Mix in feed - am I sad???

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My horse is on TopSpec feed balancer, HiFI, and Spillers conditioning mix. Ideally I would have liked to put him on the TopSpec conditioner (to go with the TS balancer!). The trouble is, I really like there to be a mix in the feed as I think they like mix and it makes the feed "nicer"
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Topspec conditioner is flakes and so rather than feed this and a mix, I feed Spillers conditioning mix.
Is it sad / wierd to think my horse will enjoy his feed more if he has mix in it??
 
Research has shown that mix is no better for horses than cubes. \it is made because we humans like to see it and think it is nicer. Just the reason why colouring is added by some feed manufacturers to certain products beacuse we like to see green in our horses feed. So your not sad its just your human emotion taking over. I actually dont feed mix at all.
 
I know it isn't better for the horse - it just looks so much nicer!!
I feel I need to get over this but feel bad just feeding cubes and HiFi as it looks so boring!!
 
Mine have Allen & Page calm and condition (which dissolves into a brown mush) and some alfa a........It looks boring but I don't think they could cope with much more colour in their lives
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They did some trials a few years ago and found that horses prefer cubes. The only reason for mixes is that humans like to buy them for horses... the horse would buy the cubes.
 
If you think about it....horses don't get bored eating grass or hay....
But I liked mixes when I managed a yard...as I could work out what each feed was...if DIY owners couldn't make it etc.
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I prefer the look of mix to nuts - it looks like a tasty bowl of muesli, and I like to pinch the odd bit of maize, whereas nuts always look hard to chew and tasteless. But when I gave my fussy NF pony half a scoop of mix on one side of his bowl and half a scoop of nuts in the other, he ate the nuts first. So what do I know!
 
To be quite honest if he is already on Top Spec balancer he doesn't need a conditioning mix on top. Why not give him extra chaff and some apples, pears and carrots, cider vinegar, spearmint and other different things you can vary each feed time if it would make you feel better?
 
And then you get naughty ponies like one of my Welshies who would pick out whatever the pellets were in his mix and leave the rest
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Swapped him onto cubes - then he ate the lot.
 
As has been said, horses don't eat with their eyes. They don't care if it's a mix or cubes. It's only us humans that prefer their food to look like expensive muesli. They don't get bored with it either, just put some carrots apples etc in it.
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To be quite honest if he is already on Top Spec balancer he doesn't need a conditioning mix on top. Why not give him extra chaff and some apples, pears and carrots, cider vinegar, spearmint and other different things you can vary each feed time if it would make you feel better?

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Why not? The balancer is there to do just that, it's not meant as a conditioning feed in it's own right.......
 
its surpising how many people think there horse will prefer mix when its actually the opposite usually.

horses eat grass and hay they don't care about what there dinner looks like just how it tastes.

if you feel bad just chuck in some apples and carrots unless you are watching his waistline. don't fix what isnt broken
 
The only reason why I prefer mixes is because I can see exactly what I am feeding my horse. I hate the "coloured" mixes though, and refuse to buy a certain companies pature mix because of the colourings they add in... I use Allen and Page where possible as they dont use colourings....
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Think that's normal to think like that. I always add carrots and apples to add colour, and look at it and think, mmmm that looks nice.
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One of mine just had plain nuts, and that's it. The other one, has nuts, sugar beet, baileys no1 and chaff. He's on 3 feeds a day now to try and keep his condition, and the other one is on breakfast and dinner. Lots of carrots/apples supplied too.
 
I had feed training from the reps of D&H / Spillers etc. and they admitted the only reason the make mix is because "people like to feed something which looks tasty", there is absolutely no difference between mix & cubes at all! Just that mix is more expensive...! I usually feed cubes given the choice (some feeds dont have a cube version though).

You're horse will tell you if he finds his feed boring.
 
I used to feed a pony the riding school's own mix feed and she'd eat up everything except for the grass nuts. There would always be a pile of them in one corner, the rest of the bucket licked clean. She is a bit of a diva though, even now at 28!
 
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