Grass nuts, baby (Giant) horse and New Forest - Any opinions?

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karenjj

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Hi, have been advised to give my New Forest and Percheron grass nuts with alfa - a for their feed, they live out on poor grazing with a round bale of hay and are having half a scoof of alfa a twice a day at the moment. The New Forest is ridden every weekend just for a short hack and the Percheron is only 18months old and also has balancer and stud cubes in his feed. Does anyone think grass nuts are of any benefit? I was also advised to use Speedi-beet? I'm not sure, in the past my New-Forest has just had chaff and pasture mix and I've not had the Percheron over winter before. Any ideas would be greatly received!
 
Ive used soaked grass nuts for years!! both my horses love them, i just use them as added bulk to their feeds as they dont need alot of hard feed but i always think they are warmer with a belly full at night when they live out! daft i know...
 
You could try alfalfa pellets from dengie. It may work out more economical due to the weight vs volume.

A balancer plus cubes is just doubling up & you could cut out the cubes and up something else for the energy requirement.
 
I have used simple systems grass nuts from time to time mainly at the end of the winter to get them ready for going out on grass after the winter paddock.

Since 16 months my gypsy cob has had green gold and OH's clydesdale has just grass as she reacts to alfa. I also feed speedibeet to my two.

The percheron should not be allowed to get too much weight too young, and whilst our clydie is now 4 1/2, we keep her on the light end of the weight range to prevent joint strain.

My two also have benevit to give them all their vits and mins and black sunflower seeds which are good for feet and coat, and linseed for digestion, healthy joints and keeping condition on.

Mine have ad lib hay and fairly poor grazing and do very well on this diet, growing well but not overweight.

You won't go wrong on feeding them something like I do. In terms of amounts, my two get a big stubbs scoop of the chaff, mug of linseed, mug of BSS and a mug (dry) of speedibeet twice a day. If weight drops, then I increase the chaff and speedibeet accordingly.
 
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