Feeding challenge - can you crack it??

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scotsmare

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My OH is going mental at the amount we're spending on hard feed and probably with good reason cos it's getting out of hand!

I will have 3 to feed at home this winter as my dressage horses are going to spend the winter at a yard as my school isn't finished
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The three that need fed are as follows:

3 yr old warmblood - unbacked, not working, loses condition easily and is prone to being excitable.

8 month old warmblood foal.

7 yr old welsh section b - generally a chubster!

Ideally, I want some commonality between the feeds where possible and would prefer something largely fibre based. I have some ideas about what I want to feed but am interested in others opinions!!

So, what do you suggest??
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All three on Simple Systems lucibix as a base feed. Can have up 1KG per 100kg body weight. All fibre and a long feed so digested slowly in the hind gut. Add in ground Linseed for condition, shine and as a natural anti inflammatory and brewers yeast as a feed balancer to all three. The 3 year old can have some blue label grass nuts as well to keep condition without excitability and can have increased amounts of the brewers yeast as it is a natural clmer. They can all have added in unmollased beet to add bulk without excitability should they need more feed.
 
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I can't recommend Suregrow enough - it is SO important to get the right nutrients into a weanling/young horse.

The name is misleading btw - it doesn't make the horse grow super fast - that's precisely what it doesn't do!
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or try the top spec range with a dengie fibre base - find the cool condition cubes really good and definately do what they say on the bag and maybe the leisure time or anti lam for the little one. Not sure if they do anything for young horses .
 
A balancer and a fibre-base would definitely seem the best bet for you. There are various things you could use for the fibre-base - Alfa A has already been mentioned, AlfaBeet or FibreBeet is also good, but you could use any alfafa product or even grass nuts or a dried grass product like Readigrass.

The advantage of feeding like this (as opposed to a 'complete food') is that you can reduce or increase the amount of the fibre base food given according to the condition of the horses, while the balancer ensures the supply of vit/mins remains the same. The little fatty won't probably need any base feed at all and can just be fed the balancer.

As your 3yo is prone to dropping weight, then ensure he has as much good quality hay or haylage as possible - this is a much cheaper source of fibre than any of the commercial fibre feeds designed to be fed from a bucket. If he is still struggling to maintain his weight, then giving a source of oil would be helpful - supermarket veg oil is the cheapest, but some people don't like it and prefer to give an oil-rich supplement such as Outshine or Equijewel, or use an oil containing feed such as Alfa A Oil.
 
winergy growth for your 3yo and 8mth old - helps them grow strongly and safely and will put condition on your 3yo without any sillines as its only 5% starch. winergy low for your section b - low calorie, low sugar, safe for chubbies and lmis.

both very high fibre, natural, complete so only two bags needed for all three horses and you could put them all on low in the summer when the grass comes through. can't recommend it enough as you can tell!
 
If you can't get simple systems - then you can simply buy the dengi alfalfa pellets, As to oil - then the linseed is the most easily digestable form of oil for horses and is fantastic for weight, coats etc.
 
Adlib haylage - esp for the 3yo

I would then use alfa oil, fibrebeet and suregrow as your base feeds.

Little welsh fatty I would give a mug of suregrow wet down with a little bit of fibre beet.

Foal I would give recommended rate of suregrow, with large handful of alfa oil and half scoop of soaked fibrebeet twice a day.

3yo I would give as much alpha oil and fibre beet as your wallet will allow combined with suregrow and possibly the linseed lozenges or equijewel

Suregrow is a great product, it is fine to feed to older horses at lower levels as a balancer (check the contents, not much difference to other feed balancers) and the benefit is that is is less than half the price of marketed balancers
 
Too late to edit my earlier post, but wanted to add that if you are feeding good quality haylage, you probably don't need the protein levels of balancer, and could feed a broad spectrum vit/min supplement instead, which would be cheaper.
 
Have you thought of Chestnut Horse Feeds? Its ment to be great stuff, and it all comes as a complete feed (I believe you can ask them to mix to your spec. but dont quote me on that!)
Other than that, what Mayflower has suggested sound good. Sorry, not much help!! x
 
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