Need Some Feed advice

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Gentle_Warrior

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Subject lives out 24/7 and is in light to medium work. He is a good dooer as in looks at grass and puts on weight. We have just started haying and not hard feeding yet. He has lost a little weight which is good and to be expected.

He is normally fed a very basic low cost low quality general mix by the yard.

I am looking to get him something that is more suitable for him.

I am looking at

Baileys Top Line Coniditioning Cubes
Baileys Lo-Cal Balancer
TopSpec CoolCondition Cubes

he is looking healthy, but has always had bad hooves so is also on Farriers Fornula and Glucosomine for his back end in the winter.

He currently weighs 656kg, was 680kg coming out of summer. (I weigh him every 2 weeks to ensure he is not loosing weight too quickly)

any advice appreciated

xx
 
You are proposing to feed him one product that is fattening - Topline Conditioning Cubes and then a Low calorie balancer, but you mention that he is a fatty - so you need to make your mind up what you are trying to achieve, more weight or less ?

TopSpec Pro balancer contains products to improve hoof growth. I use it instead of FF. Buy a good balancer and stop doubling up with Farriers Formula. Spend even more money on something like Dynamic Pro and you could stop the FF and the Glucosamine. If you are counting pennies, it makes more sense to buy one product that does everything, rather than three that target different things, but each cost £30/month.

Personally I would give him plenty of good hay and some Hi-Fi and the balancer of your choice.
 
I would just ensure that he is fed a good vitamin suppliment - something like Benevit Advance.

As with the other post - a good doer does not need to be fed a conditioning feed.



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You don't need the topline cubes! I would give him hay and then a low calorie chaff such as good doer or something by the handful and add a vit and min supplement I use the Dengie one or a balancer such as lo cal. Keep him warm enough and he shouldn't need anything else. If he is getting a balanced diet you might find he doesn't need any supplements but if his feet are still no good maybe add straight biotin. Your other option is to feed a complete feed like healthy hoof but you would need to make sure he was getting the recommended amount so he was getting everything he needed.
 
Agree with Tracey01 that I don't understand why you want to feed conditioning cubes if you say he is a good doer! You say you have just started haying, and plenty of hay will go a long way towards him maintaining a healthy weight.

I also agree that if you are already feeding two supplements, it would make sense to use a balancer that incorporates the supplement ingredients. You can feed the balancer alongside a small amount of fibre-based feed like unmolassed beet or grass or alfalfa based chaff. Then if you find he starts to drop more weight than you would like, you can up the unmolassed beet (which is a good source of fibre-based calories) and perhaps add an oil-enriched chaff such as Alfalfa A Oil. The benefit of such a system is that you know the balancer is supplying the daily vit/min needs, and you can increase or decrease the rest of the bucket feed according to the horse's condition, without affecting the micronutrient intake.
 
Why do you want to give him conditioning cubes if he is a good doer? I have a good doer and would never feed him that. IMO it's for horses which are poor or find it difficult to maintain weight.

Is he currently over weight for his type and build? If he's still over weight then there's no need to add anything else, except maybe a balancer (in which case I'd stop feeding the FF). If he needs to put weight back on, add something like sugar beet.
 
Ditto confusion as to the conditioning cubes? Does he need to gain weight? Is he loosing weight dramatically?

If he's on Farreiers Formula I'd stick with that, in a low cal chaff such as hi-fi. You won't need any other balancer or vits and minerals as FF is a totally balanced supplement.
 
I may be wrong but I though Farriers Formula could be used in place of a balancer?

If not I would feed lo-cal along with his other supplements and a handful of Happy Hoof or Hi-Fi Lite.
 
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