Help with what to feed!

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ChestnutHunter

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My horse is extremely placid on the ground and a very gentle giant, but since being in work he has become fairly fit and excitable and it takes a while for him to settle in the school. We have just got a new horsebox so I am keen to get him out before the showing season starts but I don't want to risk any damage to either him or myself by filling him full of energy.

He is currently only on Baileys no.4 conditioning cubes, and was on happy hoof just to mix in his supplements, garlic etc. A couple of weeks ago he had a bad reaction to something he ingested and came up in huge lumps all over his body, and so have had to take him off his happy hoof, switched his haylage to soaked hay. He has been on steroids and the allergy has completely cleared up.

I can now get back on but he has had a few weeks off and I knew that his feed was a slight issue anyway, but I'm reluctant to feed anything that resembles chaff to mix in his supplements.....


I'm struggling to find the happy medium as when I bought him he was on competition mix to try and get some energy in, but winter has left him a bit too fresh!

Does anybody have any recommendation as to how to keep the condition on, minus the extra energy, but still be able to mix his added extras in without him pulling a face?
 
I feed my horse simply on speedibeet and chaff (I actually use happy hoof but obviously that's not working for your boy!). The nutritionist has suggested if I need extra energy to add oil to his diet, he reacts fairly strongly to sugars so I try to avoid them. Don't soak your hay unless he needs to drop off weight as this will take the nutrients out, try just spraying it to take the dust out. You could try using a chaff such as alfa-a oil.
 
I feed Simple Systems grass nuts, nothing else, and our horses are ridden six days a week and compete regularly.

They do a blue bag and a red bag - the red bag nuts are much higher energy.

Well worth a try, about as simple as you can get, and cheap as chips to feed - win, win :)
 
I think that baileys feed is barley based - maybe hence the lumps - also high in energy
maybe something barley free...

my friend has moved over to Havens Natural Balance for this very reason - no need to feed anything else with it whatsoever - she is amazed at the results and im thinking of changing mine onto it also
 
we feed speedibeet, linseed meal and alfalfa (plus supplements) for our two old boys who are still hunting at 21.... works for us.
Ron is very starch sensitive, so I can't really give him cereals... no.4 & no.17 both sent him over the edge and made him unrideable, but he's alwaysl a proper gent on the ground.
 
"Condition" and "energy" are the same thing, namely calories going in. Whether the feed "goes to his head" or "on his ribs" has likely more to do with where the calories are coming from (sugars and starches are digested quickly and raise blood sugar, which can give you a fizzy horse) as well as the horse's temperament and how much turnout/exercise they are getting.

I'd probably stick with plain feeds. Grass and/or alfalfa nuts make a good base for mixing stuff into. Alfalfa is higher in quality protein, while grass nuts tend to be a bit higher in sugar. Micronized linseed is a good source of very concentrated energy from fat. Unmolassed sugar beet is another option. There are also plain chaffs available (e.g. Halley's Feeds do a plain grass and plain alfalfa chaff, Thunderbrooks and Agrobs each do a meadow grass type chaff with nothing added except herbs).
If you want to add more concentrated energy, you could try adding plain oats. They are higher in starch than any of the fibre-based feeds above, but compared to most competition mixes, plain oats are definitely lower in sugar, and usually lower in starch. And most horses really like oats. You could even use them just as a top-dressing to make the feed tastier.
Another tip is that cubes are usually lower in sugar than mixes (i.e. potentially less fizz reaction), but with the allergic reaction you've had I'm not sure if you'd want to try either mix or cube again.
 
BORODIN said:
I think that baileys feed is barley based - maybe hence the lumps - also high in energy
maybe something barley free...

my friend has moved over to Havens Natural Balance for this very reason - no need to feed anything else with it whatsoever - she is amazed at the results and im thinking of changing mine onto it also
Click to expand...

Baileys No4 does not have any barley listed in its content -in fact says barley free on the outer package.
 
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