Tips to get a fussy TB to eat a barefoot diet?

biggingerpony

biggingerpony

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My mare is currently on:

Half scoop of fast fibre
mixed with a handful of linseed
A desert spoonful of multi vit and magnesium ox.
half a spoonful of salt and a sprinkling of powdered devils claw root.

But is being really picky about it, she is out 24/7 on average grazing with no extra hay.

She was previously on fast fibre + supplements mixed with calmer chaff however I suspected that the chaff contained sugar so subsequently tried to wean her off it.

I always leave her feed in field overnight just in case she decides to go back to it later, nearly all of the time it remains untouched!

Her routine has not changed and her teeth were done about a month ago.
I tried her feed today with two spoonfuls of dried mint, she tried it but decided she didn't like it! She loved the smell though and spent a good 10 mins with her head in the bowl just smelling her feed, strange girl!

Does anyone have any tips to get a fussy eater to eat a barefoot diet?
I'm getting so frustrated!
 
Was there any problems from her having the calmer chaff?

If not - then put her back on it?

My horses refuse to eat any feeds when spring comes anyway :p

You can use herbs and spices for taste and therapy;
Mint - digestion
Chamomile - skin soothing and calming
Fennel seeds - bloating
Fenugreek - appetite stimulant
Turmeric - joint supplement
Hawthorn - circulation
Clivers - circulation
Meadowsweet - nature's asprin

They are all cheaply bought from http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/

Spiller's High Fibre cubes are strangely well tolerated by some barefoot horses too - even though they are mollassed and naughty :p
 
To be fair that is a very bland boring feed, can you try and mix some un molassed chaff in to give it a bit off substance. Mine won't eat fast fibre on it's own I have to add chaff
 
If she has been used to the very sugary calmer chaff then she will take a while to loose her sweet tooth, it's like us cutting out sugar in our tea and eating cakes. Right now the grass is coming through and it will be far more appealing... :)

I had the same thing with one of mine when he came out of racing, he was won round with Readigrass chaff, he'll eat anything that has that in it :)
 
I had this problem with my loan warmblood.

Connie my old mare is on fast fibre, so i decided to move the loan boy onto it too... well he'd pick at it and not really eat it at all, so it was going to waste. I am now buying Allan & Page 'L' mix for him and mix it with his fast fibre and he cant get enough of it, (L mix has lower starch and sugar that FF! but needs to be fed with something, so chaff or FF) its got lots of added herbs etc which seems to make it far more attractive to him!
 
Do you use garlic? Some of ours aren't keen on it but others will eat anything with a heap of garlic in.

We sugar beet or use sugar beet water for anything fussy with wormers as they can pick out mashed apple/chopped carrot/strands of alpha-a etc! So as suggested above, warm water may do the job for mixing so they can't be so fussy.

Pan
 
Increase the linseed to a mug full daily, introduce the minerals gradually and think about stopping the devils claw or putting it in a separate feed. I find horses often dislike devils claw. If she is eating some make the feeds smaller and feed twice daily.
My tb wolfs it down with speedibeet. It was the cobs that were fussy about the minerals at first.
ps. Out 24/7 might not be helping. lol Try feeding after work or just before turning out again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow thank you for your speedy replies!!

littlelegs said:
Have you tried mixing it up with warm water so it doesn't taste powdery?
Click to expand...

Thanks little legs, no I haven't tried warm water, that shall be the first thing I try tomorrow!

Oberon said:
Was there any problems from her having the calmer chaff?

If not - then put her back on it?

My horses refuse to eat any feeds when spring comes anyway :p

You can use herbs and spices for taste and therapy;
Mint - digestion
Chamomile - skin soothing and calming
Fennel seeds - bloating
Fenugreek - appetite stimulant
Turmeric - joint supplement
Hawthorn - circulation
Clivers - circulation
Meadowsweet - nature's asprin

They are all cheaply bought from http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/

Spiller's High Fibre cubes are strangely well tolerated by some barefoot horses too - even though they are mollassed and naughty :p
Click to expand...

Thanks Oberon, that list of herbs is really interesting. I weaned her off the chaff as she got diagnosed with mild cushings not long ago. So trying to reduce all sugar intake!

PandorasJar said:
Do you use garlic? Some of ours aren't keen on it but others will eat anything with a heap of garlic in.

We sugar beet or use sugar beet water for anything fussy with wormers as they can pick out mashed apple/chopped carrot/strands of alpha-a etc! So as suggested above, warm water may do the job for mixing so they can't be so fussy.

Pan
Click to expand...

Thank you! I used to feed garlic in summer because of flies but then I stopped a few years back because of the link with anemia, she did love it though!

So... My plan of action:

Tomorrow I'll mix warm water into feed.

If that does not work then I will get some sugar free chaff to see if that helps. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Horses.... who'd have em lol
 
My mare has gone off her bucket feed the last month or so and I have tried mint etc but with no luck so although i was trying not to I have bought a bag of spiller high fibre cubes. Only need to add a handful to her normal minerals and ff and now the bowl is licked clean!
 
Last year it was a struggle to find unmolassed hay chaff - only one place stocked it and you had to order it.

This winter, two places are stocking it automatically.

If you demand it, vendors will stock it.

The place I linked for the herbs also sell devil's claw powder - not sure if it's cheaper than what you are paying now? Is he on Agnus Castus or Prascend?

I did experiment with using Stevia leaf to sweeten feeds without messing the blood sugar or hooves, but the horses just thought I was trying to poison them
lol.gif
.

My rampant Cushing's chap managed on the Fast Fibre and Spiller's High Fibre nuts with his minerals even when he was unmedicated and I didn't know about the rampant Cushings.
 
Hi Oberon I got the devils claw as a christmas present from my sister, I wanted it so I put on my list :) ! Only use a really small amount each day and still got loads left for now.

Have been looking just now at simple systems timothy chop, there's a retailer nearby so I may give that a try.

Shes on half a tablet of prascend a day. Funny, she actually wants to eat the tablet and I don't even have to disguise it!
 
OOh yes, the timothy chop is great if you have a stockist nearby.

I hide Obi's tablet in a piece of carrot/apple....but I'm surprised how he takes it with no fuss at all.

I ran out of carrots and apples and put the tablet in a grape last week.

He decided grapes were poison and spat it out.
yuck.gif
I scrabbled in the grass to recapture the tablet, muttering and cursing....and found an empty grape
eh.gif
.

He's managed to take the tablet and spit out the grape
lol.gif
.
 
What's her weight and workload like.

I feed Coolstance Copra (http://www.stanceequine.co.uk/) it is very tasty and I can hide any amount of supplements or medicines in it.

He was at Rockley to be rehabbed barefoot and ate it then, it's the one ingredient that in his opinion is non negotiable so I have carried on. I ran out once and had a feed bucket flung across the stable in disgust.

I feed a very small amount - about a cup full but it fluffs right up with water so a little goes a long way.

Mine reacts badly to sugar behaviourwise, I even have to be careful of unmolassed sugarbeet but is fine on this however it is high in ptotein, oil and calories so I would steer clear of it for a good doer but I know some people with thin laminitics as well as other barefoot horses that have found it useful.
 
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