Help with what to feed

P

pixie27

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 August 2016
Messages
588
Visit site
Bought a v skinny 6 yr old TB about five weeks ago, since then he's been on adlib hay, on lots of good grass, and a scoop of chaff twice a day.

He's put on a decent amount of weight since, which i'm putting down to the hay/grass.

But we're moving yards soon. Currently YO is in control of feed, so he gets the chaff she uses (tack shop own I think), so I need to decide what to start feeding him once we move.

I'd like to keep him sugar/molass-free as much as possible - we tried him on pasture mix and it sent him a bit loopy. But his workload will be going up over the next few months, so I want to make sure he's getting enough from his feed.

He'll still be getting good grass and adlib hay.

So, what do people advise? I've heard good things about Thunderbrook chaff? But should I be feeding a balancer/something else alongside it?! Open to all and any recommendations.

Help! I'm used to natives that need starving, not horses that I need to actually think about feeding!
 
I've got a few skinny ones at the moment (makes a change!), who are steadily putting on weight with a good quality balancer, a couple of mugfulls of micronised linseed, and a scoop of fast fibre twice a day, plus ad lib hay. I also like copra, but it can be met with great suspicion, as it smells strongly of coconut!
 
Thanks both.

Two potentially daft questions - is micronised linseed heating at all?

And do you just feed it straight out of the bag? Or does it need to be cooked/soaked? (would be soaking feed anyway as usual, but unsure if it needs proper soaking, if that makes sense)
 
I have Arabs so they don't do well on high starch molassed feed it sends them stupid, so I feed graze on chaff it's just chopped grass nothing added, unmolassed sugar beet and micronised linseed and I just vary it through the year depending on the work they do and how they look.

I don't find the linseed heating but I don't need to feed loads of it only up to about 300g at the most as mine don't really drop weight to warrant it, I would start of with 50g and slowly increase over a few weeks and if you find his go to much energy drop it down, I have fed mine copra and found that there behaviour stayed the same but again I don't feed huge amounts so with anything I would start with very little and build it up and monitor behaviour.

micronised linseed is fed straight from the bag it is quite dry so I would add water if all your feed is dry, copra needs to be soaked into a crumble type texture it can take a while for some horses to like it so start with very little but after a while I find most horses love it.
 
Last edited:
pixie27 said:
Thanks both.

Two potentially daft questions - is micronised linseed heating at all?

And do you just feed it straight out of the bag? Or does it need to be cooked/soaked? (would be soaking feed anyway as usual, but unsure if it needs proper soaking, if that makes sense)
Click to expand...


Linseed doesn't heat Alf up at all (and you've seen how silly he can be!) I add mine to soaked feed anyway, bt wouldn't feed completely dry. You can make a lovely linseed jelly for warm winter dinner if you add boiling water and leave it a while!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top