is all that feed really necessary?

forestfantasy

forestfantasy

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Is it just me that doesn't feed 5 different bags of feed to one horse?!

The more i look on HHO the more i'm shocked at how many different types of feed go into one bucket & the cost! (not talking supplements here)

Mine get Fast Fibre, Pro hoof & ad-lib haylage - thats it!

And i only used to feed a chop & mix before the horses went barefoot adding in barley when they were hunting.

Just me?!
 
I agree!!! And to be quite honest I disagree with most supplements too. Mine gets fibre cubes, Top Chop Lite and hay. She is perfectly healthy with a lovely shiny coat and very good feet. The fibre cubes have all the vitamins she needs. Why spend a shed load of money on any supplements?!! I can understand it for specific reasons ie biotin, or pink powder, but things like a 'general' supplement and haylege balancer seem pointless to me and just another money making venture. People just seem to think that the more supplements they add in their horse's feeds will make them healthier!!
 
No, it's not just you. There are plenty of fans of straights on here, but the feed industry has cottoned on to the fact that hobby owners can be sold all sorts of weird and wonderful products for their horses. I keep it as simple as possible myself; the horse can get the vast majority of its nutrition from hay/haylage. Adding a simple feed ( and not to much of it!) can ensure that the horse gets all its vits & minerals.
Most horses are overfed, and frankly they pee out all those expensive supplements!
 
I think some of the feeds can make it pretty hard to work out what you are feeding, so you add a bag of this, a bag of that etc and then end up spending a mortgage on feed each month!
Ours get fast fibre, chaff, microionized linseed and a mineral mix. They look ace on it and each ingredient is there for a reason.
 
jaquelin said:
No, it's not just you. There are plenty of fans of straights on here, but the feed industry has cottoned on to the fact that hobby owners can be sold all sorts of weird and wonderful products for their horses. I keep it as simple as possible myself; the horse can get the vast majority of its nutrition from hay/haylage. Adding a simple feed ( and not to much of it!) can ensure that the horse gets all its vits & minerals.
Most horses are overfed, and frankly they pee out all those expensive supplements!
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this - some of the supplement names make me :D
Especially Global herbs - Fireworx & Antisuck :rolleyes:
 
Alot of feeds are pretty much the same so people are just wasting money! I know someone that feeds Barley straight and also feeds a mix with barley in it , plus something else which is the exact same as her chaff. No wonder we have obese horses!
 
I feed Hi-Fi Lite and a handful of High Fibre cubes as a 'vehicle' for the Speedibeet I like them to have when they aren't getting grass.

We have a warmblood competition horse who has a kg of competition mix instead of the cubes.

The rest of the ration is haylage.
 
My friend feeds her 16hh warmblood a mixture of about 8 different feeds, three times a day, and the amount she gives him is unreal. I think she says she spends about £100 a month on feed. Quite a lot to my £10 bag that lasts a month, and that's when I do feed!
 
I'm quite shocked too by the amount and complexity of what people feed. I have 3 who are all totally different in needs but still manage to keep feed and costs to a minimum. One I compete, he's a slim built 16hh, the other two are retired elderly ponies (the 13.2hh has cushings and tends to drop weight over winter nowadays, the shetland I have to keep slim as she's very prone to laminitis). They all get speedi-beet. Horse also gets Alfa-A, conditioning cubes and superflex, 13.2hh gets Alfa-A and pergolide and shetland gets Happy Hoof and laminitis supplement. Think this is as minimal as I can make it!
 
Mine gets ad lib hay and Spillers Lite balancer and a tablespoon of salt. He looks great, is barefoot and has the best feet my podiatrist has on her round (so she says).
I may add Magox if he needs it in the spring/summer but I wouldn't feed anything else.
I think it's important to keep it simple, horses are not designed to cope with rich diets!
 
And people wonder why colic, laminitis and tying up are on the increase.
Horses guts cannot cope with so many cereals and starchy foods, but still we feed more for performance?? Uk forage (grass/hay/haylage) provides all the calories for a horse in light and medium work, the only thing missing may be some minerals and vitamins depending on the specific location, so these may need supplementing, but manufacturers play on peoples need to 'do the best for their horse' and make people feel guilty for not feeding them all the different types!
And the rediculous thing about it all is that the only difference between an overfed shod horse and an overfed barefoot horse is the shoes!!
In other words barefooters are called wierdos that are obsessed with diet (admittedly some may be) but most are just more able to see the results of overfeeding because the shoes have come off!!
 
I posted about this a bit ago (http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=512921) as I was wondering the same thing! Surely if you're going to buy a ready forumated feed for your horse you might as well choose the right one and then follow the instructions on the bag; or if you don't need to feed as much as recommended - then just use an all-round supplement to balance it off. Ditto too, that most adult leisure horse would do fine on just ad-lib hay/haylage.
 
My girl gets fed twice a day, in each feed she gets 1 round scoop chaff, 1 small rectangle scoop of unsoaked speedibeet (which is soaked before other feed is added) a mug of micronized linseed, oil, mag ox and brewers yeast. She gets ad lib hay at night and hay in the field. She's not overweight, she's just right and is keeping her weight steady on this so I'm happy with what shes getting :)
 
I have this theory that some horse owners like to mix and match feed so "it looks nice" :D Really for the one or two horse owner it should be quite easy with just a little bit of research to find a complete balancer or feed that suits without the need to mix in all these different types of feed and supplements. Most of the balancers have all the vits and minerals that a regular horse needs. Obviously the older or infirm horses may require the odd supplement added for daily maintenance but for the most part regular riding horses don't really require much to keep them healthy providing they have a good amount of high quality forage in front of them.

I don't feed hard feed to any horse on my farm in summer except the broodmares and foals who are fed a suitable balancer. My fields all have mineral blocks and good grazing and hay is always available in their barns should they want it. In winter all the horses are fed the same mix of naturals that I make up myself but I have feed bins galore so it's easy for me to do this. For the one or two horse owner using naturals is not so convenient as you need a lot of storage to do this.
 
Wow im so glad that most people have easy good doers!
Yep mine has, top line cubes, sugar beet, outshine, conditioning fibre, weightgain powder, and cortaflex.
She is a skinny tb with a major weight issue, you sneeze she drops 50kg.
She is on a worming program based on samples and has her teeth done reguarly.
So i would say that there are some of us out there who need lots of different feeds!
 
I purposefully feed as simply as I can. I only feed what I feed because I have too - my mare has alpha a-oil and cool & collected plus brewers yeast. The most important factor of her diet is forage, anything else I put into her system I've thought about for a long time. I don't feed much of it either (she has the "sample" amount of c&c!) she looks great and is in good health

there's so many feeds and supplements out there I think many people get side tracked by them without looking into what's actually gone into that product

but I suppose it comes down to the same old thing, whatever works for the individual horse
 
I have a 4yo KWPN and a 25 yo native cross, who both get pretty much the same! Oldie is a very good doer and will not be getting anything once spring grass comes through, 4 yo will still have a 'token' feed just to carry his vitamins and linseed supplement. Aside from that, they both get 1 scoop sugar beet a day and a scoop of chaff! Hay when frosty/risk of snow to help keep warm but thats it! Topspec Vitamins and Equimins Diamond Omega I feed 4yo to help (hopefully) with coat/feet/growth!
 
dianchi said:
Wow im so glad that most people have easy good doers!
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Actually some of mine are not always good doers. I have horses in their 20s and 30s and at times, particularly in a hard winter, they require different feed to hold their weight. There are many feeds out (often balancers) which cover this range of horse, different ones for old and young. Granted it can take time and a bit of research, even easier if you know the right people, to find the one that's perfectly suited for that particular type of horse, but they are out there.

Once mine are all up to weight (and they've ALWAYS got back up to weight) they get put back on my mix of naturals.
 
thats just it, feed companies have spent 100's of years and £millions creating the best feed for each instance and to be in one bag, and here we are buying this one and that one and mixing them together oblivious to how much ash/copper/zinc etc might be in each bag and now being doubled up to possibly the detriment to the horses health. there are many variations which gives us a choice but we do need to find the one we require and not mix it with others, complete waste of money.
 
I suppose it's not necessary, no. But it does make my life fairly easy.
I have a yard full of horses with different requirements, not enough storage to go for straights, really and by stocking a few bagged feeds I can fit everybody's dinner into my small feedroom. Also, time is money and the easier and faster mixable the feeds the better.
I suppose I could use a glug of oil instead of outshine, but it is messy, produces mountains of empty oil drums and some horses refuse to eat it. I would also question if it really is cheaper.
I have 1 that can't have alfalfa, 2 that can't have sugar, some poor doers and some fatties.
So, everything gets molasses and alfalfa free diet of:
Graze On
Speedibeet/Kwikbeet
Baileys Lo-cal balancer
Outshine if needed
ERS pellets for extra energy if needed, too.
Some have additional supplements, like joint support or Coligone or whatever it is that their owner wishes them to have.
All of them get ad lib forage, too.
 
beeswax said:
thats just it, feed companies have spent 100's of years and £millions creating the best feed for each instance and to be in one bag, and here we are buying this one and that one and mixing them together oblivious to how much ash/copper/zinc etc might be in each bag and now being doubled up to possibly the detriment to the horses health. there are many variations which gives us a choice but we do need to find the one we require and not mix it with others, complete waste of money.
Click to expand...
Bingo!! :)
 
My tb isn't a particular good doer but I have tailored her diet so that it suits her and she looks great all year round with glossy coat and good (shod) feet. It is low starch and no cereal. she has top spec cool condition cubes, top spec senior balancer, magnesium and speedi beet. she gets fed twice daily. also 6kg haylage and ad lib good quality hay. Most at my yard are fed quite simply and all look good.
 
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