Rice bran

[Flowerofthefen]

Never fed it before so looking for more information please. I have a 16yo tb that can drop weight in winter and a 26yo retired wb. Both have ad lib hay all year round. In winter they will be out for 5/6 hours daily with hay then back in with hay. They currently have grass nuts , grass chaff, vits and mins, salt and a bit of oil. Both look good at the minute but drop in winter. The tb is in light work, schools twice a week, competes at weekends and hacks twice a week. I've tried micronised linseed but not sure it adds the weight I want. They won't eat copra.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I would add a base that has good calorific value. Grass nuts are good but no real value. Maybe a bran mash?

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I would add a base that has good calorific value. Grass nuts are good but no real value. Maybe a bran mash?

If its the bran mash I'm thinking of it has no calorific value? Sorry if I've misunderstood.

 

[Red-1]

I have used EquiJewel to good effect. I think it is made of this.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I have used EquiJewel to good effect. I think it is made of this.

Thanks red this is what I meant meant!, i cant use it now but have used it in the past. Couldn’t remember the name

 

[Bob notacob]

I would add a base that has good calorific value. Grass nuts are good but no real value. Maybe a bran mash?

no value

 

[Bob notacob]

Personally i would go for Oats. Fed little and often they enhance the energy recoverable from the forage part of the diet .(hence small ponies are reputed to go bonkers on a handful). Tisserand (French animal nutritionist ) showed that when fed with a hay diet ,there was a 25% INCREASEDE ENERGY UPTAKE FROM THE SAME FEEDS FED SEPERATELY. oops hit caps lock ,but it is fitting. This astounding result was later verified by the German nutritionist Wolfe. Horses can only eat so much, its about using the energy more efficiently . The smidge of oats a few times a day primes the digestive system to get forage broken down and absorbed earlier in the digestive tract. Dont believe me ,go read the research!

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Personally i would go for Oats. Fed little and often they enhance the energy recoverable from the forage part of the diet .(hence small ponies are reputed to go bonkers on a handful). Tisserand (French animal nutritionist ) showed that when fed with a hay diet ,there was a 25% INCREASEDE ENERGY UPTAKE FROM THE SAME FEEDS FED SEPERATELY. oops hit caps lock ,but it is fitting. This astounding result was later verified by the German nutritionist Wolfe. Horses can only eat so much, its about using the energy more efficiently . The smidge of oats a few times a day primes the digestive system to get forage broken down and absorbed earlier in the digestive tract. Dont believe me ,go read the research!

I believe you! I've read a lot of good things about oats. I think I'm stuck in the mind set that that a tb, in light work, on oats, could be a disaster!! Which oats would you recommend for what I need?

 

[Barton Bounty]

Personal experience on tbs , I would stay away from oats!

@Elf On A Shelf might have some ideas

 

[Bob notacob]

I believe you! I've read a lot of good things about oats. I think I'm stuck in the mind set that that a tb, in light work, on oats, could be a disaster!! Which oats would you recommend for what I need?

Australian if you can get them ,they have less starch than most others.

 

[ihatework]

My go to is omega rice. It’s a rice bran and linseed pellet

 

[silv]

Rice bran is a superb feed for putting on condition and is very palatable, makes the coat so shiny too. I was feeding equijewel but it was so expensive so changed to rice bran and added a broad spectrum vitamin/mineral supplement and my horse looked fabulous.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

When trying to put weight on my sisters tb after recovering from ulcers we used the below

Alfa oil from dengie
Alpha beet from dengie

And these from dodson and horrell

https://www.dodsonandhorrell.com/product/ers-cubes


Split over four meals and then gradually reduced to two. Thankfully he wasnt reactive to alfafa, if i fed the above to mine now they would be flying to ths moon.

It didn heat him up either.

 

[Squeak]

Just in case it's any use I had a quick google and this article came up on copra vs rice bran and had some nice scientific explanations in about the benefits of both:

https://thehorse.com/139401/copra-meal-or-rice-bran-to-help-horses-gain-weight/

 

[ycbm]

I would add a base that has good calorific value. Grass nuts are good but no real value. Maybe a bran mash?

I don't know where you are getting the idea that grass nuts have no feed value from. They have plenty.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I don't know where you are getting the idea that grass nuts have no feed value from. They have plenty.

Im talking from experience as weight gain, did nothing for my boy

 

[Bob notacob]

Im talking from experience as weight gain, did nothing for my boy

to misquote George Orwell . All grass nuts are equal ,but some are more equal than others

 

[SantaVera]

Personally i would go for Oats. Fed little and often they enhance the energy recoverable from the forage part of the diet .(hence small ponies are reputed to go bonkers on a handful). Tisserand (French animal nutritionist ) showed that when fed with a hay diet ,there was a 25% INCREASEDE ENERGY UPTAKE FROM THE SAME FEEDS FED SEPERATELY. oops hit caps lock ,but it is fitting. This astounding result was later verified by the German nutritionist Wolfe. Horses can only eat so much, its about using the energy more efficiently . The smidge of oats a few times a day primes the digestive system to get forage broken down and absorbed earlier in the digestive tract. Dont believe me ,go read the research!

Agree absolutely,oats are an excellent feed.

 

[sunleychops]

I use Omega Rice and really rate it. I do use it to top dress a mix of baileys no4 & dengie performance fibre however so its a conditioning combination

 

[TheChestnutThing]

I too use Omega Rice for one of my TB's. I feed it with Ready Mash Extra and Show Improver.

 

[Palindrome]

Personally i would go for Oats. Fed little and often they enhance the energy recoverable from the forage part of the diet .(hence small ponies are reputed to go bonkers on a handful). Tisserand (French animal nutritionist ) showed that when fed with a hay diet ,there was a 25% INCREASEDE ENERGY UPTAKE FROM THE SAME FEEDS FED SEPERATELY. oops hit caps lock ,but it is fitting. This astounding result was later verified by the German nutritionist Wolfe. Horses can only eat so much, its about using the energy more efficiently . The smidge of oats a few times a day primes the digestive system to get forage broken down and absorbed earlier in the digestive tract. Dont believe me ,go read the research!

I can't find the research, could you please point me toward it?

I've found that : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00897769/document
and that file:///Users/mg5209/Downloads/0317_1.0.0.pdf

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

I have used EquiJewel to good effect. I think it is made of this.

Yes it is and is marvellous at putting on condition. I feed my old boy Saracen Releve either cubes or mix. Some fibre nuts plus Equijewel and micronised linseed at varying amounts depending on condition. I found The linseed on its own wasn’t enough at times. Equijewel is expensive but lasts a long time as you don’t need to feed much.

 

[Green Bean]

My go to is Keyflow Keyplus which is a 'steam extruded Rice Bran Concentrate'. It is already in the feed my mare is on but I add a topup of it during the winter as it is so good for weight, muscle and top line. A bit on the pricy side, but I really like it for its effects. It is non-heating so no risk of blowouts which is what oats does to my horse in any form

 

[lynz88]

I have used EquiJewel with incredibly success but it is expensive. I switched to micronized linseed which worked out cheaper and did the same thing. I have been toying with adding oats but haven't taken the plunge. Mine put on a lot of weight very quickly after adding oily herbs to his diet which I wasn't expecting. I then added some additional herbs including cleavers and marigolds and he dropped weight. Read after the fact that the 2 herbs combined are good for weight loss (amongst other things).

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I've decided to just up his grass nuts and have added pink powder as it's cheap. I've tried linseed and all sorts but nothing has made a huge difference. He currently looks absolutely fabulous so it will be interesting to see if the pink powder will help to maintain his weight over winter.

 

[Caol Ila]

Does anyone want some??? Free!!!!

I bought it for my old mare, when she was losing loads of weight. Then my young mare inherited it when she was nursing her BOGOF foal through winter and losing condition. The foal is long since weaned (and not even in the country), my gelding is a Highland, and the mare is an easy keeper when she's not lactatong.

Please.... someone around Glasgow, take it. It's just taking up space.