Seaweed and rosehip?

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saddlesore

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Has anyone fed this as a hoof supplement? Horse (2 1/2) has pretty good feet but seedy toe and a crack in one ATM. Been feeding seaweed all winter and his feet look good on it but worried about the iodine content as this is pure seaweed I believe. (Equimins Scandinavian seaweed) I was contemplating switching to their seaweed and rosehip one instead. Any thoughts?
 
Seaweed is not balanced to meet the needs of the horse, better to get a good mineral supplement like Feedmark Original Advance. I have also used pro hoof which is generally for horses with hoof problems.
This is a young horse with feet problems , so I would make sure it gets pro hoof till this is sorted.
Add 50gms of linseed meal and make the diet lo sugar diet: no molasses/ moglo/ lickit.
 
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Thanks guys. His diet is pretty low sugar- good doer, fast fibre, pink powder, seaweed and oil. He does however get haylage as that's what the yard provides- is it worth soaking it do you think? Arizahn can I ask what's putting you off?
 
You don't need to feed fancy supplements, you need to add the basic balanced minerals to his diet.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item417b61c068

I assume he is getting out and about, and that his bed is clean and dry, ie good management.

He really does not have good feet at the moment, he has a problem which should be sorted.

You can soak haylage if you feel he is getting too fat.

50 gm linseed meal [Charnwood Milling] is great for feet and skin, less processed than oils available in a bottle, and cheaper.

Fast Fibre from Allen and Page is a good cheap feed, and is lo in sugars.

The farrier needs to have a look and advise, no shoes!
 
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I would not feed seaweed too dangerous you don't know where it's come from and what's the levels of stuff in it it's often high in iron and that's not good for feet .
I am a bit anti herbs generally don't you know where their grown how their grown and on what soil .
garlic I know often comes from china and there's no way I would be feeding that.
 
He isn't shod although farrier wants to put fronts on! Yes he's out all day and in at night on clean shavings bed. I also clean the crack with Milton and put data life hoof disinfectant on it. Feet are a little flared and starting to wonder about the farrier tbh :-( he's a great weight , just suggesting soaking for sugars.
 
saddlesore said:
Thanks guys. His diet is pretty low sugar- good doer, fast fibre, pink powder, seaweed and oil. He does however get haylage as that's what the yard provides- is it worth soaking it do you think? Arizahn can I ask what's putting you off?
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The anti-seaweed information others have posted :) But then I know several people personally who have used seaweed for years and who swear by it. Still on the fence really. Agree that sourcing the best herbs etc is also important. Mine loves rosehips, there is a thorn hedge where we are currently and he grazes on that. But we are moving...I may just buy rosehips on their own for him.
 
My boy was quite underdone when I got him and the seaweed has really helped, just thought the 'purer' form of actual dried seaweed and rosehip buds might be more natural.
 
saddlesore said:
He isn't shod although farrier wants to put fronts on! Yes he's out all day and in at night on clean shavings bed. I also clean the crack with Milton and put data life hoof disinfectant on it. Feet are a little flared and starting to wonder about the farrier tbh :-( he's a great weight , just suggesting soaking for sugars.
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I'm not a fan of seaweed because of the iron and iodine levels.
Haylage contains lower levels of water soluble sugars than hay so you don't need to soak it, see
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/all-about-hay-and-haylage.html
 
saddlesore said:
My boy was quite underdone when I got him and the seaweed has really helped, just thought the 'purer' form of actual dried seaweed and rosehip buds might be more natural.
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The thing is, when you think about it, horses are unlikely to eat seaweed in their "natural" environment. So I'm not sure how natural it actually is for them. Aside from horses that live on a coastline, anyone know of wild horses that live in coastal regions? Do they eat seaweed when the tide is out? But then, how different would their diet be in general - coastal plants compared to inland, etc.

I have half a tub of seaweed sitting unused because of this!
 
Arizahn said:
The thing is, when you think about it, horses are unlikely to eat seaweed in their "natural" environment. So I'm not sure how natural it actually is for them. Aside from horses that live on a coastline, anyone know of wild horses that live in coastal regions? Do they eat seaweed when the tide is out? But then, how different would their diet be in general - coastal plants compared to inland, etc.

I have half a tub of seaweed sitting unused because of this!
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Ha ha very true! I wonder where/why the feeding of it started?
 
My horse has always had rubbish feet. Constantly losing shoes. In winter he pulls shoes off in the mud, in summer his feet dry and crumble. He has been on every hoof supplement you can name for the past 11 years and my farrier says I pay for at least 2 of his cruises a year!
Autumn 2012 I tried rosehips and over the last 2 winters and the summer he has lost only a few. And that was when I cut out the rosehips as his feet were so good. He's been on them again all winter with no hint of a clunky shoe.
I swear by it and would never consider another expensive hoof supplement again.
 
Seaweed can work in certain conditions, I have fed it myself when a forage analysis indicated iodine was low. Even then the amount I needed was well below the recommended dosage on the tub.

However the problem is that Iodine is one of the minerals that can cause problems if fed in excess. It is also not one of the minerals that is low in most forage (unlike copper zinc and magnesium which nearly alway are)

I think there may be all sort of useful trace elements in seaweed which is why people feed it (or eat it for that matter) but the excess iodine is problematic.

btw get whole rosehips from cotswold herbs, much cheaper. I use them as a healthy treat.
 
So seaweed is bad? I'm confused - my barefoot ex racer gets NAF seaweed once a day as my farrier recommended it to keep his feet strong.
I know the ideal is to get forage analysis and go from there regarding vits and minerals but on my yard they buy hay in from several places so would cost a fortune to get every bale analysed!
His feet look pretty good on it to be fair, I'm fairly new to all this supplementing - we just used to feed mixes but they don't work for my boy.
 
I find it all confusing too nannon! I've had horses for 22 years now (gulp !) and IMO there are more feet and metabolic issues now than ever before. It makes me wonder if there are more fundamental issues going on like increased use of fertiliser to allow for yards to keep more horses etc.
 
saddlesore said:
I find it all confusing too nannon! I've had horses for 22 years now (gulp !) and IMO there are more feet and metabolic issues now than ever before. It makes me wonder if there are more fundamental issues going on like increased use of fertiliser to allow for yards to keep more horses etc.
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Seems likely to be a contributing factor.
 
You've got a point with the unsuitable grazing but all we can do is deal with what we've got.

Not everyone can do a forage analysis but without it the best approach is probably to give a mineral supplement that takes into account the most common deficiencies round the country rather than single elements. If that's not working for you then you may have something unusual going on that needs a more tailored approach but alot of people find their horses do very well on the more general forageplus or progressive earth blends.
 
The other company that offer barefoot focused supplements. They do analyses and feedplans but also offer off the peg blends based on the average.

The have higher levels than progressive earth ones so seem helpful if you are having problems but lots do well on the pro earth balancer so not every horse/forage needs just an intensive balancer.

The person who runs fp is Sarah Braithwaite who co wrote Feet First so was partly responsible for the seaweed thing but has since changed this.

There may be a piece on their site about seaweed or it might have been on the Facebook page.
 
Nannon said:
So seaweed is bad? I'm confused - my barefoot ex racer gets NAF seaweed once a day as my farrier recommended it to keep his feet strong.
I know the ideal is to get forage analysis and go from there regarding vits and minerals but on my yard they buy hay in from several places so would cost a fortune to get every bale analysed!
His feet look pretty good on it to be fair, I'm fairly new to all this supplementing - we just used to feed mixes but they don't work for my boy.
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Seaweed is just seaweed without a proper analysis you're guessing , it could help it could do nothing it could be harmfull.
You have no idea where it came from what contaminents ( heavy metals for instance) are in it and if enviromental damage is being done harvesting it .
I could like to think the companies are sourcing rose hips from the uk I hope so.
 
A thumbs up here for rosehips. I use dodson and horrell's.
My lad kept losing shoes til I started feeding rosehip. Also as a lami preventative (free radicals etc). He has always had a fibre-based diet. Farrier says to keep feeding the rosehip as it's working really well. He also advised me to add milk thistle and magnesium when the grass is very rich - seems to do the job!

Not sure about seaweed but I wouldn't imagine it to be able to do any harm!
 
I'm just a bit confused why farriers would suggest it if it is bad for horses? I'll agree with you we don't know where they harvest it from regarding contaminants etc I have no idea how or where any of the ingredients in the supplements I feed my horse come from! I'd assume many are synthetic?
 
Nannon said:
I'm just a bit confused why farriers would suggest it if it is bad for horses? I'll agree with you we don't know where they harvest it from regarding contaminants etc I have no idea how or where any of the ingredients in the supplements I feed my horse come from! I'd assume many are synthetic?[/

Not sure how much training farriers get in nutrition and how up to date that would be .
It's a bit like when vets give training advice which always makes me laugh .
When you buy a supplement you know what they are declaring as it's min and vit levels .
When you buy seaweed you know nothing it's just a guess it could be sky high in iron which does not help horses feet it could be contaminated with mercury ( which it often is ) you just don't know what you are giving them.
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