Feeding straights

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Kate_25

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Hi,

Can anyne give me a rough idea of how much I should be feeding to add condition? I prefer straights to compound feed as I know exactly what my horse is eating, plus it's cheaper.

I want to feed:

Rolled Barley
Flaked Maize
Alfalfa Pellets
Sugar Beet
Oats

And NAF Pink Powder.

Any idea on how many Kg per day of each? My boy is 16hh hunter type, needs a fair amount of condition.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks
 
I've been looking for a website that has this information on.
I've got a sports horse 17.2 that I want to start to feed so that he maintains his condition as we go into the winter.
I want to feed; rolled barley and sugar beat for now but not sure how much. If anyone knows of a site please send a link. :)
Sorry for the hijack;)
 
generally you start by working out how much you horse should be eating per day (2.5% of body weight), make 75% of that (at least) to forage (hay/grass etc).

what's left is the weight your horse should be getting in hard feed.

its then best to choose a max of two cereal straights, and two fibre sources for the short feeds, plus then a vit and min supplement/balancer.

My lad is 16.2 IDx weighing about 640kg. so he should eat 16kg per day, 12kg at least is forage., leaving 4kg of short feed per da, split between 2 feeds.

I feed oats, sugar beet, alfalfa, full fat soya and a feed balancer. sugarbeet is ad lib, then he gets (split between feeds) a mug of balancer, 1.5kg soya, 1.5kg alfalfa, and a variable qty of oats according to his workload up to 1kg.

does that help?

ETA - there's a few good books out there if you fancy reading up.
Equine Nutrition and Feeding
Nutrtional Physiology of the Horse
Nutrtion for the Exercising Horse
there's another one too, but I can't remember what it's called... will go find my copy and find out for you.
 
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If you are prepared to buy Flaked Maize(More expensive ) I would ignore rolled Barley . Rolled Barley is inclined to cause "Heating" problems. The starch granules tend to take too long to process and can cause digestive problems. Cooked Flaked Barley is a much better option. I would be inclined to add a good quality protein source such as soya,or a ballancer.I would also include vegetable oil in liberal quantities.
 
Thanks everyone, you've been really helpful, this feeding business is really confusing!!!! I miss my native, they used to fat look at their hay!!!!
 
Jenhunt, I was just wondering how many feed do you split that between as someone told me it should be between five but this isn't really practical for me?
 
I split that over two feeds, BUT my speedibeet goes in a separate bucket and is left in over night for them to pick at over the course of the night rather than as part of their feed.

should also have said the weight of the speedi-beet is before it is soaked.
 
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