Feeding veteran horses on a budget

R

RhiM

New User
Joined
18 September 2025
Messages
3
Visit site
I’m going into winter with 3 horses for the first time - a 19, 22 and 28 year old all in work and generally out 24/7 unless weather is poor.
I really need to find something to ideally feed all 3 that isn’t going to cost me the earth as I am also imminently about to split up with my husband so money is going to be super tight.

I’m doubly concerned as due to the dry summer we have no grass saved for the winter like we usually do and have already started to supplement the oldest with hay in the field.

I’ve read so many good things about micronised linseed I bought that in the summer for my 28 year old and she’s been having that with dengue meadow grass with the plan to add grass nuts over the winter and increase the volume. She has had colic previously so I want something good for digestion which will give weight.

The boys would then follow suit.

Is this decent enough do you think or would you have better recommendations bearing mind the cost. I’ve been on spillers supple and senior until earlier in the year but just cannot afford to feed it ongoing to 3 sadly.

Help!
 
Follysmum said:
Grass nuts and micronised linseed
Or
Sugar beet and micronised linseed
Click to expand...
Agreed, I’m not sure how much the meadow grass is adding…unless you’re feeding loads of it.
Also I suspect not all grass nuts are equal, some are very green, some are more hay like. Maybe check the DE of them to check you’re getting max calories for your buck.
 
Be careful with sugar beet, once soaked due to the high water content it becomes very low calorie. Speedibeet at 11mj/kg once soaked with 5x water becomes less than 2mj of energy per Stubbs scoop, whereas the dengie meadow grass provides 3.45mj per Stubbs scoop. Obviously both here we are talking minimal energy for a veteran. Fibre beet or Alfa beet use less water to soak so are more energy dense once soaked.

Micronised linseed is good value for money, I’m a little sad and have a spreadsheet calculating best value for calories, and the 20kg linseed comes out comparable to Baileys ease and excel at my local supplier, with the added bonus that it has vits & mins included.

A simple change without adding much cost would be to swap to a higher energy chaff too, Alfa an oil and performance fibre both have nearly 20% more energy per kg than meadow grass. Cheap grass nuts I agree are also useful, but as mentioned check the energy levels as they vary a lot!
 
Mix a bag of grass nuts, alfalfa nuts and sugar beet pellets in a bin. A big scoop makes a bucket of mush. Readigrass or HiFi senior and linseed meal adds extra calories.

The above formed the staple of most of my horses winter diets especially my poor doers and when Kia’s teeth were failing he got four feeds a day if this with two feeds getting a cup of soaked equerry conditioning mash for extra calories as this wasn’t that expensive a bag but kept his cereal content down as he was cereal intolerant.

With horses that could have cereal I mixed bruised barley into the mush. Cheap easy to get a hold of from local farms and comes In massive sacks. Cheaper than linseed meal is good old fashioned veg oil but you need to add VitE I found and that’s costly.

Hope this helps
 
My vet recommended linseed, my mare is 22, has EMS and ulcers/stomach/intestine problems and when she was on a mash diet last winter that’s what they suggested.
 
I would mix a bag of grass nuts, alfalfa nuts and sugar beet pellets in a large bin and use that as a baseline, topping up with micronised linseed when/if needed.

Grass nuts wise - it's worth checking the DE on the bag - some are like rocket fuel in terms of calories and others are at the other end of the scale.

One scoop of the above mixture of nuts/pellets would make a lovely big mash, decent in calories and high in fibre so that tummies are kept happy and full to keep them warm x
 
AppyLover1996 said:
I would mix a bag of grass nuts, alfalfa nuts and sugar beet pellets in a large bin and use that as a baseline, topping up with micronised linseed when/if needed.

Grass nuts wise - it's worth checking the DE on the bag - some are like rocket fuel in terms of calories and others are at the other end of the scale.

One scoop of the above mixture of nuts/pellets would make a lovely big mash, decent in calories and high in fibre so that tummies are kept happy and full to keep them warm x
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I do- the nicest grass and alafalfa cubes I’ve found are from Emerald Green- I buy in bulk which works out cheaper per bag, even with a delivery charge.
 
Roasted Chestnuts said:
Mix a bag of grass nuts, alfalfa nuts and sugar beet pellets in a bin. A big scoop makes a bucket of mush. Readigrass or HiFi senior and linseed meal adds extra calories.

The above formed the staple of most of my horses winter diets especially my poor doers and when Kia’s teeth were failing he got four feeds a day if this with two feeds getting a cup of soaked equerry conditioning mash for extra calories as this wasn’t that expensive a bag but kept his cereal content down as he was cereal intolerant.

With horses that could have cereal I mixed bruised barley into the mush. Cheap easy to get a hold of from local farms and comes In massive sacks. Cheaper than linseed meal is good old fashioned veg oil but you need to add VitE I found and that’s costly.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...
thank you for all your comments so far. Good to know I’m not far off in what I’m already doing, I love that there is a spreadsheet !
Could you explain the benefits of adding alfalfa and sugarbeet? Im not familiar with alfalfa products it’s not something I’ve ever used.
How do you mix it all together easily?
 
RhiM said:
thank you for all your comments so far. Good to know I’m not far off in what I’m already doing, I love that there is a spreadsheet !
Could you explain the benefits of adding alfalfa and sugarbeet? Im not familiar with alfalfa products it’s not something I’ve ever used.
How do you mix it all together easily?
Click to expand...

I just open the three bags and take a scoop from each and put it in the bin and that mixes it then just scoop out the mixed pellets from the bin and into a bucket of water.

The sugar beet adds good fibre and moisture and the alfalfa adds protein and energy quite cheaply. It’s basically cheap bulk fibre. For my Welsh d who gets this over winter I’m still using last winters pellets mix just now as he’s in a good amount of work. He gets a cup of the pellets soaked the day before, the day of and the day after we have an outing where he’s expending a lot of energy in summer. In winter he gets about 1/3 of a scoop of the mush per feed daily. More if he’s out competing as it gives him energy.

So I bought a bag of each last October and I’m still using them now. Obviously I only have one horse but that’s how long the mix of pellets lasts me. He gets one feed daily all yr round.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tda
Would straw be an acceptable and cheaper alternative to help make your hay/grass go further….there is a thread on here in 2024 discussing feeding straw….
 
If you're on a budget and have time, 24 hour soak sugar beet is half the price of quick soak, I use trident. After evening and breakfast deeds are made, I just put a scoop in soak for the next day.

I also find Emerald green really good value for grass chaff and grass nuts. They do alfalfa too.
 
Marshpiper said:
Would straw be an acceptable and cheaper alternative to help make your hay/grass go further….there is a thread on here in 2024 discussing feeding straw….
Click to expand...
If you’re looking for max calories per £ I wouldn’t be bothering with straw.
It will eke out hay etc but I wouldn’t be feeding it to a poor doer.
 
RhiM said:
he’s been having that with dengue meadow grass with the plan to add grass nuts over the winter and increase the volume.
Click to expand...

Meadow Grass chaff and grass nuts is the same two feeds just cut differently, with the addition of rapeseed oil in one. If you only want to increase the volume then you can buy oat chaff at half the price of the Dengie grass chaff.

But for a poor doer I use what everyone else has suggested - a mix of alfalfa, linseed and grass nuts and ad lib hay. I really don't think there's a cheap way to skirt around feeding 3 horses!
 
  • Like
Reactions: tda
criso said:
If you're on a budget and have time, 24 hour soak sugar beet is half the price of quick soak, I use trident. After evening and breakfast deeds are made, I just put a scoop in soak for the next day.

I also find Emerald green really good value for grass chaff and grass nuts. They do alfalfa too.
Click to expand...
Do you know if the emerald green ones are high in energy? What should I be looking for on the bag to make sure I get the best ones?
 
marmalade76 said:
Pretty sure they do two different sorts.
Click to expand...

Yes they do the straight grass pellets and then meadow magic which is the low cal option

RhiM said:
Do you know if the emerald green ones are high in energy? What should I be looking for on the bag to make sure I get the best ones?
Click to expand...

Here's the spec of the grass pellets. They are cheaper in my local feed store. Look for protein and DE/calories. It's a tiny bit higher than Dengie or SS

emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk

Emerald Green Feeds Grass Pellets 20kg - Emerald Green Feeds

Emerald Green Feeds Grass Pellets are a natural high value feed. The harvesting and specialized drying processes enable the naturally occurring vitamins and minerals, essential to your horses' health and general condition, to be locked in. Feeding Grass Pellets means that your horse is able to...
emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk
 
I’d recommend giving Equi-glo sugarbeet a try. A bag lasts ages and it soaks in ten minutes. It’s been helpful for keeping the condition on my boy the last two winters and is also low in sugar and starch and even suitable for laminitics. Another good one is Spillers Super Senior mash but this probably isn’t quite as cost effective as Eqii-followers. If they need something else too, I’d recommend micronised linseed as a small amount goes a long way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top