Happy Hoof?

Firewell

Firewell

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My TB is on Hifi and fibre nuts and pink powder at the moment. The grass is really coming through at our yard, it's really lush and iv'e dropped his feed to just a scoop of chaff and a handful of nuts with his pinkpowder x2 per day as he is looking well and he doesnt need anything else.

I was going to buy another bag of fibre nuts today as i'm running out but tbh not sure there is much point when hes only having a handful but I think just plain chaff is a bit boring. Therefore was thinking of buying a bag of happy hoof instead as I know it has little pellets in it and giving him a scoop of that morning and night with his pink powder.

What do you think sensible option? Also can you put happy hoof in a snack ball or does it not really work?

Thanks
 
I use Happy Hoof in a snack ball (well, a decahedron to be precise) and find it works fine. It's chopped finely enough to come out through the hole.
 
I would try Healthy Hooves instead, my old girl found it much more tasty than happy hoof and it is lower calorie than happy hoof. It looks the same (ie has pellets, vits and mins and garlic in) and has laminitis trust approval!:)
 
Happy Hoof and Healthy Hooves are about the same calorie wise, not really much in them to be honest starch/sugar wise although Happy Hoof has more oil.

Having the Laminitis seal of approval means diddly squat, Dengie pay to have it stamped on their products
 
happy hoof makers pay to have the laminitis trust approval as well, from what i understand paying for it doesn't give the company the automatic right to have it, they have to prove it is safe to feed to laminitics!! It isn't a bribe!!

As you say, happy hoof has more oil...so therefore it is higher calorie..it might only be slightly more but if you are feeding an overweight horse every little counts
 
Yes you're quite right, all companies pay to have the Laminits Trust seal of approval not just Dengie; there's lots of feed suitable for lamintics; Those with added oil too unless your horse is overweight

The digestable energy; Happy Hoof 8.8, Helathy Hooves 8.5 almost the same, not really worth bothering with. Its just personal taste which one your horse likes!

If you want something even lower in energy with less sugar/starch then you can't get much lower than A & P Fast Fibre
 
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I'd stick with hifi lite and a lite balancer. Can ad quick beat for extra fibre as this minimises risk of lami. But any of these products is prob ok, so whatever suits u and yr horsey :-)
 
Mine loves Happy Hoof (and looks very well on it for a 25 yr old) but Dengie hifi lite is the only food she has ever rejected!
 
Mine is on oat straw dampened with d&h vits and mins. She is a very fussy eater but loves this! It's practically zero calories but gets the vits and mins down her. I dis try d&h equibites which you can feed as a treat on their own but she wouldn't touch them!
 
Firewell said:
I was going to buy another bag of fibre nuts today as i'm running out but tbh not sure there is much point when hes only having a handful but I think just plain chaff is a bit boring. Therefore was thinking of buying a bag of happy hoof instead as I know it has little pellets in it and giving him a scoop of that morning and night with his pink powder.
Click to expand...

So is it you who thinks plain chaff is boring, or has your horse actually turned up his nose at HiFi on it's own?

If it is just your own perception that HiFi is boring then it seems a bit silly to change. But if your horse does actually dislike HiFi then it might be worth changing to Happy Hoof - it does seem to be more palatable to some horses than HiFi. You don't say what type of HiFi you use - most of the range are unsupplemented, apart from Good Doer, whereas Happy Hoof is supplemented with vit/mins. If you change to Happy Hoof you might want to decrease the amount of Pink Powder you feed, depending on how much Happy Hoof you give in comparison to the recommended amount per day.

With regard to Laminitis Trust approval - feed companies do have to pay to be part of the scheme (the money from which goes towards laminitis research) but the feeds still have to meet certain criteria on starch/sugar levels etc., before they can get the Laminitis Trust stamp of approval.
 
Thanks for the replies! I brought a bag of happy hoof and he likes it :). Its cheaper to buy the happy hoof then buy hifi AND fibre nuts so it works out quite well. I like that its biotin in it. He's not fat or anything, he's just right, he's a TB in medium work but we have rich grass so he doesnt need a large amount of hard feed. He gets it with 24g of pink powder a day so a slightly reduced ration. I never feed full ration of a supplement as he is usually on some sort of other nut or hard feed.
Thanks :)
 
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