Supplement/Feeds to help with getting condition on anxious horse

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mischamoo

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I'm after a conditioning feed or supplement to start feeding my horse and am getting mindboggled by the amount of selection that is out there.

She's currently on a feed of 3 scoops of Alpha A Oil, 2 cups of Equijewel, 2 scoops of unmollassed beet, 2 cups of micronised linseed with a magnesium and lysine supplemented - this is all split between two feeds a day.

Not on fantastic grazing but out daily with hay then in the evening with adlib hay and haylage, is hacked/schooled anything from 30mins - 2 hours (hacking) about 5 times a week, jumped maybe once in the school (if that).

Her fitness is where I want it to be and she's come on really well but she's ever so slightly dropping off with the extra work (she was fairly overweight to begin with) and I think she just needs that extra bit of something to help her especially with winter coming.

I've been recommended Naf Pink Powder and Protexin as supplements to try as she can become quite anxious and stressy and because of a recent yard move I wonder whether the slight condition loss was because of the stress of that. Have also been suggested Baileys Conditioning Cubes and Outshine - the list is endless and I understand that what works for one may not work for another. Help please before my mind explodes!!
 
Hi there, I wouldn't bother with naff pink powder but protexin is fabulous stuff. If it were me out if the two baileys products I would choose outshine, however, you are already using equijewel and linseed.... I'm not sure I would want to feed that and outshine. Can you split her current feeds into three meals a day? And you may have already said this but in terms of her 'as lib' haylage, is there actually some left in the morning?
 
Thanks for the reply Queenbee, really helpful!! Agree, I was reluctant to try Outshine or a heavy conditioning feed like that as she's on already the Equijewel & linseed. The ready fibre mash looks like a fab replacement so will look at geting a bag of that as they stock it in my local feed merchants and I'm nearly out of beet. There's always hay/haylage left in the morning and in her field when I bring her in so she seems content with the amount of hay she's getting and shouldn't be going hungry....I hope! Will look at getting a tub of protexin too, heard better reviews about that about the Naf PP, especially when i looked at the ingredients list of PP, but I have friends horses who look like they do really well on it
 
mischamoo said:
Thanks for the reply Queenbee, really helpful!! Agree, I was reluctant to try Outshine or a heavy conditioning feed like that as she's on already the Equijewel & linseed. The ready fibre mash looks like a fab replacement so will look at geting a bag of that as they stock it in my local feed merchants and I'm nearly out of beet. There's always hay/haylage left in the morning and in her field when I bring her in so she seems content with the amount of hay she's getting and shouldn't be going hungry....I hope! Will look at getting a tub of protexin too, heard better reviews about that about the Naf PP, especially when i looked at the ingredients list of PP, but I have friends horses who look like they do really well on it
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There is "naff" all in naff pp, protexin is a highly respected product, I have used it and it would certainly be my "go to" product of choice
 
I'll be the dissenting voice and say try Copra . . . worked wonders on my boy last winter - he dropped condition when he was hunting (mostly because he wouldn't eat up for a few days after each meet) . . . it's non-heating, high in oil, low in starch and doesn't contain any sugar. I fed it alongside both Speedibeet AND linseed . . . worked a treat.

I agree with QB, though, I wouldn't touch Pink Powder with a barge pole - you may as well give her five pound notes to eat.

P
 
The first thing that springs to mind - I've recently taken mine off alfalfa based feed (not for anxiety), having fed it for the last 18 months. Horse has always been quite an anxious, sensitive horse who can struggle to concentrate and doesn't tend to do that well. He's been off the alfalfa for about 3 weeks and is a changed horse. He's now on just Speedibeet with Pro Hoof, salt and micronised linseed. Totally different. He is still forward going and bouncy but all of the anxiety and silliness has gone. He's on pretty good grass and I don't believe the difference is due to goodness in the grass reducing as ours is still growing like mad.

So might be worth thinking about cutting out the alfalfa, maybe increasing the unmolassed beet and linseed if poss, and could always replace the alfalfa with a dried grass feed, something like Just Grass?

You are doubling up with Alfa A Oil and linseed, so could increase the amount of linseed if you stopped the Alfa A.
 
PolarSkye said:
I'll be the dissenting voice and say try Copra . . . worked wonders on my boy last winter - he dropped condition when he was hunting (mostly because he wouldn't eat up for a few days after each meet) . . . it's non-heating, high in oil, low in starch and doesn't contain any sugar. I fed it alongside both Speedibeet AND linseed . . . worked a treat.

I agree with QB, though, I wouldn't touch Pink Powder with a barge pole - you may as well give her five pound notes to eat.

P
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Actually, now that is another very good suggestion... Copra, haven't used that for years but I agree it's fantastic conditioning stuff, although I probably wouldn't be adding speedie beet to it as it already needs soaking so would replace the speediebeet with the copra.

chestnut cob said:
The first thing that springs to mind - I've recently taken mine off alfalfa based feed (not for anxiety), having fed it for the last 18 months. Horse has always been quite an anxious, sensitive horse who can struggle to concentrate and doesn't tend to do that well. He's been off the alfalfa for about 3 weeks and is a changed horse. He's now on just Speedibeet with Pro Hoof, salt and micronised linseed. Totally different. He is still forward going and bouncy but all of the anxiety and silliness has gone. He's on pretty good grass and I don't believe the difference is due to goodness in the grass reducing as ours is still growing like mad.

So might be worth thinking about cutting out the alfalfa, maybe increasing the unmolassed beet and linseed if poss, and could always replace the alfalfa with a dried grass feed, something like Just Grass?

You are doubling up with Alfa A Oil and linseed, so could increase the amount of linseed if you stopped the Alfa A.
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Again, another good point... I've never noticed a temperament difference with alfalfa but do know it can happen, I came off alfalfa because on winter rations of it Ben becomes noticeably footy within days... Now I use a simple grass chaff...
 
chestnut cob said:
The first thing that springs to mind - I've recently taken mine off alfalfa based feed (not for anxiety), having fed it for the last 18 months. Horse has always been quite an anxious, sensitive horse who can struggle to concentrate and doesn't tend to do that well. He's been off the alfalfa for about 3 weeks and is a changed horse. He's now on just Speedibeet with Pro Hoof, salt and micronised linseed. Totally different. He is still forward going and bouncy but all of the anxiety and silliness has gone. He's on pretty good grass and I don't believe the difference is due to goodness in the grass reducing as ours is still growing like mad.

So might be worth thinking about cutting out the alfalfa, maybe increasing the unmolassed beet and linseed if poss, and could always replace the alfalfa with a dried grass feed, something like Just Grass?

You are doubling up with Alfa A Oil and linseed, so could increase the amount of linseed if you stopped the Alfa A.
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Funny you should mention this CC as a friend suggested the exact same thing the other day and thought it might be an alfalfa intolerance and suggested cutting out the Alpha A Oil, swapping for ReadiGrass and upping the linseed/beet amount.

Think I’m going to have to take a trip to the feed shop this weekend and restock on feeds as I definitely think the above could be a cause in lack of condition and anxiousness, I’ve not had her that long so I’ve been trying to find a suitable feed for her.
 
mischamoo said:
Funny you should mention this CC as a friend suggested the exact same thing the other day and thought it might be an alfalfa intolerance and suggested cutting out the Alpha A Oil, swapping for ReadiGrass and upping the linseed/beet amount.

Think I’m going to have to take a trip to the feed shop this weekend and restock on feeds as I definitely think the above could be a cause in lack of condition and anxiousness, I’ve not had her that long so I’ve been trying to find a suitable feed for her.
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I was feeding Dengie Healthy Tummy which is alfalfa based and supposed to be for anxious horses. I do actually like it as a feed, it's great quality and looks and smells lovely. Horse adores it but I wanted to cut it out altogether and see if it improved his feet (which are great, just a bit flat footed so was interested to see if things might change off it). Previous horse seemed to be actually allergic to alfalfa. I fed the Simple Systems one for a while and he got terrible hives which only cleared up once off it. Current horse seems far more balanced off it and is holding weight better. Obviously it's completely unscientific and anecdotal but it could be because he's generally less anxious about life... it could also be pure coincidence, but he def seems happier off it.

I think I'd try something similar to what mine is getting - Speedibeet, maybe an all round supplement (Pro Balance?), linseed, salt and poss a grass based feed?
 
chestnut cob said:
I was feeding Dengie Healthy Tummy which is alfalfa based and supposed to be for anxious horses. I do actually like it as a feed, it's great quality and looks and smells lovely. Horse adores it but I wanted to cut it out altogether and see if it improved his feet (which are great, just a bit flat footed so was interested to see if things might change off it). Previous horse seemed to be actually allergic to alfalfa. I fed the Simple Systems one for a while and he got terrible hives which only cleared up once off it. Current horse seems far more balanced off it and is holding weight better. Obviously it's completely unscientific and anecdotal but it could be because he's generally less anxious about life... it could also be pure coincidence, but he def seems happier off it.

I think I'd try something similar to what mine is getting - Speedibeet, maybe an all round supplement (Pro Balance?), linseed, salt and poss a grass based feed?
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Thanks CC - I currently fed just a plain unmollassed sugar beet which is my local suppliers own brand - is this pretty much what Speedibeet is??
 
Queenbee said:
Actually, now that is another very good suggestion... Copra, haven't used that for years but I agree it's fantastic conditioning stuff, although I probably wouldn't be adding speedie beet to it as it already needs soaking so would replace the speediebeet with the copra.
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I fed both (speedibeet and copra) because he really was struggling to keep condition on - I soaked them both in the same bucket - easy peasy :). He won't be hunting this winter, so if I do feel the need to feed the copra, I will omit the speedibeet.

P
 
Queenbee said:
If you keep on dengie healthy tummy it already has protexin in, if you go for the readi grass buy the protexin.
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THanks QB, am going to try coming off Alfalfa completely so will avoid the Healthy Tummy and will invest in a tub of Protexin. Seems farily cheap for a tub of it on ******s.
 
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