Opinions on this feeding plan?

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AmeliaVDW

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Having spoken to a fair few feed companies I have come to the conclusion that these three feeds are best and I'm thinking of feeding them together - but what do you think?

A&P Fast Fibre
Mollichaff Calmer
Saracen Show Improver Pencils

Each have there own benefits that I don't necessarily think the others have, which I need for a highly strung/sensitive poor doer TB mare who needs a lot of condition.
 
Personally - I would feed grass nuts. Thoroughbreds do well on grass. The mollichaff will have mollases in it, the 'calmer' part will be a bit of magnesium chucked in and the improver will be a high protein pellet.

Simple Systems do a blue bag grass nut which is equivalent to summer grass. I feed these to my boy and he has held his weight really well and is calm and happy on them.

I don't bother feeding chaff, but I do feed adlib hay when he is in at night. I don't see much point in wasting money on chaff when it is just an additional fibre.
 
The ingredients for the Saracen are :- Wheatfeed, Soya Hulls, Wheat, Molasses, Soya Bean Meal, Equi-Jewel, Beet Pulp, Soya Oil, Limestone, Minerals & Vitamins, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt

I'm not really impressed with Wheatfeed, and I'm personally not sure about feeding Soya to horses.

If you are looking for condition without fizz you might want to consider Coolstance Copra
 
If you want condition on a horse the key is lots and lots of forage. In the summer, this is grass, and in the winter it is good quality hay (or preferably haylage for weight gain), quick dried grass such as readigrass, or grass nuts. Forget all the fancy conditioning feeds, they are not value for money. I would get as much forage into the horse as possible and just feed a balancer in something basic such as fast fibre if the horse is prone to being fizzy.
 
Wagtail said:
If you want condition on a horse the key is lots and lots of forage. In the summer, this is grass, and in the winter it is good quality hay (or preferably haylage for weight gain), quick dried grass such as readigrass, or grass nuts. Forget all the fancy conditioning feeds, they are not value for money. I would get as much forage into the horse as possible and just feed a balancer in something basic such as fast fibre if the horse is prone to being fizzy.
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See my horses feed is based on fibre Simple Sytems and hes not got good condition at all and hes being fed a massive dry haylage net a day. What would you suggest, I have a post in new lounge.
 
ktj1891 said:
See my horses feed is based on fibre Simple Sytems and hes not got good condition at all and hes being fed a massive dry haylage net a day. What would you suggest, I have a post in new lounge.
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One massive net is probably not enough. Does he eat it all? Is he being fed in the field too? At this time of year, even if the grass looks good, there is very little nutrition in it. Poor doers should have hay or haylage available at all times.
 
Wagtail said:
One massive net is probably not enough. Does he eat it all? Is he being fed in the field too? At this time of year, even if the grass looks good, there is very little nutrition in it. Poor doers should have hay or haylage available at all times.
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Hes not out in the field this winter due to how wet it is, its a massive shires net and he always has some left over.
 
I would personally do ad lib hay along with fast fibre which can also be used as a hay replacer so you can leave out a massive bucket and let horsey pick at it. For conddition add linseed its amazing stuff. Go for micronised as its high in fibre. Then finally mag ox for calming effects and its also good for feet. This lot would prob work out cheaper for you too:)
 
I would get a haybar or feed hay adlib from the ground - being in a haynet will slow down how much they can eat - with TB's be careful of feeding anything with anything in that could fizz them up ie:mollases. Stick to basics - adlib hay 24/7, calm and condition from A&P is good although it does ontain sugarbeet. Old fashioned barley is a good conditioning feed. I would also use a feed balancer in calm and condition - only feed the amount of hard feed necessary for the work you are doing!
 
We have a lot of thoroughbreds through and have used Balanced Horse Feeds Show Mix for years with fantastic results - we have never had a horse that does not eat it (some take a few days as often used to Racehorse cubes) you can feed up to 12lbs of it a day - it does not heat them up and they bloom on it and put on weight and condition. It is a chaff based feed and is designed by the best equine nutritionalist in the UK and probably world.
It is a complete feed and you do not have to add anything to it which is when it starts to become expensive and why would you not use a feed that has been specifically designed to do the job! Also meant to say ad lib hay or haylage 24/7 and good grass if pos!
 
Mare is on calm and condition but the amount she needs, she doesn't eat.

She has ad lib hay when she's in at night and in a 4 acre field during the day (8am-4pm)

Barley heated her up a lot so need to avoid that. She refused to eat conditioning mix.

She's lost a lot of weight recently (went to be re-backed) to the point you can see her ribs and it dips either side of her spine.

Need to put a lot of weight on her.

So should I try grass nuts with a balancer but which one?

Then let her have a big bucket of fast fibre in her stable at night along with adlib hay?
 
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