Head is spinning with new info, how did our horses cope before?

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teasle

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So we have to balance our horses mineral intake, its not good enough to buy a general supplement because they contain iron that our horses already get enough of and this extra iron stops them absorbing zinc and copper that they need. And feed cant have any mollases in it but most of them do. How did oour horses survive before all this. 15 years ago I rode a bafefoot cob and he was out at grass all the time and fed mollased sugar beet in the winter. Another girl had a pony that she rode without shoes till he was 27 or so, and he was out at grass and fed a fair bit of ordinary pony nuts as he was s slim chap. Another friend rode 2 horses for years unshod, andthey were just treated and fed like any other horse. Just cant get my head round what I need to do.
 
Whispers....some of us still don't feed any supplements or balancers :eek: and the horses seem to be surviving
 
Mine live on soaked, plain oats, unmolassed sugar beet and straw...they have a mineral/salt block and our water is full of calcium. That's it. Oh, FB has Superflex for his joints too.
 
Years ago when I had my ponies they lived out 24/7 on old leys, the ones that weren't good enough for cattle. The fencing was banks and hedgerows which hadn't been touched for hundreds of years so they got good variety of forage. The hay was from old meadows. I fed oats when they were working hard and some sugarbeet in the winter for weight.

Now I keep my horse in an area where alot of the grazing is fertilised ryegrass originally for cattle but the farms moved to horse livery when dairy farming stopped being profitable. It's split into small paddocks with electric fencing so not only do they lose out on all the plants and herbs but there is little shelter from either sun or rain. Most people feed their horses a pre made mix or cube which has a list of ingredients as long as your arm and sounds like a chemistry lesson and this is mixed with straw coated in sugar with some extras thrown in.
Then they feed a balancer or supplement which just throws even more into the mix most of which they don't need.
How many people say "he just gets a handful of pony nuts and a balancer" without really being aware of what is in those.

I don't feed mixes or chaff and try to keep things simple and forage based and I did get my pasture analysed and it turned out to be very high in some things and low in other so I feed 4 minerals as opposed the 12 that were in the supplement I fed previously.

It's more hassle but actually has simplified my horses diet but if I was in a different situation I might not have to.
 
OP I agree with you and in the spirit of 'horses coped without these feeds/supplements years ago' decided that my lot could do without their Bailey's Lo Cal. They have meadows with hedgerows, trees and plants to graze and in addition, round hay bales in winter.
Have to say, that I did notice a difference in coat and condition after a couple of months. Put them back on it and they returned to their bright and shiny selves again. I was really surprised.
Perhaps greater nutrition and access to information on horse care is one of the reasons why horses are living longer ?
 
Hey :)

My chunky moose of a mare lives out 24/7 (has a rug in the m/w rug in the winter) and doesn't have too much grass in her field just adlib hay which isn't the best quality :( and then she gets a 1/4 scoop of nuts :) no feed balancers etc etc (only i did put her on HorseFirst KeepMeSound a couple of days back and she has a little oil in her feed but that's it :) )

Here she is :) Doesn't look too bad IMO :)

254958_2153104587466_1241963108_32652053_125959_n.jpg

(not the most attractive pic. but she's not much of a poser ;) )
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I think there's a balance, and it does depend on your ambitions for your horse. My old boy had supplements in his feed to help with his terribly old bones- we ran out once, and he was notably less comfortable and happy. Reg gets lots of feed (in the winter, he gets a full bucket of the dry stuff with water, and a small bucket of alpha beet twice a day) along with more hay than he'll eat and atm lots of decent grass (out 24/7). He's on brewers yeast, baileys balancer and something else as supplements, with a glug of oil in each feed. He looks amazing off all this!

Top athletes take supplements and eat properly and appropriately, and we want our horse to be able to be at the top of whatever level he is. To do this, he needs a lot of food and correct supplements just to keep him from looking mildly hat-rack-esque!
 
A lady at the yard has educated herself with the knowledge to determine (by sending for analysis) the mineral content of the horses forage and can then work out what is missing in the horses diet so those minerals only in the correct proportions are supplemented. And by buyong the basic minerls rather than highly adveertised supplements, she says it is cheaper.
 
like others have said Years ago we didn't keep horses on cow grass, in paddocks with no hedgerows etc.

My lad is kept at a yard where he has little shelter, a smallish paddock and it's old cow pasture.

At first I didn't feed him a vit supplement but was a bit poor when I got him so had the correct amount of feed. He seemed to do fine on it, put on weight etc.

Then he became a VERY good doer so I had to reduce his feed intake. Because of this I added a vit supplement. WOW within weeks his coat gleamed, he had an extra sparkle he didn't have before.

So now I wouldn't not feed it
 
I didn't used to use any supplements, and my horses were fine. I now balance their minerals, and they are better - much less hoof flare being the most noticable thing.
 
TuscanBunnyGirl said:
Hey :)

My chunky moose of a mare lives out 24/7 (has a rug in the m/w rug in the winter) and doesn't have too much grass in her field just adlib hay which isn't the best quality :( and then she gets a 1/4 scoop of nuts :) no feed balancers etc etc (only i did put her on HorseFirst KeepMeSound a couple of days back and she has a little oil in her feed but that's it :) )

Here she is :) Doesn't look too bad IMO :)

254958_2153104587466_1241963108_32652053_125959_n.jpg

(not the most attractive pic. but she's not much of a poser ;) )
254939_2154568144054_1241963108_32653803_5101288_n.jpg
Click to expand...

What a beautiful place you live in. Beautiful horse too.
 
As a horse owner of 40 years I have fed arabians,shetlands,irish draughts,partbreds even donkeys bog standard soaked sugarbeet shreds or cubes. never had a problem. I also feed oats and other straights when necessary. Most of the stuff talked about horse feeds is rubbish,basedon peoples anxieties and fears,fears of being a bad horse owner,fear of the horse itself,owners to frightened to ride or handle the horse.
 
Teasle if the lady on your yard has had an analysis done, will she let you look at it to see if anything jumps out as being especially high or low and you can decide if it's worth doing.

It is much cheaper than buying a premixed mineral supplement BUT a lot more of a faff. Because mine is on livery I don't think it's fair to ask yard staff to do it so I mix them up in plastic bags and they tip one in to his feed.
In my case I already had the quietest racehorse in the world so no behavioural issues to fix but he got shinier, feet were stronger and he's not so prone to mud fever or thrush so I assume his immune system is stronger.

By cutting out mixes and cubes and going back to straights and forage based feeding I think I have gone back to the best of the traditional ways but combined it with some useful new services on offer.
 
Yes she will help with the balancing, but how many of you analise your forage and use the info to feed straight supplements of what is lacking and how much does it cost you?
 
I learned to ride in the 1950's when none of this stuff existed, if I remember correctly the horses got grass and hay. Ponies I rode were so fat in the summer we rode bareback as their saddles would not fit.

I don't recall ever seeing or hearing talk about laminitis.
 
Mine get a token feed a handful of mix and a handful of chaff IF they work hard - Summer or Winter.
They are on grass (and hay in winter).
Both are as healthy and shiny as the other horses on the yard getting large feeds.

I haven't had soil/hay analysed but am thinking of going down this route.
 
horserider said:
What a beautiful place you live in. Beautiful horse too.
Click to expand...

:) Thank youu :)

Took a LOT of getting used to must say ;) Not the same respect for animals out here as there is in the uk so little bit shocked still at some of the things..they think ours are treated like angels though its no different from the rough n tumble horses in the UK :P
But we do have some lovely hacking :D :D
she's a very sweet mare :) not great conformation but shes a lovely all the same :) xx
 
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