rugby ball sized feeds

[Wagtail]

I have just changed to PureFeeds and am really liking it too as do my horses (although grey mare would say her feeds are gone too quickly!) Its actually nice to have a feed where you dont have feed so much to reach the recommended amount to get the right amount of vits and mins - so many of the other feeds you have to feed huge amounts. The 2 smaller ponies would get bored!

I agree. When I first looked into it, I thought my feed bills would go up as it is more expensive per KG, but actually they have gone down because I always used to feed the best chaff and mix, and now I am only buying one feed instead of two. So have more room in my storage bins and my feed bills have actualy gone down. My liveries who used to feed balancers have also saved money as they don't feel they need to any more. I do feed my Cushings lami prone mare, pro hoof as well, but due to there already being good amounts of many of the vitamins and minerals in the feed already, I only need to feed a third of the amount of pro hoof.

 

[Brightbay]

I'm doing the online Equine Nutrition course (which is what prompted my question) and I have just checked their discussion forum where someone has asked the same question - the tutor's answer is that the feed should weigh no more than 2kg BEFORE SOAKING. I will weight his feed tonight and go with that. Thanks everyone.

I'm doing the course too

The things that stuck in my mind were (1) rugby ball capacity (about 8 litres including gastic secretions), (2) relatively inelastic and (3) food passes through in approx. 20 mins.

So I would read that as: If you give your horse a bucket feed that is larger than the capacity of the stomach, allow them more time to eat it (i.e. don't give it to them when their stomach is empty), or break it down into two feeds given at different times. And that it doesn't matter whether the feed contains a lot of water or is relatively dry: it's an issue of volume. Get a large measuring jug and see how much volume your soaked sugarbeet takes up and if it's more than the e.g. 4 or 5 litres the stomach can hold while processing, it's too much. Also remember the water content of the feed isn't extracted until the processed food reaches the small colon!

That's the sum total of what I learned yesterday

 

[Clodagh]

I was always told to 'buffer the hindgut', which was aimed at after hunting when the horse was run up like a whippet. She would have steamed hay in the trailer on the way home and access to hay only for a good couple of hours when we got home. She then had a small feed and hay for overnight.
I would say that would apply now, mine always come into hay and then get fed after an hour or so partly so they don't drag me to the stable and also so if they are hungry, this time of year, they scoff their hay not their (small) dinner.
That is going off at a bit of a tangent tho, sorry.