RDA of vits/mins for horses?!

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chestnut cob

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I'm hoping you guys will be able to help me out with this one... are there Recommended Daily Allowance (like our foods have RDA values for vits/minerals listed on) for certain vitamins and minerals for horses?

Currently in the process of changing my horse's feeds as I'm thinking of taking his shoes off (certainly backs if not fronts too) and as he doesn't have brilliant feet, I want to feed to improve the hoof quality before they come off. On various recommendations, I have now started adding seaweed, brewer's yeast and microionised linseed (I also already feed light MagOx, have been feeding that since April of last year) but am struggling to know how much of each I should be giving per day. The bags of each of the above came with suggestions of quantities (which differ from other things I have been told) but I want to make sure I am giving the right amount of the various things.

Is it even possible to work out how much of each vit/min is contained in, say, 20g seaweed, and so on? I'm aware that brewer's yeast is supposed to contain quite high levels of things like Vit B12 plus others but I don't know how much of that is contained in the other supplements. I don't want to feed too much of everything as firstly it is a waste (I presume, like humans, horses will end up excreting what isn't required), but also I have an idea from somewhere that if I could end up unbalancing things by adding these sorts of supplements to his diet...have I imagined that (you know, like if you feed bran you should feed other things to balance it)?! He is also still having his normal hard feed, though a slightly reduced amount - what do you guys feed these sorts of supplements with? Chaff, or something else, or nothing else at all? Although he doesn't get a lot of hard feed (1 Stubbs scoop HiFi chaff and 1/4 Stubbs scoop Dengie High Fibre Nuts, split between 2 feeds), there are vits/mins in this which will contribute to his "RDA", therefore do I need to work out how much of everything he gets from his feed and reduce the supplement quantities?

Alternatively...I could just bung him a small scoopful of them all and be done with it! ;)

Second point...my horse HATES his new feed! What can I put in to encourage him to eat it? He is a greedy horse and so apart from once when I had to give bute, in 2.5 years I have never known him to leave a feed. I've been giving him fresh mint with it along with a bit of veg (no carrots or apples because of the sugar!) but he can't be tempted. Currently the only way I can get him to eat, and even then only under sufferance, is by adding Alfa A to the feed. I don't want to keep giving Alfa A so what else can I tempt him with?

And thirdly - I promise this is the last one! Where do you buy the likes of your seaweed and linseed from? If I keep buying from where I got the last lot from, I might end up bankrupt within the next couple of months!

Thanks for your help :)
 
I had my forage analysed by a local company who have a horse nutritionist, and then decided on rates of supplementation from that. One thing that was very interesting was that it was all high in iodine, so seaweed was not a good thing to give. You could also look at the NRC Nutrient Requirements for Horses, which I think are available on line. One of the UKNHPC members (Sarah Braithwaite) now has an analysis service too.
I put a teaspoon of dried mint in when I soak the sugarbeet, and all the horses love it, even my very fussy mare.
Charnwood Milling do many of the barefoot mix ingredients for a good price.
 
I was also going to suggest getting forage analysed.You should also be able to get the ration analysed (if it doesnt come with full lists ofcontent/percentages/figures). Alternatively only buy products that list these values. This is all very common procedure in dairy cows and we have quite a lot of yards that do forge analysis however unfortunately most of the nutritionists in equine areattached to fod companies.
 
Ella19 said:
I would give Dengie a call! Their helpline should be able to advise you if he's getting enough in the way of vits and mins and if not they should be able to advise you on a balancer that may be suitable.

http://www.dengie.com/pages/feed-advice/dengie-feedline.php
Click to expand...

Thanks but the point is that I don't want to feed the prepared feeds. Dengie won't want to give me advice on how to cut down the amount of their products I feed, they will want to recommend how many *more* of their products I should feed.

I don't think I got my point across very well in my OP... I am trying to cut out prepared feeds as much as possible and I need to know how much of the various barefoot supplements I should be feeding. The thing that concerns me is that I'm also feeding small quantities of prepared hard feeds alongside these supplements so I want to make sure I am not giving too much of anything. I don't want to add a balancer to his diet and want to move away from molassed feeds (ie, chaffs etc) as much as possible, hence incorporating things like linseed and seaweed to replace his current pre-prepared hard feeds.
 
soloequestrian said:
I had my forage analysed by a local company who have a horse nutritionist, and then decided on rates of supplementation from that. One thing that was very interesting was that it was all high in iodine, so seaweed was not a good thing to give. You could also look at the NRC Nutrient Requirements for Horses, which I think are available on line. One of the UKNHPC members (Sarah Braithwaite) now has an analysis service too.
I put a teaspoon of dried mint in when I soak the sugarbeet, and all the horses love it, even my very fussy mare.
Charnwood Milling do many of the barefoot mix ingredients for a good price.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will have a look at the NRC requirements and Charnwood Milling :)
 
glenruby said:
I was also going to suggest getting forage analysed.You should also be able to get the ration analysed (if it doesnt come with full lists ofcontent/percentages/figures). Alternatively only buy products that list these values. This is all very common procedure in dairy cows and we have quite a lot of yards that do forge analysis however unfortunately most of the nutritionists in equine areattached to fod companies.
Click to expand...

I think it will be difficult to get the forage analysed as my YO provides it and she gets it from a variety of sources. We tend to have a few bales delivered by one supplier then the next few from somewhere else, and the bales aren't particularly consistent even from the same supplier. Analysis of one bale would really only be relevant for that bale as I think will be different from bale to bale...
 
chestnut cob said:
I think it will be difficult to get the forage analysed as my YO provides it and she gets it from a variety of sources. We tend to have a few bales delivered by one supplier then the next few from somewhere else, and the bales aren't particularly consistent even from the same supplier. Analysis of one bale would really only be relevant for that bale as I think will be different from bale to bale...
Click to expand...

It might still be worthwhile, especially if the hay comes from a relatively small area of the country. When I had mine done, it was both grass and haylage. The haylage comes from about 8 miles away, but the results were very similar, especially for the things that were higher than normal - iodine and iron. You could look to see if there has been any work done generally in your area, for instance on soil types, or farmers having their grass analysed.
 
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