Horse diet (simplified!)

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Npsouth

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Does anyone feed a really basic feed of fibre beet/sugar beet/linseed/balancer (or similar).

I keep seeing an advert for this type of diet (although now I’m looking for it, I’ll be damned if I can find it).

If so, what do you feed and how does yours do on it? Also interested to know when you went from to this type of feeding, and why

For context, I have a 9 year old thoroughbred ex racer and a 4 year old warmblood. I guess it’s a case of choosing the right balancer for the type and the level at which your feed the mash?
 
I went through a lot of feeds for my ex-racer and he was struggling to keep him looking really well in winter and his stomach would keep having niggles.

Swapped initially three years ago to balancer, sugarbeet, grass nuts, grass chop and micronised linseed with the thinking that grass is what gets him looking so well in summer and sugarbeet is good for their stomachs and damps the feed and micronised linseed is good for weight amongst other things. Horse did much better than on the other feeds and was looking good on it. However I've now discovered Omega Rice and swear by it. I'm now feeding the horses, grass chop, balancer, sugarbeet and a mug of omega rice twice a day and they are looking and doing great.

I'd never go back to all the other mixes, nuts and mashes etc. a lot of them have stuff I'd never choose to feed, with some very misleading marketing. I also don't like that you have to feed such vast quantities of some of them when horses aren't designed to have massive feeds. They also cost a fortune - a bag of omega rice lasts for a month and sugarbeet and grass chop lasts months.
 
Sort of. I have 3 with different workloads / needs so was trying to get something which would adapt for all

Haycobs / grass chaff / sainfoin chop is my base with a powder balancer. That works fine for the 2 good doers who only get small amounts & a sprinkle of sainfoin.

The one who isn't a good doer & needs more protein gets a decent scoop of sainfoin and I'm trying him on some oil & conditioning cubes as I don't want him any lighter.
 
I feed 1/3 scoop (dry weight) of 50:50 soaked grass and alfalfa pellets with a 1/4 scoop of chaff to mix and the Progressive Earth Pro Mineral. My horses live out and have ad-lib Haylage through the winter months. Most of them are youngstock, 1 is an ex-racehorse and 1 is competing BS/ BE. They all do very well on this- it’s simple and it’s cheap.
 
I'm feeding a 31yo with around twelve teeth missing. Sugar beet and fibre beet are fed together with grass chaff as a forage replacer. He also gets meadow grass haylage, which I chop up for him, and a balancer. He had a gut biome assay a couple of years ago, which pointed to the importance of variety in the diet. So far, so good....
 
Yes, depending on the horse’s weight and workload I’ll feed a base of sainfoin pellets and/or speedibeet (soaked) at varying amounts, one has grass chaff mixed in (as won’t eat a plain mash), with micronised linseed and forage plus balancer (plus some get other herb supplements and all on oily herbs). Works great for everyone.
 
balancer, mash, chaff - the mash is more for me, because i feel like supplements don’t mix very well with the chaff and i like knowing im getting a bit more water in them!

lily has her joint supplement, diva has biotin because of her keratoma removal. i’ve tried a fair few supplements for this and that and honestly not seen a difference🤣 so keeping it simple now! i am going to add salt in also though.
 
Thanks all - this is really interesting and exactly what I’m looking for.

Which grass chaffs are recommended? I generally like emerald green feeds so they’re. Chaff is a solid contender for me. The thunderbrooks chaff ticks a lot of boxes for me but I’m just not sure I can support the brand morally (a shame as I do believe their products are great)
 
Yes my 16yr old ID mare is on a balancer (Gain Opti-Care) and unmolassed beet (speedi-beet). I also add in micronised linseed because it helps with her skin, without it she gets a very dry and itchy tail.
The beet is mostly to wet the feed a bit, something about a totally dry bucket feed seems wrong to me.
 
Npsouth said:
Thanks all - this is really interesting and exactly what I’m looking for.

Which grass chaffs are recommended? I generally like emerald green feeds so they’re. Chaff is a solid contender for me. The thunderbrooks chaff ticks a lot of boxes for me but I’m just not sure I can support the brand morally (a shame as I do believe their products are great)
Click to expand...

Emerald Greens grass chaff is good, I struggle to get hold of it here and swapped to D & H Just Grass and although they're both grass the Just Grass has a huge amount more volume (it's packed tightly in to the bag) and so lasts a lot longer than the Emerald Green.
 
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I use Graze On, mainly because it's a 14kg bag and lasts longer. Tried using soaked grass pellets, and he practically inhales them, so back to chaff mixed through the beet. He's been on Equilibra balancer for years, probably below the recommended amount, but looking good.
 
My 15 year old Warmblood is on a Balancer (Equilibra), Chaff (Dengie Ulcer Lite), Mash (Baileys Keep Calm) with Protexin Acid Ease, a Joint Supplement and Salt.

She loses condition quite quickly if I don’t watch out in winter, but gets too fizzy on high Starch / Sugar feeds.

To feed a little more Protein, alongside turnout and hay I also give her Haylage.

She has a history of ulcers 🥹
 
I feed mine very simply I believe…two have soaked hi fibre cubes with pelleted balancer and the other has Speedibeet and pelleted balancer. I always feed soaked feed so there is liquid going into the gut and I don’t feed chaff because our vet dentist advised against it as it can stick in teeth gaps and they have access to ad lib dry forage when in the stable.
 
I feed sugarbeet, grass or alfalfa cubes according to need, mixed flakes if working enough to need it, linseed meal and mineral balancers/ joint supplements/ Protexin as needed.

And currently using small handfuls of Re-leve to gets meds into the oldie, separate to his main feeds.
 
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