Feeding the recommended ration

[Green Bean]

All the feeds we buy for our horses have a recommended feeding rate (with the caveat of having sufficient grazing / hay). Does everyone go by this? I have put my horse's feed up to the recommended amount but am finding her a bit on her toes as a result. She is not overweight, but also not underweight, sorry this is a why is she posting this thread.
I am thinking of reducing her main feed and possibly bringing in a balancer to make sure she is getting all her vits, mineral and what nots due to this reduction. Any experience on this please?

 

[Barton Bounty]

Not for me, I give what I think is necessary, and that is usually more than the recommended feeding rate. I think it is a kind of guideline for it.

 

[Squeak]

I always do what you're thinking of moving to and feed a balancer for starter and then use other feeds as needed. There are some feeds that I use the recommended rates but a lot I wont, I tend to use the recommended rate as a maximum amount as I often find them very high quantities.

I think companies are getting better but it's one of my bug bears as some of the quantities I have no idea how you're meant to feed healthily to a horse that is meant to be on a predominantly forage based diet and is only meant to have a couple of scoops max in a hard feed. Added on to that the cost of feeding them at the recommended rates

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

No I never feed the full amount they would be as high as kites and too fat I imagine.

Although I don't feed mixes or nuts mine just have grass chaff and unmolassed beet with linseed.

 

[criso]

I don't feed already supplemented feed for that reason. How much I feed depends on weight, work, time of year etc so will vary however always want them to get the RDA of any mineral or vitamin.

 

[Katieg123]

My golden rule of feeding is to feed the horse in front of you. You know your horse better than the label on a feed bag so trust your gut!

 

[ihatework]

Over many years with a variety of horses I can only think of two that needed the recommended rations - both were big rangy late maturing boys.

I feed by eye.

Manufacturers guidelines are part of the current equine obesity issue we have at the moment.

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

With mine only the powder balancer and yea sacc are fed to the correct ration. The fibrebeet is only there to put the balancer in so he gets as little as possible.

He's coming out of winter on the lean side and there's not a lot of grass in the field so he's getting a very full allowance of hay.

On my previous full livery yard they switched our horses feed to Allen & Page (without telling us) and put every horse on the amount it said on the packet. Until then my horse had only been given a token meal of chaff. The yard switched him to 3 massive bucket fulls of the A&P a day without thinking to discuss it with me first.

 

[irishdraft]

No I don't feed recommended ration, nothing like but I feed a daily vits & mins supplement so I know she's getting them x

 

[millitiger]

I've never needed to feed the recommended rates, they are always so huge!

I feed by eye and feel and usually that means somewhere around 50% of recommended rate.
Horses all in lovely condition, shiny coats, well covered but ribs all there to feel and a hint to see.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Only recommended thing mine gets is the recommended balancer ration. Everything else is by eye essentially. If too fat cut back if looking poor add more feeds

 

[Equi]

My horse can’t tolerate many things in most feeds or his CPL plays up. The one I have found that hasn’t got any thing triggering is of course ££££ so no he gets a handful of it to get his supplements down (as soaking grass nuts in summer is just not on my list of things I want to do)

Hes a lovely weight, his coats shiny, his hooves are hard as rock so I don’t think we’re missing much.

 

[Elno]

Nope

I analyse my forage and complement with what's missing (mostly protein). If I would feed the recommended amount the horse would be fat and probably more in the air than on the ground. Furthermore I currently feed alfalfa pellets and soy and they really don't have a recommended amount anyways. But if I would change to a compound feed that is equivalent to what I am currently feeding the recommendation on the bag is between 1 and 4 kg depending on the forage you feed, which is hugely not helpful.

 

[Horseysheepy]

I feed balancers to the suggested amounts as I have youngstock on average hay.

But adults, I would feed by eye and start with speedibeet and chaff as a token feed/get meds in them and add on that straights such as oats for energy, barley rings for weight gain, oils etc at low rates, increasing gradually until I get the desired result.