Feeding Ideas

Queenbee

Queenbee

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Right, this shouldn't be too long.
Am currently feeding my mare, 1 scoop of hifi lite, some fibre 2/3 of a small scoop of fibre nuts, some soya oil and some garlic. She only gets this once a day (when she comes into the stable) She doesn't have breakfast (she won't bother with it because she just wants to be out in the field).
She Loses a bit of condition when she starts coming in in the winter (she isn't the keenest horse on a stable)

She has just begun to come in and is starting to be ridden 5 times a week, when she comes in she has half a small haynet of hayladge (at the moment most of this is not eaten)

She has now started to drink water in the stable and seems in general to be a lot calmer in the stable so i would expect to see her intake of haylage increase.
She wasn't eating her tea in the stable she just couldn't focus on it, so we started to feed her outside the barn when she was tied up, although i have noticed that she tends to lose interest about half way through! Exasperated does not even come close!!!
Anyhow, am going to cut back the size of her tea and while making it a bit mre substantial and tempting on the pallet.
Was thinking Hi Fi, speedi beet, soya, garlic, and a mix.

Anyone got some ideas on a mixes, i want one that would be considered a step up from pasture, helps with maintaining condition and would do for light to medium work. Any other suggestions and ideas for her would be great.

Cheers
 
I'd cut out the garlic - many horses hate it. And feed Alpha instead of Hi Fi lite for the same reasons. Stick with the High Fibre cubes, and a little Sugar Beet - but keep the feeds small so not to over face her.

(and my pet hate - don't feed your horse whilst it is tied up. Horrid accident waiting to happen).
 
It is very difficult with horses like this- firstly a very strong and regimented routine in the yard is a must- it just helps them to settle down and relax. Do stick to the exact same times of feeding/riding/turning out every day if you can....( but I know that is not always possible!) also what about the other horses in the yard, are they all being bought in/out and fed at different times? that would be another upset for a horse like yours.

Secondly- the feed. I would change it. Garlic is a big turn off for a lot of horses. So is Soya oil. Also take out the hi fi or any sort of chaff if you want her to eat her hard feed ( it is a complete myth that you need to put chafff in a feed, you only really need it for a horse that gobbles feed down v. fast)
I would feed her just the one thing- baileys No.4 conditioning cubes. Nothing else. A lot of horses just love their baileys no.4 its very palatble and they put weight on quickly.

I wouldnt be keen on a mix for her, mixes have a far higher starch content then cubes and would make an already a quite possibly sore stomach even more sore- stick to feeding cubes which has a lower starch content ( as I assume that from her lack of appetite she hasnt got the greatest digestion system there)
 
If I didn't know her better I would agree, but I have had her for 7 years, she has always had garlic and Hi Fi Lite so I that these are not the problem. She just seems to preoccupied with the stable life to eat at all in her box but strangely to eager to get in there to bother eating a substantial tea outside. I need to get the balance of not too much food, not to intense and not too little fibre seeing as she just can't be bothered with her haylage. I know that with the level of work she is now going to be doing that a generous handful of fibre nuts is just not going to cut it, I know she doesn't work well on calm and condition (it has the opposite effect!)

As we plan to increase the level of her fitness over the winter she will probably be hunting aswell as the usual Am thinking maybe baileys top line mix or Dodson and Horrell Build up mix(she has had these before) And slowly increasing the amount of fibre and feed given as her interest in food returns. Although After this bag of Hi Fi is gone i may well switch to Alpha-A. Anyone used anything else that they can reccomend?

I may have to feed her sidekick next to her, i think if she sees the pony eating her tea she may be more inclined to tuck in!!!
 
I agree with the whole 'chaff thing' however since her appetite is not great in the stable i prefer to get what fibre i can get into her. Again soya oil has never been a problem for her, but due to the pocket i think we will be looking at a cheaper supermarket version. As a rule her digestive system is fairly good but she does tend to scour herself out when she comes into the stable (always has) Her routine is fairly good, i have noticed she is more settled when rdden just before bedtime, but this as you say is not always possible, I have had her on nuts before (and do at the moment) I would always prefer to use nuts however i think she perfers the variety of the mix. She is being a funny bu**er she will always pick her carrots out if nothing else!
Even though she has always been ok with garlic and oil i may cut these out for a few days and see if it helps.

Thanks.
 
If she is generally a bit Stressy in the stable it may be worth trying a stable mirror. I have not tried one but am thinking of getting one for Charlie as I have heard great things about them on this forum and he sounds a bit similar to your mare with regards to not settling or eating much!
 
Dodson and Horrell Build Up Mix or Staypower Mix, replace the Hi-Fi with D&H Fiber P to keep the fibre intake up but up the energy/calorie levels at the same time. Take out the garlic - why are you using it anyway? It has very little proven benefit and in sweet itch horses actually makes them worse... If you change from Soya go to corn which is more palatable than vegetable/rapeseed
 
cheers, i have contemplated using them in the past but she is generally a lot more settled at this yard than she has ever been (in the past she's jumped out of stables, had to be stabled with a dartmoor in the stable) broken doors, produced four wheelbarrows of dirty staw for me each morning! She has never really gone off her food though, luckily she has some extra weight to lose and i would like to think she will settle back to eating properly in a week or so. She is in a nice open barn with her 4 other stable mates and she can get a good view of all of them so the company thing re: the mirror is not so much of a need, although i have seen others using them to great effect in more isolated stables.
 
always use either soya or corn oil (so will be switching to corn on next trip to tesco's) use garlic for it's general health benefits, prevevention of heart disease, effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, it is used as a general tonic and has antibacterial qualities that aid the body when fighting general ailments. I do not really see that a horse who has consistently eaten garlic in her food for 7 years (both powdered, and shavings) would suddenly decide that she won't eat her food with it in. Incidently she is on the shavings of garlic which do not taste so strong) and as i have said i will omit these on the off chance that she has recently been bitten by a bat (he he) and then slowly reintroduce them once her appetite improves. What's the difference between dengie fibre p stuff and the alfa a products (never used either)
 
p.s she doesn't have sweet itch (thank god!) also is staypower a D&H mix, i have never heard of this one.

Thanks for all your advice everyone!
 
Yes Staypower is a D&H mix - very good for the slow release energy needed for stamina events liek hunting. I rate D&H feeds much better than baileys (and trust me, I've used them all!).

Fiber P is a mix of high quality grass chaff mixed with bruised/crushed cereals for energy. Alfa products are made from Alfalfa which is a high protein lucerne grass
 
scuse my dimmness! I generally only stick to those feeds that i know, and what with her not usually doing too much in the winter i have never really had to think about her feed that much! would you feed fibre p with a mix or is it designed to be fed as a stand alone?

cheers
 
have you thought about winergy equilibrium? i use the growth one for putting condition on my epsm mare. its got the same energy level as a conditioning feed but only 5% starch vs the 20% you'd find in a cube or mix.

the energy is from fibre and oil so sounds just like what you're looking for - increasing her fibre levels, slow release energy, naturally conditioning etc.

Also, you can leave it with her to pick at over night rather than her having to eat a whole meal if that stresses her out. My freind has to do that whith her event horse because he's such a muppet when people are around the yard.
 
sorry just looked it up on their website, I very much like the sound of this. Thank you...
smile.gif


Then I found out they do not stock in cornwall
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However we have just had a new feedstore open in our town, worth a trip to see if they will get it in...
 
I had trouble getting hold of it when I first started and they said I could get it anywhere spillers feeds are stocked. my feed merchant had to order it in for me specially at first but now there are quite a few of us buying it its not a problem and is always on theshelf.

good luck, i hope she likes it as much as mine does!
 
Thanks for all your help everyone, am pleased to report she has started to decide that food, hay and water is not so bad after all, haynet is now empty in the morning so is food bucket! Yay, and i didn't have to stop the garlic and oil. will be looking at beet and conditiong feeds in a couple of weeks when she has completely settled.

Thanks again (one very relieved mum!!!)
 
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