Feeding choices for skinny silly tb! (Sorry probs 1 of many!)

[ClumsyPonyPF]

Okay so thinking of changing my boys feed. Hes 16.2hh tb, really hard to get weight on, and is v stressy/ silly.

These I think I have narrowed it down to and would love peoples experiences on using them...

TopSpec Cool Condition Cubes - heard fab reviews until a friend said they blew their horses brains?!
Baileys No 4 - Never used but heard good things, anyone had a horse fizz up on them?!

Balancers.
Topspec Joint Balancer - help his joints and feet as well as over all condition etc but worried after what I heard this might make him more silly too?
Baileys Outshine - a couple of friends have used this and said its fab?
Blue Chip!

So basically would just love peoples experiences with these feeds, I understand every horse digests things differently but just like to know.
Thanks in advance!

 

[EffyCorsten]

I don't use any of those really, blue chip original is pretty fab but I really like spillers conditioning cubes, decent results and no fizzyness. I swear by alfa a and add a little extra oil. With speady beet.

 

[paddi22]

i've a stressy exracer and i experimented with tons of foods! eventually settled on

baileys Alfa plus oil chaff
baileys low cal balancer
baileys outshine
cocosoya oil as well but i could prob drop this as the outshine seems to do the job!

my lad seems to work best on low sugar, low starch feed, it takes the edge of him. any suagery starchy food and he turns into a nervous, stressy wreck!

 

[ellie11987]

I don't feed any of them as they are high in sugar and starch which isn't very good for their brains or hooves! Mine gets 1 scoop speedibeet, 1.5 scoops whole soaked oats, 2 mugs micronised linseed and a general min/vit supp. And as much haylage as she can eat - around 4 large nets a day she is offered. She is positively blooming for the first winter since I've had her!

 

[Pigeon]

Micronised linseed is meant to be really good.

Mine bizarrely is on the chubby side at the moment - just having pony nuts and hay. He is out on loads of grass. Last winter when the weather was worse he had Competition Mix and Alfa-A and looked fab and moved amazingly but it was like riding an unexploded bomb. Before that he had Allen and Page calm and condition and it did nothing. So not really sussed feed with him yet. Individual horses respond differently to different things so to an extent it's trial and error.

 

[fatponee]

My TB gets Bailey's No. 4 during the winter months, mixed with Healthy Tummy and plenty of haylage. I've tried other feeds but always go back to the Bailey's.

 

[ClumsyPonyPF]

I can't feed Haylage.
Trouble I am finding is I don't want him to have high starch/high sugar, and the companies say these feeds aren't high levels, but don't provide actual amounts! Mind you atm he is on low Starch/Sugar and It doesnt seem to make much difference to his behaviour!
He's already on Alfa A Oil.
I would really like to just make his feed simple, as now I feel it has got too complicated

 

[Captain Bridget]

I started a thread very similar to this a couple of days ago and got loads of brilliant advice, I've decided on whole soaked oats, linseed, speedibeet and a bit of alfa a. With pro balance as the balancer.

Good luck finding something suitable! I've trawled through so many things but decided on this starting point as it's simple and you know what's in it!

 

[shampain]

Another one who had issues with a skinny TB and after trying numerous different feeds found that Topspec Cool Condition Cubes, Alfa A Oil and Allen & Page Calm & Condition (purely because she refused to eat speedibeet), with Topspec Comprehensive balancer finally got condition onto her. And I can safely say that this didn't turn her nutty at all (she wasn't incredibly sharp, however was very sensitive to alterations & could be very anxious). Needless to say she was given as much hay as she'd eat. It was, however, a very expensive diet, primarily due to the cost of the balancer.

 

[paddi22]

forgot to say i also tried simple systems and loved them, but getting hold of it was too difficult so had to switch!

 

[mudmonkey17]

I use topspec cool condition cubes and the joint balancer on my mare and can't say that they have made her any more fizzy. She is. Spooky ex racer so careful what I feed her. She has the Allen and page veteran vitality, topspec chaff, cubes and balancer and micronised linseed

 

[maccachic]

Mine was on alfalfa chaff whole oats and a good vit / min best thing I found for him and I tried a lot of different things.

 

[Jayzee]

I found the best combination of feeds for my skinny minnie was: hi fibre chaff- senior, baileys no.4 conditioning cubes, micronised linseed and the best by far was the barley rings which really improved her condition tenfold.

 

[Aeia]

Look up coolstance copra.its very low in starch and sugar but good for building up horses. Had mine on a mud of that and fast fibre.

 

[Holly Hocks]

I've tried loads of feed with my TB. Calm and condition - did not calm and did not condition. Rowan and Barbary readymash extra - fantastic results - totally amazing, but then put too much weight on her! Fast Fibre - wouldn't eat it. Alfalfa - wont' eat it. Pure Easy from the Pure Feed company - great stuff but she went off that too. The only thing that I can give her that she will eat, keep weight on and not go silly on is Spillers high fibre cubes with micronised linseed! She loves this and along with ad lib hay is looking good.

 

[putasocinit]

And when you find the right feed to suit him which doesnt have to be a kixture of all sorts of different feeds, simly a chaff and outshine, or a chaff and conditioning mix, but feed enough he is a tb, he is young, he is underweight you want to put on weight not just maintain it. A stubbs scoop of chaff is only 300g so you need 3.1/4 scoops to make a kg. i think the basic quantites are like 4kgs a day to get the right nutrition. Remember feed companies have been testing and studying nutrition for years and have worked out the quantities required otherwise they wouldnt put it on the feed bags.

 

[springgrass]

Another vote for baileys no:4. I have a 16.1 TB and he does very well on it as well as mollichaff original and speedy beet (nearly whole scoop of each twice a day).
The baileys outshine is expensive but really whacked the condition on him. I don't find this combo blows his brains at all.
I'm not replacing the outshine though, far too expensive...considering something like codlivine instead.
He's also on ad-lib hayledge and usually gets through 2 big nets a night. Our winter grazing is poor but he's out daily. May need to change it all soon as this will be his first year living mostly out in fab summer grazing come may/June. Will be interesting to see how much I can cut his hard feed, if at all!

 

[paddi22]

baileys endurance mix seems to be the same as the no. 4 plus it has outshine included. might be a handier option.

 

[JCW]

I feed my horse top spec comprehensive balancer and their cool conditioning cubes along with speedi beet alpha a oil and micronised linseed. He is not a good doer and can be sharp. I have not found this combination makes him hotheaded at all however he has gained weight this winter and at one point I ceased the cool conditioning cubes.

He also has adlib hay. This combination has worked well for him however I am considering switching the balancer to a forage plus or prohoof balancer as he has recently gone barefoot and these balancers are recommended a lot on this forum.

 

[claracanter]

My TB boy gets silly on any kind of sugarbeet, haylage or sugary conditioning feeds. I found some of the feed companies are not very forth coming with sugar amounts in their feeds so I put him on Simple Systems. However last winter he did drop some weight (he's not a great doer and he windsucks.). I looked around for a mix that was genuinely low in sugar. I went for winergy equilibrium which was recommended by several on here because the energy in it comes from oil not sugar.Only one on your list I use is blue chip, thinks its pretty good. I also feed micronised linseed and have stuck with simple systems greengold and of course ad lib hay. This is the first winter he has kept his condition really well.

 

[Follysmum]

I used to own a very stressy Arab, the only feed that kept his weight on without fizzing up was no4 Baileys. Fantastic feed.

 

[hannahealasaid]

Another vote for baileys no4! Found it really good for conditioning and my boy wasn't fizzy at all from it

 

[Megalini_22]

I don't feed any of them as they are high in sugar and starch which isn't very good for their brains or hooves! Mine gets 1 scoop speedibeet, 1.5 scoops whole soaked oats, 2 mugs micronised linseed and a general min/vit supp. And as much haylage as she can eat - around 4 large nets a day she is offered. She is positively blooming for the first winter since I've had her!

i think you will find oats are 50% starch and extremely unbalanced when it comes to calcium and phosphorous

 

[ellie11987]

i think you will find oats are 50% starch and extremely unbalanced when it comes to calcium and phosphorous

But yet, mine is barefoot, suffered from ulcers and remains perfectly sound and sane? I think you will also find that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of here for oats working very well. They're a natural feed, not stuffed full of binders/fillers/molasses/soya/GM products etc that i would avoid at all costs. IMO they are the best concentrate to feed to a horse. And when fed alongside either alfalfa or beet pulp and a balancer the unbalanced calcium and phosphorous ratio becomes unimportant really.

I think I will carry on feeding them since my extreme poor dooer TB looked like this mid-winter fully clipped:

 

[maccachic]

But yet, mine is barefoot, suffered from ulcers and remains perfectly sound and sane? I think you will also find that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of here for oats working very well. They're a natural feed, not stuffed full of binders/fillers/molasses/soya/GM products etc that i would avoid at all costs. IMO they are the best concentrate to feed to a horse. And when fed alongside either alfalfa or beet pulp and a balancer the unbalanced calcium and phosphorous ratio becomes unimportant really.

I think I will carry on feeding them since my extreme poor dooer TB looked like this mid-winter fully clipped:

Fully agree. Too much marketing BS with processed foods.

 

[spaceflower]

I've spent the winter feeding up my 16.2 TB ex racer on nothing more complicated than soaked grass nuts, own brand conditioning cubes from my local merchant and corn oil. I started off with Baileys no 4 for a few weeks, but the cost soon mounted up, and when the weather was at its worse I gave fibre beet in the am. He's looking fab and its great to head into the summer with him looking so well.

 

[JoClark]

I am using Top Spec comprehensive balancer and cool conditioning cubes with alfa a oil, simple system lucie pellets, small scoop of speedi beet and he is very well covered. Last year I was struggling with his weight but i really rate top spec, low in starch and sugars too and mine had ulcers so i have to be careful. When i spoke to baileys they said the number 4 has more starch and sugars that would be ideal for a horse with ulcers. You can add linseed and oil which also helps with weight.
Dont forget ad lib hay, that will really help with the weight.