Low energy alternatives to pony nuts...

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Dizzle

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My horse currently doesn’t get a lot in the way of hard feed, due to sensitivity to cereals, alfalfa, sugar etc (tb!!!) the main component of his hard feed is a handful of speedibeet and a handful of pony nuts, he only gets this so he can have a calmer in, although during winter the amounts increase. I would be happy feeding him the speedibeet on it’s own but to be honest he doesn’t really eat it, so I add the pony nuts and he loves it!

Anyway, last night I thought to look at the packet (this is the stuff I use: https://www.millbryhill.co.uk/eques...se-feed-593/baileys-hilight-hi-fibre-2013.htm) and it contains molasses, wheat feed and oatfeed, the energy level is 8??? Argh I’ve forgotten as it’s not a measurement I’ve heard of before, but I assume that horse feeds are measured in a similar way.

Anyway, I just wondered if there was anything else that I could feed that was even lower in energy…?
 
My horse has shivers so I have to be really careful what I feed him - cereal based feeds with a lot of starch and sugar in are bad for his shivers. I feed him a basic chaff (currently Dengie Hifi Lite) and D&H High Fibre Nuts. I don't feed any of the leisure mixes or competition mix as he seizes up on them. He is an incredibly good doer so doesn't need sugar beet.
 
Same as teddyt, these nuggets are brilliant! I use a bag a day for my five horses, ranging from young warmbloods to cobs that need their waist lines watched like a hawk! They all love them and they are very useful for just chucking in little piles in the fileds as they don'y go into a mush!
 
I have two good doers, I feed the Badminton High Fibre Complete nuggets as they have vitamins in whereas the other nuggets don't. The horses love them, they are cheap and are also great to use as healthy treats.
 
When you say 'energy' do you mean calories? If so, then a feed with 8 MJDE/kg is actually quite low calorie anyway, but if you want to go even lower then HiFi Good Doer is 7 MJDE/kg.

Alternatively, if you are worried about 'fizz' and the starch/sugar level then Fast Fibre is a low starch/sugar feed, with no whole cereals or molasses, and again is only 8 MJDE/kg.
 
If you dont want the energy/calories then just use chaff with your beet and supplements! You dont HAVE to put nuts or coarse mix into a horse.
 
Too late to edit my previous post, but only just spotted your horse can't have alfalfa and there is alfalfa in the Good Doer I mentioned above.
 
No indeed, I totally agree I would rather not feed him nuts and will never feed him a mix! When he wasn’t having supplements he didn’t get any nuts, just speedibeet, hay and grass. But now I need to get him to eat a supplement and nuts enocourage him to lick the bowl clean, plus it’s nice to give him a few in his treatball when he goes into bed.

The problem with a lot of chaffs are either that they’re mollassed or those that are for good doers/laminitis contain alfalfa.

In regards to chaff, does anyone know much about ReadiGrass? I was thinking about adding this as it’s unmollassed and natural and I assume, tasty?
 
I use Graze on for my cob who can't have sugar. It's much cheaper than ReadyGrass and cut finer. I think I pay around £7.50 for a 15kg bag and that lasts me well over a month using it 2 feeds a day. I just add a big handful to his Fast Fibre and Relax & Ride wet feeds and he loves it! Most of the horses on my yard now use Graze on instead of molassed chaff and they all love it. ;)
 
Have you tried Allen & Page Fast Fibre? My two good-doers are on it and doing well. Complete vitamin/mineral source, low starch and sugar, low calorie, non-heating and all natural. It soaks in 30 seconds and they seem to really like it :)
 
We use good old fashioned grass nuts, and have done for years. Having had many animals over the years with intolerances (horses, dogs and people at our house! :eek:) we are super careful what we feed. The current appy can't tolerate alfalfa (as I discovered when on her back!) So we now use grass nuts, graze on and speedy beet for anything that needs feed and we adjust the amounts depending on how good a doer they are.
 
Where do you get grass nuts from?

Alfalfa doesn't effect him too much when you're on his back, it's just the hind end trying to kick your head in you have to watch!
 
To be honest an energy level (DE) of 8 is very low energy and fairly typical for general horse and pony cubes I think.

What work is your horse doing?

I think D&H actually make a cube for sensitive horses called Equine Sensitive- mabe you could give them and some of the other feed companies a call- they are usually very helpful.
 
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