Feeding - thoughts?

[Jayzee]

So I have been having a bit of a rethink about feeding in general. I know feeding has lots of different variables from the horse; age, work load, condition score, fizzy, lazy etc. There are so many different brands and advise on what to feed, as well as the same feed dressed up in different packages. But my question is;
What would you consider a basic diet for a horse (average riding club horse working 5 days a week)?
What would you add if you felt the horse needed more energy?
What would you add if the horse needed more condition?
Are there any supplements/ feed types that you always give, really sees a difference?

Just curious really, I know its a very generalised question but would be interesting to hear thoughts?

 

[windand rain]

Soaked grass nuts, grass chaff and varying amounts of cooked linseed depending on weight. Hay and water

 

[TGM]

My basic diet is adlib hay/haylage plus a balancer and some Speedibeet. Then if they need more condition/energy I add would add some alfalfa/grass pellets/chaff and some micronised linseed.

 

[Follysmum]

Soaked Grass nuts, grass chaff, linseed & salt. Basic quick simple feed
Hay or haylage

 

[Griffin]

My basic diet is balancer, chaff, salt and a scoop of hedgerow herbs. Plus hay!

If I needed more energy/condition, I would probably go for a bit of alfalfa and micronised linseed as TGM does. If that didn't work, I would add in a conditioning fibre and/ conditioning cubes.

I always feed a probiotic supplement because I think that a healthy gut is a healthy horse. If a horse is over the age of ten/high mileage, I also feed a joint supplement. I think which one you use depends very much on your horse, they seem to respond differently.

 

[Jellymoon]

Basic diet - forage and a balancer.
More ooomph - competition mix
More condition - micronised linseed.

 

[Cortez]

I've not fed anything other than hay/grass for many, many years. My horses are a good-doer breed (Spanish), in medium work, and I've never felt the need for more energy from them, they sometimes get a little tubby if the workload decreases and then they get less hay/pasture time.

 

[ihatework]

I’d start with ad-lib hay/haylage.

If they were too fat on that they would have rationed hay/haylage and poorer grazing.

If their feet/skin/coat wasn’t good I’d either add in a pelleted balancer or a vit&min powder in some chaff/beet.

If they were a good weight but a bit sluggish, they would first do a bit more work and get a bit of a drilling about being in front of the leg. I might add some oats and a handful of Alfa

If they were dropping off I tend to like the high oil low starch fibre mixes. Most recently Winergy Growth. If I need more I would top up with Omega Rice.

I’ve had fatties compete and work reasonably hard on poor grazing, late cut hay (soaked if needed) and a balancer to a couple of big young horses on only a modest amount of work eating as much fibre as they can plus supplementing with 4kg of food.

Horses for courses

 

[Starzaan]

A basic diet should always consist of forage. Ad lib hay or haylage. I have one competition horse who does well enough on this alone, and another who needs a top up as he is an older boy and needs more oomph and some help with condition. I always use micronised linseed for condition, and oats for energy, with Alfa A Oil for most. He is also on Protexin as has a history of ulcers due to being starved before he came to me. I don’t tend to feed fatties anything other than ad lib soaked hay, but anything that’s more of a good doer would get Hifi Lite if they needed something extra for feeding something such as protexin.
This system has worked on all the yards I have run, with horses ranging from high goal polo ponies, to hunters, riding school ponies, eventers and leisure horses.
My motto is don’t feed hard feed unless you absolutely have to.

 

[Leam_Carrie]

Basic diet - ad lib forage, with a feed of balancer, small amount of linseed,
salt, grass chaff / soaked grass nuts.

More condition - up the linseed or cool condition cubes

More ommph - not sure

 

[Cob Life]

Ad-lib hay

more condition - cool conditioning Cubes/calm and condition

more ommph - competition mix

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Soaked grass nuts, grass chaff and varying amounts of cooked linseed depending on weight. Hay and water

Exactly what I was going to say. If I needed more bulk in the bucket feed for some reason/needed the horse to take on more fluid, I might add sloppy Speedibeet

 

[Dave's Mam]

Dave has grass, hay, balancer & Speedibeet with Ossi Cool Hoof which is chopped hay & oat straw for bulk. He has the beet, balancer, chaff once a day, unless in winter and frost on ground then he gets a feed before he goes out to prevent stuffing on frosty grass.