Mash & chaff

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AutumnDays

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Do you feed one, the other, or both together? Just interested, as a friend had a feed rep out at the livery yard she has horses at, who told her feeding chaff and mash together is a no no. She does so because she can hide his meds in the mash, and adds the chaff in to slow him down, otherwise he inhales it (and has perfected the slurping technique for wetter mash!). He's on restricted grazing too, so I kinda get the wanting to give him something to chew train of thought. In the purpose of education, I said I'd ask on here for her, as she feels very chastened by this person!
Mine are currently on a token of fast fibre to hide some salt in, as they ignore the blocks on offer.
 
That's what I feed (& in one form or another for decades). Currently soaked hay pellets mixed with chaff, but fed beet & chop to everything when younger.

Did she say why it's a bad idea? There's a fashionable nutritionist around saying horses can't digest chaff and it causes gut problems. I have asked for science & seen nothing...
 
SEL said:
That's what I feed (& in one form or another for decades). Currently soaked hay pellets mixed with chaff, but fed beet & chop to everything when younger.

Did she say why it's a bad idea? There's a fashionable nutritionist around saying horses can't digest chaff and it causes gut problems. I have asked for science & seen nothing...
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Apparently she was told the digest them differently, so one or the other is fine, but not both together?! She didn't ask any more about it after being told that. I personally don't see a problem with it!
 
I feed both - it stops cobbus from otherwise inhaling his tiny dinner and I can add salt & supplements.

Why are they so against it? I use an independent nutritionist who is keen on the mix for encouraging chewing and therefore saliva.

eta: cross-posted, that's an odd explanation.
 
Having spent a winter with a horse that could only eat mash (inc forage 🫠), I am very much enjoying just sloshing some balancer in a bucket!
 
I fed mine fast fibre with chaff for many years and she never had digestive problems and looked well…. Previously she had sugar beet with chaff same as I’ve fed all my horses for over 50 years . Only ever had one colic and that was sorted out at home and we found that people had put mown grass in the field so don’t think it was anything to do with her feed… I know we should pay attention to new ideas etc but I would like some proof that feeding the 2 together caused problems
 
AutumnDays said:
Apparently she was told the digest them differently, so one or the other is fine, but not both together?! She didn't ask any more about it after being told that. I personally don't see a problem with it!
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What a load of rubbish!
Soaked grass/ alfalfa nuts and chaff successfully fed here for many years!
 
Haha it's good to see so many of us are having the same thoughts! Friend thanks all of you for replying, and says she's feeling much better about her regime and sticking to it! The only reason the rep was invited is because a group of them wanted the weighbridge, and then thought it would be polite to listen and maybe grab some samples. Quite bizarre to be told they can't digest the two together, it's not like the stomach has different running programmes!
 
AutumnDays said:
Apparently she was told the digest them differently, so one or the other is fine, but not both together?! She didn't ask any more about it after being told that. I personally don't see a problem with it!
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Once teeth, saliva and stomach acid have done their job I'm not sure it matters what form it was in the bucket.

I've been lectured again on FB by Dr Fritz devotees that chaff is bad - but zero science as usual.
 
SEL said:
Once teeth, saliva and stomach acid have done their job I'm not sure it matters what form it was in the bucket.

I've been lectured again on FB by Dr Fritz devotees that chaff is bad - but zero science as usual
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From what I gather there was no science or explanation from this rep either. I've told her if it ain't broke don't fix it, he's been on it for years, it's working well for both of them, just laugh it off.
 
I'm currently only feeding one but have fed both without any issues - I'm only feeding one atm as my good doer doesn't need the extra chaff in the summer (appreciate calories are negligible).
 
For as long as I've been responsible for feeding horses I have fed chaff with whatever else they've had, be it beet, cubes, oats, mix, mash. Current horse has mash with chaff and a handful of cubes to add interest, I might bulk it up with beet in the winter (those A&P mashed can be expensive!) The only issue I've ever had re feeding was choke in an oldie and I doubt the chaff was to blame, he ate that (mixed with mash) until he was PTS due to a field injury he failed to recover from, he was in his 30s.
 
I've fed mash and chaff no problems to a wide range of horses!

Both my guys like it as sloppy as possible so get a soupy mix, which also helps with hydration in the colder months, and I've never come across any issues.

In fact when I had the feed rep out last year, she told me that it was great I fed mash and chaff and she can't understand why people say that it's a no go......
 
I always add chaff to my soaked feeds - it bulks it out and slows them down. Currently I add a handful of Dengie Veteran to my soaked Baileys Meadow Cobs and it works well.

The only potential issue I can see with feeding mash and chaff together is that a sloppy mash won’t encourage a horse to chew well, and they need to chew chaff well to increase the surface area to digest it properly in the hind gut. But it’s not a massive problem - just make sure you’re feeding chaff too you feed enough for the horse to need to chew and trigger salivation properly (avoiding choke).
 
I have heard from a different nutritionist that the issue with chaff is that the stalks are short and sharp and poke the gut walls and cause ulcers 🙃

I still feed chaff.
 
smolmaus said:
I have heard from a different nutritionist that the issue with chaff is that the stalks are short and sharp and poke the gut walls and cause ulcers 🙃

I still feed chaff.
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I think that can massively vary between chaffs though - not aimed at you but in general, do we know if there has been any research/ papers on this? I can kind of see the logic behind it but does it definitely cause ulcers? Some hay can be fairly spikey??

As to the original question, I'm another who feeds mash and chop and has had no issues.
 
Squeak said:
I think that can massively vary between chaffs though - not aimed at you but in general, do we know if there has been any research/ papers on this? I can kind of see the logic behind it but does it definitely cause ulcers? Some hay can be fairly spikey??

As to the original question, I'm another who feeds mash and chop and has had no issues.
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There appears to be a few small studies, one from 2017 (links to PDF) and another on weanling foals that I can't find a paper for, just articles. Both only used alfalfa and had several confounding factors, so certainly isn't definite based on what I can find (very little).
 
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