats. It was especially good for fussy pointers who were racing. We haven't fed it to the rather rotund WBs they are resembling v shiny hippos already! :o

Right off to make my wisp and practice my thatching whilst making a few haynets from old bailer twine................old v old!:D

ETA Whatever you do don't let it boil over its a complete nightmare to clean up - turns to superglue like concrete substance
Click to expand...

I was going to quote from the Manual of Horsemanship - "feed according to the work done" - it shouldn't send anything mental if it's getting enough work. I'd rather feed barley than sugar beet as I think it can make them stuffy and thick in their wind if they're doing fast work; don't know why that is, no doubt there are feed experts here that will tell me.

Just off to find more blankets to put under my jute rugs as it's parky out there tonight.;)
 
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