Good hay replacement, advice sought..

[Laura-Maybe-IV]

Hi all,

My horse has developed a few diasetemas over the past 6 months, she is 22 and 15.0hh and currently in good condition she is also a TB too
The dentist has said that she doesn't need them removed and it would be best to just let the teeth fall out I wasn't too sure about this and I am going to get him to have another look....

Anyway!
My horse is the first 'oldie' that I have owned, as her quidding is getting worse she opens her mouth widely quiet alot especially at things like pony nuts (she gets well soaked feed now)
I think she is starting to struggle with long stemmed forage, so I Am thinking of introducing forage replacement.
What have you/ do you feed as forage replacement? I was thinking something like Hi-Fi senior with Fast fibre? Any advice or thoughts would be most welcome

 

[Darkwater]

I have a little mare with very similar problems (plus others, but I won't go into that!)

I've spend about a year trying to perfect her hay free diet but what works best for us is a combination of Graze On (or whatever type of dried grass/chop is suitable at the time - We mix with a straw chop when trying to keep weight down) mixed with grass nuts (If required can be soaked into a nice grassy mush or can be fed dry - I also give her some dry in a treat ball) and watery fast fibre. All mixed up in a big tub trug! She gets a token handful of haylage which she will nibble at.

She also gets a normal 'feed' or of her balancer and speedibeet to mix supplements into. I generally feed her hay replacer weight for weight what I would normally feed in hay and reduce/increase accordingly with weather, weight, grass etc.

I hope that helps!

 

[BabyA]

My 36 year old quids hay terribly, I have his teeth done twice a year and although they're still all there they're worn down hense the quidding. Steamed hay is softer so he manages it slightly better but other than grass he has 3 meals a day of
Fast fibre
Slobbermash
Sugarbeet
Pasture nuts and mix
Kenwood chaff and blue chip.
This lot just about keeps weight on him until we get more grass. He hates hifi in fact all my horses do so try and borrow a bit before you buy one of those huge bags of it! I find it a bit stalky even when it's soaked!
The slobber mash and fast fibre goes down a treat and lasts ages!
I hope you manage to get something sorted as it took me ages to find substitutes!

 

[Polos Mum]

If she struggles with long stem forrage - have you considered just chopping it. I was recommended a cheapy B&Q type garden shredder and it makes perfect home made chaff. You could chop a bale of your hay into 2/3 inch long pieces in under an hour into old feed sacks then feed it to her in big tub buckets.

Combined with all the good ideas of sloppy feed this might help, a few hours a week (you could do a big session at the weekend if that works for you) could save you a fortune.

 

[BlackRider]

I've got a similar situation with my oldie.

I bought some hifi senior, but she couldn't eat that, so trying different chaffs.

I;m currently feeding soaked high fibre cubes, and fast fibre, although gradually swapping to fast fibre.

I'm still not feeding anywhere near enough, as I've been trying to introduce over the last 3 weeks, but my issue is that she's wolfing it down :-( I'm splitting the hay replacer into 3, and giving normally bucket feeds, she also has small nets for something to do...