Speedi Beet or Kwik Beet.

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Roisin_M

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I'm trying to devise a suitable diest for a stressy, ulcer prone, thin TB. I've pretty much got it, I think! But, can I have opinions on Speedi Beet & Kwik Beet? Which is best? Which puts on weight & promotes condition the best? Thanks!
 
I prefer Kwik Beet but neither of them will really do much except bulk out your horse's feed and make it very tasty and appealing! Both products are unmolassed as opposed to the ordinary sugar beet pellets that you soak for 12 or 24 hours. Kwik/Speedi Beet will only help with condition because they make sure the horse looks forward to his feed and eats every scrap and that his belly is full of fibre. For a stressy TB, a fibre-rich diet is the best thing for him of course. I'd invest in a big tub of Coligone as well - it's like human Gaviscon and I've seen it work wonders with stress heads. Beyond that, I'd talk with one of the reputable feed company help lines to find a safe, high calorie feed if he needs to put weight on. My friend has a stressy TB and he's in hard work. She has always struggled to keep the weight on him and at one point he was like a coat rack and she was advised to add baby milk powder to his feed to get his weight up. It did seem to work but my understanding of many TBs is that they can be a nightmare to keep weight on! Good luck x
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
I prefer Kwik Beet but neither of them will really do much except bulk out your horse's feed and make it very tasty and appealing! Both products are unmolassed as opposed to the ordinary sugar beet pellets that you soak for 12 or 24 hours. Kwik/Speedi Beet will only help with condition because they make sure the horse looks forward to his feed and eats every scrap and that his belly is full of fibre. For a stressy TB, a fibre-rich diet is the best thing for him of course. I'd invest in a big tub of Coligone as well - it's like human Gaviscon and I've seen it work wonders with stress heads. Beyond that, I'd talk with one of the reputable feed company help lines to find a safe, high calorie feed if he needs to put weight on. My friend has a stressy TB and he's in hard work. She has always struggled to keep the weight on him and at one point he was like a coat rack and she was advised to add baby milk powder to his feed to get his weight up. It did seem to work but my understanding of many TBs is that they can be a nightmare to keep weight on! Good luck x
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Thats what i'm looking for, just something to keep him interested!





Orchardbeck said:
Whichever's cheapest at the time! They are both more or less the same thing.
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My exact thoughts :)
 
Hiya. I'm the manager at the new Matlock Equestrian store, and also have 2 TBs. When we first opened we had the owners of British Horse Feeds who make speedibeet come in to tell us about there feeds. He basically said whats already been said about speedibeet, but their fibrebeet is better for weight gain. It is mainly fibre with speedibeet and biotin and also milk powder plus other things as well. It still needs soaking for about 15 mins a bit longer than the speedibeet. He said that speedibeet is a maintenance feed and fibrebeet is a weight gainer. Hope this helps a bit.
 
That's interesting about the fibrebeet I think I'll look into that. I have a stress prone,poor doer TB who's had ulcers. He has spillers conditioning fibre,linseed,ERS pellets,top spec conditioning cubes & speedibeet & he's doing really well on it. He's calm,no sign of ulcers,nice & shiny & a good weight(for him,he's never going to be a massive porker though!)
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
I prefer Kwik Beet but neither of them will really do much except bulk out your horse's feed and make it very tasty and appealing! Both products are unmolassed as opposed to the ordinary sugar beet pellets that you soak for 12 or 24 hours. Kwik/Speedi Beet will only help with condition because they make sure the horse looks forward to his feed and eats every scrap and that his belly is full of fibre. For a stressy TB, a fibre-rich diet is the best thing for him of course. I'd invest in a big tub of Coligone as well - it's like human Gaviscon and I've seen it work wonders with stress heads. Beyond that, I'd talk with one of the reputable feed company help lines to find a safe, high calorie feed if he needs to put weight on. My friend has a stressy TB and he's in hard work. She has always struggled to keep the weight on him and at one point he was like a coat rack and she was advised to add baby milk powder to his feed to get his weight up. It did seem to work but my understanding of many TBs is that they can be a nightmare to keep weight on! Good luck x
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I'm sorry but I don't agree.

Horses glean most of their calorific intake from fermenting fibre in the large intestine. Unmolassed beet is a rapidly fermented fibre source - so it is an excellent source of calories.

I find a majority of TB's tend to be a nightmare to keep weight on because they are fed 'high energy conditioning mixes' which work on a high grain (digested in the small intestine for a rapid glucose hit - like eating chocolate) ratio rather than sticking with boring old fibre based feeds and ad lib forage.

Grain in the diet is also a factor in ulcers (grains change the pH to a more acidic one).
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
Kwik/Speedi Beet will only help with condition because they make sure the horse looks forward to his feed and eats every scrap and that his belly is full of fibre.
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Actually unmollassed beet is a good source of fibre-based calories - Speedibeet has 12.5 MJDE/kg (dry weight) which is a similar calorie count to many conditioning cubes/mixes. It is not particularly high in protein though, but that is not a problem as long as the horse has adequate protein in the diet elsewhere.
 
Agree with Oberon - my TB is fed ad lib hay (she'll eat 2 extra large nets each night stuffed full) and she gets 2 feeds consisting of 1 scoop soaked speedibeet, 1 scoop of mollichaff calmer and 1 cup micronised linseed. And she is fat!
 
Oberon said:
I'm sorry but I don't agree.

Horses glean most of their calorific intake from fermenting fibre in the large intestine. Unmolassed beet is a rapidly fermented fibre source - so it is an excellent source of calories.

I find a majority of TB's tend to be a nightmare to keep weight on because they are fed 'high energy conditioning mixes' which work on a high grain (digested in the small intestine for a rapid glucose hit - like eating chocolate) ratio rather than sticking with boring old fibre based feeds and ad lib forage.

Grain in the diet is also a factor in ulcers (grains change the pH to a more acidic one).
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Or, as with my TB, they just don't put away enough forage. If fed on good quality, proper ad-lib haylage, my TB will look great even with a minimum amount of hard feed. Anything less than that (and it has to be unlimited access to haylage 24 hours a day), and suddenly he's a nightmare to keep weight on, no matter how much hard feed he's given.
 
Nocturnal said:
Or, as with my TB, they just don't put away enough forage. If fed on good quality, proper ad-lib haylage, my TB will look great even with a minimum amount of hard feed. Anything less than that (and it has to be unlimited access to haylage 24 hours a day), and suddenly he's a nightmare to keep weight on, no matter how much hard feed he's given.
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IMO in cases such as yours, miconised linseed and soya oil (with additional vitamin e) would be better options to boost calories than grain based 'conditioning feeds'. :)
 
Oberon said:
IMO in cases such as yours, miconised linseed and soya oil (with additional vitamin e) would be better options to boost calories than grain based 'conditioning feeds'. :)
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I quite agree (he gets both of those ;)). Unfortunately he's not getting enough haylage atm, so is losing weight despite hard feed. I've had to stop turn out until I can convince the yo to put haylage out in the field :(.
 
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