Feeding Nothing - mean mum

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Scottish_Miss

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OK someone commented to me last night I was mean as my boy gets no hard feed at all!!
I was rather bemused as in my opinion 85 % horses on our yard at least do not require any food at all!

So what do you think:?

rising 5, 16.1 ID type, light work, school 3 times per week for 40 mins max mainly walk trot to wok on straightness and conection into hand, and 3 days hacking mainly walk into a nice outline/.contact.

He does well on this with 8 hours grass a day and small pilesoaked haylage in evening.

I do think people underestimate what level of work they are actually doing, may get shot down here but light work is primarily what most of the UK horse owners actually do in my opinion - humble it may be.

thanks

Tia
 
I don't think it's mean at all. If people actually knew how much rubbish is in horse feeds and the money they waste on it I think more people would feed far less or nothing at all too.

My new forest doesn't get hard feed at all as a general rule (currently gets a tiny handful of balancer to persuade him to come in, typical pony!), and he looks super on grazing and ab lib hay all year round.
 
I think far too many people read the feeding directions on hard feed and think their horses are in more work than they are and overfeed. That's why there are so many people with overweight horses. My three year old gets half a scoop of hi-fi good doer to mix her magnesium into and that is it. She's ridden 4 times a week for max twenty minutes, stands in during the day with soaked hay and is on very short grazing overnight. She's still on the porky side!
 
my 17.1 hh WB gets pink powder, a handful of readigrass and a joint supplement, carotts and apples and ad lib haylage and grass up to 8 hours a day. He is fine.
 
Sensible. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it":)

One of the first things I learned as a child about feeding was "feed according to work done" Work done being the operative words.

I feed everything, mares, foals, stallion, ponies, the lot, in the winter (soaked oats, alfa cubes and BOSS) in summer the only things that are fed are nursing mares, the stallion during the covering season and a couple of old mares. If a horse looks poor then I try to find out why, solve that and go from there.

I do think people underestimate what level of work they are actually doing, may get shot down here but light work is primarily what most of the UK horse owners actually do in my opinion Too right.
 
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When my mare was in harder work than she is now (having a nice holiday!), doing lunging and schooling, she got just two two small feeds of balancer a day as she is a great doer. This was before the grass came through. Always feed by weight, not bulk! Mine gets 100g of feed per 100k of bodyweight, so two 250g feeds. That is very little! I soak it well and add a few treats. As well as her two feeds, earlier in the year she got turnout from around 9am until about 4pm, and that was plenty - she looked great.

Now mine is out 24/7 she's on no feed at all so I am even meaner! I will revise this if the grass drops off altogether but seeing as she is currently the size of a large family saloon I very much doubt that!

Every horse is an individual - my old gelding needed lots of feed on top of lots of turnout. My mare can manage amply on grass. I think a major reason why so many people have "problem horses" is that the poor things are stuffed full of sugars. My golden rule (for a good doer like mine) is to feed as much forage as you can and then add a little protein in the form of a balancer. I like to think of it as the equine equivalent of eating loads of healthy veg, then some lean meat/fish on top.
 
Tia

you are not a 'mean mum' at all I think you are a sensible one. Horses and ponies are browsers by nature and they require a high fibre diet they do not need to be pumped full of the fancy foods which are available. There is a food for every occasion, fat, thin, needing more topline, hacking only, walking, sleeping, doing good etc etc

When I bought my ponies a few years ago, I was astounded at the amount of feeds and supplements available, it was scary. After much research I stuck to a simple high fibre diet i.e grass/hay depending on the season and ad lib access to a good quality mineral lick (not the sticky gooey one which is eaten in one sitting). I do have one laminitic pony that is on hay and a mineral lick only very limited grass.

They also receive a selection of herbs and vegetables to add a little excitement to the diet and they are happy and healthy and have bags of energy.

There is a good choice of feed available and you need to look carefully at the ingredients and understand what they are. Some ingredients are 'waste' products from the food processing industry. You should not need to mix any of the different feeds together as some folk seem to do.
 
Count me in-mean Mum here! The creature is not worked hard and won't eat feed at the minute anyway. Super good doer and does not require anything on top of grass.
 
I must be mean as well then-

my mares companion pony who is a british riding pony, wears a muzzle in the field during the day so he can only eat the grass that he can get through the hole in the bottom of the muzzle (he is turned out with my mare and foal and doesnt need the grass she does) and comes on at night and has a 1/4 of a flap of small bale hay. He doesnt get any hard feed at all except 20g of slimaid once a day which is just vitamins and minerals.

My mare with her 3 week old foal at foot is having 2 feeds a day of happy hoof, 1 whole flap of hay at night ( heston bale ) and good grass during the day. This is providing her with enough to feed her foal and is just right body condition wise.

I dont see the point of feeding if your horse isnt working or is too fat. I feel a lot of people underestimate how hard their horse works- last summer my mare was easily doing 6 miles of hacking each day 6 days a week- this was completed in an hour at most, mostly trot and canter and she was still only being fed happyhoof and hay.
 
Good on you! Far too many people feed when their horses just don't need it IMO. My ISH gets grass, soaked hay and a token amount of hi fibre nuts to 'hide' his minerals in (fussy eater). My loan pony is out all day in a greenguard muzzle, gets soaked hay at night and just lo cal in his bucket. My horse is a nice weight and my loan pony is heading in the right direction after having been too fat.
 
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