Help me find some feed...

W

wench

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 December 2005
Messages
10,260
Visit site
Looking for the almost impossible here!

Horse has currently has a powered balancer with a load of sugar beet. I'm wanting alter diet slightly away from the SB. Also gets haylage, but not adlib. In light work, and currently stabled all the time.

I'm looking for something to put her balancer in. Needs to be free of molasses, soya and alfalfa, low in starch, and fairly low energy (around 9mj)

She doesn't need much to eat, just something to stick the balancer in, along with a muscle supplement she's just about to start on.

Any ideas great fully recieved
 
Fast Fibre would do the job, speedibeet if you are on molassed beet currently would be no starch and much lower sugar or what I am using for mine, soaked grass nuts which I mix with the FF as one would not eat much FF without something more tasty in.
 
Hi that would be useful... I was under the impression that mollichaff has a small amount of mollases in it.

Horse is allergic to soya and mollases, and I'm not keen on using alfalfa, so options are limited!!!
 
If she only needs a tiny bit of something to carry a balancer and supplement then I would either use Speedibeet (unmolassed sugar beet, if you aren't already using that), or switch to something like grass nuts. I think you can get grass chop too and that is just that - grass.
 
Unmollased SB is being used ATM, however yard are giving her too much of it for my liking... I would prefer something low energy so if she gets a load of it, she's not being filled up with energy.

Grass nuts and chop are if similar de to SB
 
wench said:
Unmollased SB is being used ATM, however yard are giving her too much of it for my liking... I would prefer something low energy so if she gets a load of it, she's not being filled up with energy.

Grass nuts and chop are if similar de to SB
Click to expand...

Just ask them to give less, it is your horse so stipulate exactly how much she is to have in each feed or to make it even simpler get a container of some type that is the right size and say 1 of these each feed. Unmollassed beet is pretty low in sugar, lower than mollichaff calmer and zero starch so it should not be giving her too much energy even if they are a little generous.
 
The de of SB is approx 11-12... Which is similar to a lot of competition mixes/feed for horses in medium work
 
Mollichaff calmer: Oat straw, grass pellets, oat feed pellets, came molasses, dried grass, soya oil, v&m's pre mix, spearmint, salt, dicalcium phosphate, chamomile flowers, lemon balm.
 
Sounds tasty! Alas not much use due to the soya and molasses.

I'm guessing that's what you have fig on? It worked wonders on one of my friends horses!
 
He does seem to enjoy it! He is alfalfa intolerant - I have worked out that 3 scoops of winergy conditioning and not a handful more is the max he can eat without going stupid sharp.

Currently he's on 2 mugs of linseed, 1 scoop of mollichaff calmer, 2.5 scoops winergy conditioning and 2.5 scoops of oats (split over 3 feeds). I'll be able to knock the oats off once summer (hah!) arrives as he does really well on grass when it's warm, just drops weight as soon as the temperature does.

I have to say, just decreasing the winergy by half a scoop is putting less strain on my bank balance. The oats are so cheap, and the chaff (for the amount I use) is negligible also. Now he's eating up I'm going to reduce and then completely take him off the powdered fenugreek. It is good for tummies, so will be interesting to see if there's a difference in him. But if it served its purpose as an appetite stimulant, and is no longer needed, then it's just less money I need to spend!

He's given me SUCH a headache with feed, I'm desperately hoping I've got it sorted.
 
I have trawled through every feed manufacturer I can think of and everything low calorie/chaff either has molasses or soya in it! Had to give in on the alfalfa though.

Think I have found a chaff I can give with the balancer, just waiting for the manufacturer to confirm that there is no soya in it.
 
wench said:
The de of SB is approx 11-12... Which is similar to a lot of competition mixes/feed for horses in medium work
Click to expand...

But because it swells up I often find I'm not feeding that much by dry weight so a 'ration' ends up lower in DE than something that is theoretically lower in calories but has not absorbed water.

Honeychop do a plain straw chaff, nothing added at all. I've used it to carry minerals with a bit of mint added for a horse that didn't like wet feeds.
Someone else does a timothy chop.

Nikkimariet - where are you sourcing your fenugreek? If you find you need to continue with it I find cotswold herbs very cheap for things like that. However I either get together with other people to order enough to get free delivery or buy when i get an email about free delivery or special offers.
 
criso said:
Nikkimariet - where are you sourcing your fenugreek? If you find you need to continue with it I find cotswold herbs very cheap for things like that. However I either get together with other people to order enough to get free delivery or buy when i get an email about free delivery or special offers.
Click to expand...

Pro earth :)
 
It's them I have contacted... It was more to do with their ad lib chop, just waiting for them to confirm no soya!
 
Buddy'sMum said:
Halleys' timothy chop is just that, no added extras. Northern Crop Driers do a plain grass chop.
Click to expand...

Yes the timothy chop is just that as is the plain straw chop they do but Wench was asking about their ad lib chop. This is a straw alfalfa mix so may contain oil as alfalfa can be more prone to breaking up than straw or hay
 
I did put above that I'd had to give up on the alfalfa free bit, that was a definate no go.

She's not allergic to alfalfa, I'm just not very keen on it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top