no soak food

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gwniver

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with winter coming and the predictability of the taps freezing I need to find a hard food that you don't have to soak ( I also don't have any other horsey people on my yard so if I cant get down there their is some unhorsey people there that might not soak it right ) so I need a complete hard food for a 15hh trotterX that is in light to medium work thanks in advance
 
I'm afraid that every hard feed should be fed wet. Even those that say you can feed dry, it is a risk. The safest to feed dry is something like baileys fibre nuggets that are designed to be fed dry. However, it is not difficult to bring some water from home in a 2 litre bottle to pour over the feed. Fast fibre very quickly absorbs water, especially if it is warm. By the time you carry the feed to the horse it is soaked. I never bother with sugar beet now. Most horses on the yard have an all in one feed (Pure feeds easy, working or racing) with the equivalent amount of water stirred in.
 
Sorry but you always soak or at least wet any feed...except hay/haylage or supplements ( can be given as treats).....you risk choke otherwise....I take an empty milk bottle down with me to wet my horses feed when frozen..or you could make it up the night before and put it in a bed of straw/hay to stop freezing ( with a cover on too)
 
Op does say she dampens feed..

Op, I would just keep a stash of readigrass or similar when you see low temperatures forecast. Mix with oat straw chaff if you're worried about sudden feed switch. That way non horsey people can cope with a simple feed and it doesn't matter if they add too much water, although you could leave some 2 litre bottles and ask them to add x number of bottles to a feed.
 
Pure free pure condition is fab and a complete feed so no need for chaff as its in it. Super easy as outs just a scoop and delivered to your door by parcel force!

If you prefer to shop in person try Bailey's number 1
 
i used to use a great big stockpot and make speedybeet up in the house ,the kids would cuddle up to the pot in the car on the way to school to keep warm! my horses loved their warm breakfast -once it was mixed through their feed it was just warm not hot and they really loved it . you could also bury bottles in the muck heap for emergencies -they will never freeze!
 
I have a feed bin full of chaff which I bury two litre lemonade bottles of water in for feeds when it is cold, they don't freeze. I feed dengie healthy tummy which is a complete feed and I just dampen unless it is hot weather, then I add more water just for my own paranoia ;-) Dengie healthy hooves might be good or just something like D&H pasture cubes with chaff. Depends on your calorie requirements really but there are plenty of feeds that don't need soaking properly. I have to collect my water from the trough across the field so I wouldn't bother with sugar beet etc unless there was some inexplicable need.
 
i've had really good results from equilibrium winergy (they have a few different levels) but its a complete feed so just a couple of scoops of it, nothing to get wrong, just dampen it down and your all done!
 
Buy yourself a chilly bin or eski - not sure what you call them in UK - they look like this.

Chillybin.jpg
 
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