Hay replacers HELP!

[Bex_X]

Hi guys hoping someone could help my old boy is struggling with his hay now so I'm looking for a replacer however I'm a complete newbie to all this and he's my first veteran haha.
Little info on jack if this helps
He's a 14.1 trotter very slender I have no info on him only what iv learnt from him in the past 7 years of owning him he was brought from auction in a very sorry state after I took pity on him he was apparently 10 however my dentist told me to probably add another 10 on to that so he would roughly be around 27 his mouth is pretty bad so they can only do a comfort float on him when they come out so iv been advised no mollased chop Ivan my dentist said he couldn't believe how well he looked considering his teeth and the fact he still ate hay ... Anyway his feed is rowan and Barbary ready mash he did have chop however I ran out one day and he went crazy for just the mash on it's own he also has supplements and 16+ mix but now to the hay replacer I'm not sure what to buy there's so much info out there he's not a greedy horse by any means unlike my welsh haha so can anyone suggest anything? Sorry if this didn't make sence ect or need any more info trying to type on my iphone is awful haha

 

[Palindrome]

soaked grass nuts? cheap and cheerful and as you say he is slender it would keep him up to weight during winter.

 

[JillA]

My old lady lives on soaked unmollassed beet pulp (source Equibeet if you can, it is a lot cheaper than Simple Systems or Speedybeet, especially if you have to buy in quantity) plus Graze-on Grass pellets (ditto Simple Systems). It has low sugar and not too much protein for an oldie, you might want to add a decent balancer for vits and minerals but it is doable. I aim for around 2% of her bodyweight in dry matter, which is a gaining condition amount, if he doesn't need to gain, then 1.5% should do it.
If he can have cereals then I gather the Ready Mash is good, you could add or do separate feeds of it for him (mine is Insulin Resistant so can't have starch (cereal) ).
If you are south Cheshire (Nantwich area) I've got a regular order going in for Equibeet at £8 per 20kg bag, you could get some of my spare - I'm Market Drayton.

 

[southerncomfort]

My little old lady has Fibre beet, Hi Fibre nuts and Allen & Page veteran vitality soaked down to a soap together with a trug of Dengie Hi Fi Senior. She is holding her weight beautifully on this regime.

 

[tda]

second soaked grass nuts

 

[HaffiesRock]

My old lady lives on soaked unmollassed beet pulp (source Equibeet if you can, it is a lot cheaper than Simple Systems or Speedybeet, especially if you have to buy in quantity) plus Graze-on Grass pellets (ditto Simple Systems). It has low sugar and not too much protein for an oldie, you might want to add a decent balancer for vits and minerals but it is doable. I aim for around 2% of her bodyweight in dry matter, which is a gaining condition amount, if he doesn't need to gain, then 1.5% should do it.
If he can have cereals then I gather the Ready Mash is good, you could add or do separate feeds of it for him (mine is Insulin Resistant so can't have starch (cereal) ).
If you are south Cheshire (Nantwich area) I've got a regular order going in for Equibeet at £8 per 20kg bag, you could get some of my spare - I'm Market Drayton.

Out of curiosity, what kind of amount is 2% of your horses bodyweight, soaked, daily? I ask because I feed my ponies equibeet with linseed and they get a small scoop each which makes about half a regular sized tub trug sized bucket and keeps they busy for a good 15 - 20 minutes. it keeps the weight on in winter alongside the hay they get. Someone commented recently it was too much in one feed, I argued as its fiber its fine?

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

Allan and Page fast fibre/veteran vitality

 

[JillA]

Out of curiosity, what kind of amount is 2% of your horses bodyweight, soaked, daily? I ask because I feed my ponies equibeet with linseed and they get a small scoop each which makes about half a regular sized tub trug sized bucket and keeps they busy for a good 15 - 20 minutes. it keeps the weight on in winter alongside the hay they get. Someone commented recently it was too much in one feed, I argued as its fiber its fine?

The 2% is TOTAL - including any grass (who knows how much??) and fodder.
And 2% is to gain condition - your bucket feed is only a tiny proportion of that, and often contains some moisture. If your pony weighs around 400kg, daily total dry matter should be 4kg to lose weight, 6kg to maintain and 8kg to gain weight.
It is often easier to judge by how their weight responds to their diet, I just used that example for OP replacing everything with bucket feeds and how much she might need to buy per week. If your ponies are maintaining a good weight then it isn't too much - might not be the cheapest but for their weight it works.

 

[BlackRider]

Out of curiosity, what kind of amount is 2% of your horses bodyweight, soaked, daily? I ask because I feed my ponies equibeet with linseed and they get a small scoop each which makes about half a regular sized tub trug sized bucket and keeps they busy for a good 15 - 20 minutes. it keeps the weight on in winter alongside the hay they get. Someone commented recently it was too much in one feed, I argued as its fiber its fine?

if it is just fibre, then its fine, its buckets of cereals that cause a problem, its because of the time they take to digest.

 

[MissMistletoe]

My old pony has quite a few missing teeth now. He has soaked high fibre nuts and a trug of Fibergy to munch on when brought into the stable for a couple of hours daily.

He gets to graze on the paddocks with the most grass in.

In the Winter he gets a heck of a lot of soaked nuts and chaff to replace what the other horses get hay wise. He is penned off to eat his ration whilst the others eat their hay for a couple of hours. I can't risk him getting to their hay as he just spits it out or chokes.

 

[Polos Mum]

Third for soaked grass nuts, - my oldy with only front teeth lives of tubs and tubs of the stuff through the winter when there is no grass - I buy a full pallet which works out pretty cheaply and lasts more than 12 months for 14.1 eating only this for 3/4 months of the year