Livery horses - do you feed what your yard says?

[MagicMelon]

I keep my horses privately at home and have worked out their feeds after great research! They all have individually tailored feeds based on their needs.

I was shocked to hear from a friend who keeps her horse at livery that her horse gets fed "whatever the yard feed" which I understand to be oats and some cheap chaff (presumably because it is cheap). Im rather shocked that the owner doesn't even KNOW what feed her horse gets (and wonders why it is excitable) and that it seems to be deemed acceptable to feed all horses (from competition horses to retired, fat to thin) exactly the same thing even though it may well not suit them!

Is this the norm to not get any input or choice at yards??

 

[JessPickle]

Our yard feed lots of different straights, you then get your pick of what you want. Then if you want something other you ask them to order it and pay for it end of.

 

[Jemayni]

ditto

 

[parsley]

Mine is on DIY so they get whatever I feed him

 

[Bossanova]

Most of our liveries are happy to leave it to us and the feeding is carefully thought out. Some prefer to choose/ change quantities and thats fine by us but if they wish to use feeds we dont normally use, they have to buy their own.

 

[Tierra]

When I moved to my latest place, I was told from the go that they would feed whatever I wanted him on... on the condition that I advised them with this since im from the UK and moved to Denmark.

As it happened, i got talking to the stable master at the new yard about equine diets and was completly blinded about the amount of knowledge he had and how much they tailored the diets to what the horses were doing.

In the end, I sat down with him and told him what my horse would be doing and told him to work it out his self!

At my last yard we got a choice of competition mix, cool mix, veteran nuts, conditioning cubes and some standard H&P nuts. In winter you had the option of sugar beet... Then it was alfa or molichop... any supplements were upto the owner to buy

 

[merlinsquest]

I am on Assisted DIY where the feed is included.... but i prefer to make my own feeds.... I have always been on complete DIY before and was used to making the feeds, I suppose I still see it as my job!!!

Anyway I feed weird things like sunflower seeds and expensive things like Topspec and cortaflex...so I want to make sure is going down my horses throat!!!!

 

[sillygillyhorse]

My horses are on part livery with feed etc included. We do have a basic choice of different mixes/nuts and a couple of different chaffs to choose from. Any supplements or balancers etc are the responsibility of the owner. YM is always receptive to discussion about diet and my horses general well being but as she is very knowledgeable and observant it is very rare for me to have to make adjustments. All the feeds/supplements for each horse are written up on a board in the feed room so anyone can see what their horses are being fed.

I do buy some expensive suppliments but YM is totally straight and I know they go into my horses feeds.

I would never be on a yard for part/assisted livery that tried to completely dictate how and what my horses were fed. As others have said they are all individuals and deserve to be treated as such.

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I was involved at a yard & owners with horses on livery decided what their horses were to be fed. The feed was included oin the livery price. We did however say that the livery price included feed up to a certain price per bag. We came to an arrangement if their particular choice of feed was more expensive. The likes of 'Blue Chip' & other additives etc were classed as extras & were paid for ontop of normal livery price.Owners were happy with that arrangement.

It is ridiculous to feed all horses the same as their individual requirement differ so much from any illness or intollerance they may have to what type of work they are doing.

 

[bellaM]

If I listened to what my yard owner told me my pony would be skin and bone!!!! Her teeth aren't all that good and she isn't the best doer, he thought that was rubbish told me that I should have her on only a small amount of hay, considering last year she was looking not great on build up and is a native pony I don't think so some how!!!

 

[jesterfaerie]

My lad is kept at home so cannot really answer this.
but I was on a rather large yard (50 some horses if not more) for my college work placement and they were all fed the same amount, a mix made by the staff (pasture mix/bran and nuts) handful of chaff and a handful of sugarbeet.
No matter what age they were or how much work they were in or what type of work they all got the same, only difference was that the bigger horses got more.

I understand it would be a a long task to make each individual feed different to suit the horse and probably a lot more costly but i honestly don't agree with the way things were run there in regards to feeding as it was the same food for everything the horses who do jump lessons and the little ponies who potter around for an hour a week.

IMO I do think feeds should be more carefully thought out then this. As they would sooner change bits than change the feed there, from the impression I got from been there two years (from college plus a month placement).

 

[darksecret99]

All the horses at my yard get fed variations on the same 4 feeds... they simply wouldnt have room to store all the feeds if everyone did their own thing! You can have suppliments added if you buy your own and label the tubs...

I do my own though (noones else does!!), but I have to keep it all in my car (AKA the mobile feedshed)!!! I would rather do that though and be able to tailor it to how much work he does each day, monitoring his condition etc etc

Reckon it works out cheaper than paying them for it too... But my car does stink of garlic if I leave it parked in the sun!!!

That said, most of the liveries are fairly clueless, so it actually makes sense for them to leave it to the staff, who also put the horses in/out, teach them etc, so can see the horses energy/condition etc!

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

I think it varies from yard to yard.

I know at my old yard, the full/part liveries had a choice from the feeds we had 'in stock' - a competition mix, a working mix, barley, oats, sugar beet and chaff. They could specify what they wanted from that and we would feed it. If they wanted anything else or a particular brand they had to supply it themselves.

At my current yard, we supply bob standard pony nuts to the part/full/working liveries. If they want anything else fed they provide it themselves. This seems to work as most of our liveries are Working liveries anyway and riding school ponies don't tend to need feeding up as a rule LOL.

 

[BeckyD]

I'm having issues round this at the moment. I'm on a lovely yard where everything else seems perfect, the YO is really knowledgeable. But all horses get the same feed, just differing amounts I think. It's chaff and pony cubes. But I've got a 4yo TB ex-racer who needs some more condition, and gets ridden 4/5 times a week for an hour, and I think he needs something more. So I'm considering giving him a feed balancer.

It's really difficult for me to not control what he's being fed, I've always been DIY/at home before and have taken great satisfaction from finding the right feed and my horse doing well on it etc etc.