TB Feeding - Cheaper alternative

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jessica1234

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Hi All,

So for the last year I have been feeding Sacaren Re-Leve, Sacaren Equi Jewel, Alfa A Oil and Alfa Beet (small amount of Alfa B in each feed) plus Ad Lib hay and turnout during the day. I also feed him a bucket of Readi Grass so he can munch on that overnight as there is little grass in the field atm.

It has helped with his weight, he has a shiny coat, looks happy and has fair coverage over his ribs. He lacks topline anyway … but tbh that is just the way he is and I’ve tried every trick in the book to try and help built it up .. nothing works!

Anyway, my point is that the above feeds are costing me a fortune but I’m scared to change in case he drops weight again. He is prone to ulcers but we have that under control now so I ideally want to swap something out to lower costs or find a cheaper alternative?

Or something that will help put weight on and keep it on!

Any ideas?
 
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I would say feeding Alfa A and Alfa Beet, plus a lot of Re-leave is alfa pellets is a bit overkill- you could drop the Alfa beet i would guess.

You could also try swapping the equi jewel for micronised linseed.

Also the readi grass is more for your benefit than the horse i would guess so you could drop that.

Or you could lose the alfa beet and readi grass and feed soaked grass nuts (much cheaper) if you wanted!

Def options!
 
Well i'm not sure if the Readi grass adds extra calories or even promotes weight gain but we are not able to put hay in the field so they literally don't have anything to eat at the moment, he loves it as well!

Yes perhaps i should get rid of the Alfa Beet then, just worried that he will loose weight again :-(
 
grass nuts, alfalfa nuts and micronised linseed (and perhaps a handful of oats?). You could try glutamine for the topline (Forage plus sells it).
 
Coolstance copra, linseed, grass nuts all relatively cheap, low GI . Look a the DE per kg on the bag or websites and weigh everything so you know exactly how much you are feeding. If you are happy with the Equijewel increase the amount and take some of the extras out and it has a high DE , but its is expensive.
 
Try coolstance copra I only feed one of Arabs a small amount and he has really filled out and topline looks better, before he just lacked any roundness to his backend and I can see its looking much rounder., I was also feeding alpha A but have now changed it to graze on grass as he is looking much better.

He gets half scoop graze on about quarter of unmolassed sugar beet, a quarter of soaked copra and 100g micronised linseed twice a day, its a round stubbs scoop I am using.
 
I feed my TB quite cheaply,by lucky chance as stuff he likes/can eat without sending him mental is quite cheap! Things he has/has had are oats,dried grass,grass nuts,linseed,speedibeet. At the moment he's been on linseed,speedibeet,oats & top spec condition cubes & keeping weight on well(very poor doer) I've just included allen & page veteran vitality which doesn't break the bank,is calorific & going down well. He doesn't tolerate copra but my young TB has been on copra & keeping weight on well on that.
 
jessica1234 said:
Well i'm not sure if the Readi grass adds extra calories or even promotes weight gain but we are not able to put hay in the field so they literally don't have anything to eat at the moment, he loves it as well!

Yes perhaps i should get rid of the Alfa Beet then, just worried that he will loose weight again :-(
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Personally then this is your problem- giving your horse tons of feed at night and then there being very little during the day is your issue.
If you can hay in the field, limit turnout and feed hay in the stable.
 
My ex-racer is a poor doer, over the 4 years I have had him and the multiple different feeds I have tried- he is now looking his best on copra, linseed and adlib hay.
 
Best results we have is just by feeding cheap stud mix. They have fab coats, look well, and don't boil over on it, and are fat as pigs! Mine are out 24/7, they get about a section of large bale haylage each and half a scoop of mix a day. Only the racing ones get a half a scoop extra of race nuts, others on normal work only get the 1/2mix and the old boy looks fat enough to go straight into a show class! They don't have any extras on that.
 
ktj1891 said:
My ex-racer is a poor doer, over the 4 years I have had him and the multiple different feeds I have tried- he is now looking his best on copra, linseed and adlib hay.
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I'm another fan of copra - I feed my poor doer ex racing TB, copra, linseed & added in equijewel for the winter - plus ad lib hay. It has worked wonders for his weight & he hasn't lost any over winter - he was like a hat rack last year.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
soaked oats, winergy condition,linseed.

oats are cheap and actually rarely caused fizzy behaviour and have really bulked out NMT's poor doer :)
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How do you soak your oats? Years ago I used to scald them with boiling water but it's not practical to do that at the moment as I have to make up feeds in advance for my YO to feed when I'm not there.
 
My TB has wintered out for the first year (excluding nights of really bad weather when I've wimped out and brought him in). He gets adlib hay in the field and I think a lack of forage is your main problem. As trickle feeders the gut needs long stem fibre that in turn acts as central heating. I'd make sure he's warm enough but with the cravat of not too warm as they can lose weight quicker by being too hot.

My TB has wintered on grass nuts, grass chop (graze on), micronised linseed, copra & Pro Hoof balancer.

He did start to look a bit light to me so I added soaked oats but unfortunately they didn't work for him (I just soaked them overnight in a tub). I'd increased teh quantities and tbh the feeds were getting too big and he's not a greedy horse so was getting fed up and leaving more and more of it.

We're two weeks into feeding speedibeet (still phasing grass nuts out for this as he prefers it), Top Spec Just Grass, micronised linseed, copra (half the amount), Top Spec Ulsakind cubes, ditched the oats and are looking to swap the Pro Hoof for Equivita.

So far he's looking better and has put on weight already. Most importantly he's eating the feeds and his hooves (he's barefoot) have continued to improve (there's some info out there that all beets and commercial feeds can adversely affect hooves/make them footy).

It's just all trial and error for the individual but if you have a fair idea of "staples" it's easier to work around them.
 
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