Those who feed Calm & Condition - and feeding after choke?

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sophiebailey

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Hi guys gonna ask a really numpty question;

Before Bailey had choke I fed C & C every day with a handful of chaff. Stuck to the usual measures; one scoop of feed to two scoops of water.

Since Bailey has had choke he's been on mushy bran mash to give his throat time to heal and prevent any repeat. Tried to feed him 1/2 bran mash and 1/2 C & C tonight but as I was checking the consistency of the feed (very paranoid about making it too thick!!) I noticed that even after 10 mins of soaking all the water was absorbed but there were still pellets/hard lumps in the C & C.

So my numpty question is this

if you follow the correct way of soaking should calm & condition still have lumps in it or should it be total mush?

I never had a good feel of it's consistency before the choke incident, so am wondering if i'm being paranoid or if i've got a bad bag or something?

my second (not so numpty question) is

what's a good feed that I can soak that will help restore the condition my old boy lost during his illness? I've heard a lot about Baileys conditioning something or cubes ... very confused!

please advise clever people, need your help!! xxx
 
It depends what you are looking for. If you don't mind feeds that are high in sugar then you could try sugerbeet. Readi mash extra is one thing that my friend used on her underweight horse. Simple system do a feed called purabeet and if you combine this with lucerne then that is good for weight gain. They are both soaked. Finally you could try a combination of fast fibre and linseed. I've found that not only is this low sugar but it's also cheap. The fast fibre you can feed tonnes of in a day and the linseed is so high in oils and protein and again you can feed quite a lot in a day. :)
 
Fast fibre is really good. I feed mine half ff half chaff everyday, my 4yo with wobbly teeth can eat it, as can my 21yo. I've also fed it alongside conditioning cubes. But a week on ff and chaff left my 3yo in amazing condition!
 
Why are you feeding C&C - is it just for condition, or to help with temperament as well?

If you continue to feed C&C add much more water than you currently are - and soak for a minimum of 1 hour.

As for other conditioning feeds - Dodsen & Horrel Build up cubes are fantastic - and soaked turn to mush.
 
The C&C takes 20 mins to take up water, compared to 2 mins with Fast fibre, so it may be the the bran is talking up all the water and leaving the bits of C&C.
You can easily soak the C&C first then add the bran .
I add 80 gms micronised linseed meal, to his FF at the moment, pony [not in work] is maintaining a trim body shape, but I like them to be a bit lean while the grass is a bit lush.
 
Thanks guys, have left some C & C to soak overnight, along with some Bailey's number four and hopefully this'll be good 'n' mushy in the morning! Who produces fast fibre?

I feed C & C for condition purposes, i'm not sure if other feeds would heat him up, but don't want to change his feed too much while he's still recovering so as not to upset the tummy!
 
Fast fibre is by allen and page. It's not a heating feed at all. It's just really high in fibre and contains yeast for digestion and all the essential vitamins and minerals along with sonme garlic and mint. My girl is barefoot so I need a low sugar and no molasses diet for her and she can be quite spooky and highly strung being an arab but she's fine on this. It's not high in protein which is why I add linseed to mine because my girl isn't a great doer. I do know that a lot people on here say that they feed it alone and their horses look great on it and maintain weight.
One of the great things that I find about this feed is that it not only swells to double it's size, so it goes a long way, but it also only costs eight pound fifty a bag which I think is well cheap considering I don't have to use a vit/min supllement on top. Hope this helps.
 
claribella said:
Fast fibre is by allen and page. It's not a heating feed at all. It's just really high in fibre and contains yeast for digestion and all the essential vitamins and minerals along with sonme garlic and mint. My girl is barefoot so I need a low sugar and no molasses diet for her and she can be quite spooky and highly strung being an arab but she's fine on this. It's not high in protein which is why I add linseed to mine because my girl isn't a great doer. I do know that a lot people on here say that they feed it alone and their horses look great on it and maintain weight.
One of the great things that I find about this feed is that it not only swells to double it's size, so it goes a long way, but it also only costs eight pound fifty a bag which I think is well cheap considering I don't have to use a vit/min supllement on top. Hope this helps.
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^^^^ this is why I feed FF, but it tends to slim horses, so C&C should be better, or do as above and add micronised linseed meal, great for skin and hoof, no sugars, no problems.
I feed 80gm per day [15.00] when he is in good condition and increase to 100 / 120 if needing to gain weight. I also find non mollaseed sugar beet [barefoot, and fiesty], is good for putting on weight, but you then need to add mins and vits to balance the feed.
 
sophiebailey said:
Thanks guys, have left some C & C to soak overnight, along with some Bailey's number four and hopefully this'll be good 'n' mushy in the morning! Who produces fast fibre?

I feed C & C for condition purposes, i'm not sure if other feeds would heat him up, but don't want to change his feed too much while he's still recovering so as not to upset the tummy!
Click to expand...

When I was feeding C&C I used to make it up...leave it soak for 15 mins...then add half/one the water again as it would have gone quite firm... So at least 2.5/3 x the water rather than 2 x... I like the feed - brought my rather malnourished (when I got him) TB into pretty good shape and he was totally chilled out on it...

I've put him on Fast Fibre to maintain (as someone else said, also by Allen & Page) plus my others have it...
 
sophiebailey said:
So my numpty question is this

if you follow the correct way of soaking should calm & condition still have lumps in it or should it be total mush?

I never had a good feel of it's consistency before the choke incident, so am wondering if i'm being paranoid or if i've got a bad bag or something?
Click to expand...

Not such a numpty question. Took me ages to work out the right amount of water to get a good consistency (either too dry and getting pellets left in tact or too wet and it was like a sloppy drool :( )

I gave up going on what A&P said re ratios and found that if I have the desired quantity of dry pellets in the bottom of my tub I could cover with water until dry pellets were only just covered. This gives me a fluffy mix every time :)

C&C should put the condition back on your horse without you needing to introduce another feed. You may just have to give it time (like with any feed).

Good luck
 
I feed Toffee C&C and Alfa A Oil. I recently emailed for nutrition advice and was told to continue what I was doing.

So for the C&C I take a 1 Stubbs scoop dry shove in feed bucket (A trug), and fill with water about 2" over the pellets. It must soak for at least 20min, as I do it at Sambas yard, bring in etc and then take to toffee. I mix in Alfa A Oil just as feeding, never had problem with choke, which toffee has had at least three times with Happy Hoof when she was on it.
 
sophiebailey said:
So my numpty question is this

if you follow the correct way of soaking should calm & condition still have lumps in it or should it be total mush?

I never had a good feel of it's consistency before the choke incident, so am wondering if i'm being paranoid or if i've got a bad bag or something?

my second (not so numpty question) is

what's a good feed that I can soak that will help restore the condition my old boy lost during his illness? I've heard a lot about Baileys conditioning something or cubes ... very confused!

please advise clever people, need your help!! xxx
Click to expand...


I added up to four times the amount of water as opposed to the bag directions (which left it like concrete) to get it to a decent consistency when I was feeding it. 3 horses on it dropped condition badly, one works on it very well. All it did was fill them up with water so they didn't graze and go straight through them. I wouldn't use it again on any other horse.

Personally old school sugarbeet and alfa/nuts always works for me. Chuck some oil in for condition.

Pan
 
i'm another who adds more water than "twice the amount" i also always soak it for longer than the 5mins that is recommended. i must be adding something like 4x water to one part CC. I have a bucket i soak it in and after experimenting have added lines to go up to ;)
I also think that speedi beet needs more water than is stated and takes a good 45mins to fully soak.
 
Far to late to help but if anyone else is having the soaking problem I find that using hot water (not boiling) helps speed up the process to a few minutes. Think the stuff great for my horse though, everything else sends horse insane and I love the shiny coat that comes with it. Hopefully this will help someone :D
 
put it on to soak before you ride then by the time you have ridden and they have cooled down etc then it will be done. hot water does it quicker too.
 
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