Trend for not feeding for requirements?

I'm not over technical but if you have an email I'll see if I can scan some pics in and send to you.
Sorry, I'm not sure how you do all this without including everyone!
 
My neighbours think I'm bonkers as tho mine get 2 feeds a day, its what I call 'rubbish in a bucket'. Keeps them happy and they come down the fields to me at night (saving me hobbling up on gammy leg) and occupies them whilst rug changing or mucking out in the morning.

They get a few std high fibre nuts, over a handful of hi-fi lite and at tea also get a small dollop of speedi-beet to damp it with.

FLF looks terrific and happily capable of working a 2 hour busy hack without flaking, 4 times a week. Has also drag hunted on same diet, doing 3-4 lines happily. Her owner was amazed at the stamina - its just down to working to get fitness up :)

I used to compete, used to feed straights as required for each one. Now am not competing and have far less fuzzies.

Neighbours in 1 yard have had folk being dumped from idiot over-fed & underworked nags, and despite the young YO asking advice, they jusy cannot 'get it' to cut right down..... sigh...
 
a question for this thread, i believe the rise in the use of "calmers" is mostly due to incorrect feeding, too much not enough work and not enough turn out. Yes some horses are naturally semi nuts, i use to know one that would just canter round hassling the other field mates for the fun of it and some do have a deficiency in mineral X which can be corrected with feeding minerals and this will improve behavior. My horses infection rates from mud fever markedly reduced when i moved to feed bog standard minerals and linseed, nothing special or fancy but it works.

But most it is too much feed to compensate for not having a fit enough horse to do the job required and end up on "calmers"
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
My neighbours think I'm bonkers as tho mine get 2 feeds a day, its what I call 'rubbish in a bucket'. Keeps them happy and they come down the fields to me at night (saving me hobbling up on gammy leg) and occupies them whilst rug changing or mucking out in the morning.

They get a few std high fibre nuts, over a handful of hi-fi lite and at tea also get a small dollop of speedi-beet to damp it with.

FLF looks terrific and happily capable of working a 2 hour busy hack without flaking, 4 times a week. Has also drag hunted on same diet, doing 3-4 lines happily. Her owner was amazed at the stamina - its just down to working to get fitness up :)

I used to compete, used to feed straights as required for each one. Now am not competing and have far less fuzzies.

Neighbours in 1 yard have had folk being dumped from idiot over-fed & underworked nags, and despite the young YO asking advice, they jusy cannot 'get it' to cut right down..... sigh...
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I may have to adopt "rubbish in a bucket" FF - this is pretty much in line with ours, what they are fed and why they are fed. Feeding them in the mornings gives me time to swap haynets etc before they're ready to go out and in the evening it keeps my stress monster occupied if I want to do something he doesn't like, like brushing his mane or legs, and, in the summer, they come to the field gate to be checked over, fly sprayed or whatever so it is really for our convenience more than any need at all.
 
moleskinsmum said:
I may have to adopt "rubbish in a bucket" FF .
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haha! I think Millie is already shouting this at me as I drop evening feeds over the doors :lol: Handful of grass chaff and a balancer, turns her nose up at it most days.

Neither of mine get any hard feed, like many they are at their best if they are fit, rather than fed loads.

I do have a sack of Saracen Re-leve on the go which Kira received after moving yards, as she dropped off a lot and looked sullen and had to be stuffed with antibiotics when she got kicked. The leftovers are proving to be fantastic bribery for loading practice, but that's it :) It's all for owners though... coarse mix looks like yummy muesli and people are suckers for it.
 
mine gets a tiny feed once a day, since theres little grass and goodness in what is there. When the grass really starts to come through and she's out 24/7, chances are, she wont get any. I dont think theres enough education about feed & workloads so people get pulled into the trap of clever branding and advertising.
 
Guilty! Old pony gets more feed than he needs, because the others are getting theirs and he gets upset if he finishes too far ahead of them :D

TBF it's mostly chaff though :)
 
Feed, whats that?..

Toddles off to take the muzzles off and put them in a pen with some barley straw to eat.

TBF I do usually give them a handful of fast fibre with some minerals, and micronised linseed in the winter. I'm not usually muzzling in February though!
 
Agree, especially about the comment on calmers. People think I'm mean because my ponies get barely anything. The Shetlands get nothing when they're out 24/7 and when they come in for the winter they just get a sprinkle of nuts at dinner time while my other gets his tea, just so they don't feel left out.

I feed my Welsh power & performance as without it he's just a bit slow and boring to ride! I compete a lot and like him to be a bit sharper. He doesn't get the recommended amount, just 1/4 scoop twice a day. Problem is if I don't get to ride him consistently (for example this week as I've been really ill) he gets a bit bonkers to handle. Despite turnout from 7-6! But he's manageable for me. If he's due to have planned time off for whatever reason, he comes off it. Otherwise he just gets ridden through and is fine.

If he were to be fed this and on reduced/no turnout, I dread to think what he would be like.

I think it usually comes hand in hand with a general lack of knowledge. All a bit silly to me, why buy expensive feeds when you don't need them!
 
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Horses are like cars, what's the point of filling the tank if you're not going anywhere! You feed for the work you are going to do. If you're doing nothing then just feed hay/haylage.
 
I have really struggled this winter to keep weight on my connie, I could see his ribs through his thick coat, he it hacked out up to four times a week, so very light work load, but very very fussy about his hay. He was getting Alpha a oil, conditioning cubes and fast fibre plus corn oil, but he didn't put on weight until I got him some Haylage and some hay he would eat, so forage did it for him once I got some he would eat.
 
I still chuckle each time people are horrified my lad gets a couple of cupfuls of balancer, Hi fi lite and that's it. I ride 4-6 times a week, with longer hacks at weekends and at least 2 lessons in the week, one on the flat, and one jumping. I consider this light work really, he doesn't ever sweat, comes home feeling he could do it again. S is majorly sugar intolerant, it sends him loopy so steer away from it. Instead I feed ad lib (basically so there's some left over) of good quality hay and this is more than sufficient. There are a few at the yard that ride once or twice a week, their horses are on buckets and buckets of feed and they wonder why they have issues when out riding, and they are natives!!! The mind boggles. My horse is far from an angel but if anything I under feed him so that I know any bad behaviour is down to me and my riding and not excess energy
 
When I was a kid/teenager our horses lived out 24/7 and didn't get any feed. They were given hay in the winter. I hacked out a few days a week and we went to shows most weekends, 9 times out of ten would hack there and back 6 miles each way and did a few rounds of jumping! Our horses were forward but not sharp and never suffered laminitus. I feel people get sucked into buying un-necessary supplements/feeds and their horses end up with problems that could be avoided.
 
My very forward going 14.2 mare gets ridden 6 times a week (including competing in arena eventing, hunter trials and hunting) and gets fed Thunderbrookes herbal chaff and museli. She can't tolerate anything with molasses or soya in! She has more than enough energy! I don't get why people pump their horses full of hard feed especially when they aren't in full work!
 
I'm reading this with envy, wish I could get away with a handful of feed for mine!

I physically cannot get enough hay down her in 24 hours to keep her weight at a level that stops her looking like an RSPCA case. I try to keep her on a fibre and fat based diet as far as possible but it means pretty big feeds!
 
Kat said:
I'm reading this with envy, wish I could get away with a handful of feed for mine!

I physically cannot get enough hay down her in 24 hours to keep her weight at a level that stops her looking like an RSPCA case. I try to keep her on a fibre and fat based diet as far as possible but it means pretty big feeds!
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Same. Mine gets ad lib haylage at night, big field of grass during the day and two feeds, each with 1 scoop cool fibre and half a scoop conditioning cubes. He was getting conditioning fibre and a full scoop of cubes when he arrived but he started getting too full of himself so I switched and he is much calmer.

I wouldn't take him off it though as he is in work again and while he is a little fat if I remove the feed he will lose weight drastically. He loses weight too easily for me to be ok with taking his feed away even when he isn't in work. But i do know to cut it down when needed and when to change it.
 
They are all individuals and mine really prove that.

I spend £30 to £40 a week feeding 4 horses, 2 in light work, one in no work and one that is rising 3. They have adlib haylage and nothing else.

I spend £25 feeding one retired horse a week, adlib hay and a variety of bucket feed. A tricky, picky feeder and difficult to keep right.
 
The marketing people have done a good job of creating demand for the products the feed companies sell.

If you look at the amounts in adverts and on feed bags that are recommended it is often large amounts. Top Spec ads always surprise me as they recommend for a good doers 250g balancer, scoop of chaff and some fibre cubes twice a day. Why not just feed the balancer on its own? Because they want to create demand for the chaff and fibre cubes.

If I can get my RDA of vitamins from a tiny tablet surely a horse could get its RDA of vitamins from something the size of a small biscuit so most feeds must be full of fillers to make money or perhaps most people would not be happy giving their horse a small biscuit once a day in addition to forage they enjoy seeing their horse gets pleasure from eating a big bucket of food twice a day.

My pony only has small amount of the dengie molasses free twice a day and most of the rest of the yard are on fast fibre with a bit of alfa A if they are competition horses. The horses are not thin and not sharpe.

Marketing has lead us to believe horses will only be healthy if given the amount recommended on the feedbags and that we need to feed loads and that hay and grass is not enough for working horses. I also wonder how they worked out what should the RDA of vitamins and minerals be for the average horse. A lot of horses do well on less than the RDA or no feed at all so I think they can't quite believe it when nutritionist says horses cannot get all they need from forage alone.
 
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SO1 said:
The marketing people have done a good job of creating demand for the products the feed companies sell.

If you look at the amounts in adverts and on feed bags that are recommended it is often large amounts. Top Spec ads always surprise me as they recommend for a good doers 250g balancer, scoop of chaff and some fibre cubes twice a day. Why not just feed the balancer on its own? Because they want to create demand for the chaff and fibre cubes.

If I can get my RDA of vitamins from a tiny tablet surely a horse could get its RDA of vitamins from something the size of a small biscuit so most feeds must be full of fillers to make money or perhaps most people would not be happy giving their horse a small biscuit once a day in addition to forage they enjoy seeing their horse gets pleasure from eating a big bucket of food twice a day.

My pony only has small amount of the dengie molasses free twice a day and most of the rest of the yard are on fast fibre with a bit of alfa A if they are competition horses. The horses are not thin and not sharpe.

Marketing has lead us to believe horses will only be healthy if given the amount recommended on the feedbags and that we need to feed loads and that hay and grass is not enough for working horses. I also wonder how they worked out what should the RDA of vitamins and minerals be for the average horse. A lot of horses do well on less than the RDA or no feed at all so I think they can't quite believe it when nutritionist says horses cannot get all they need from forage alone.
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Sadly not all horses are the same. When i got mine he was on the verge of being a charity case and was pretty hungry. The grass and hay wasn't enough for him though so he got a lot of conditioning feed. The difference in him is remarkable and he is very healthy now aside from a little weight gain (but I would prefer he is fat right now than thin it's difficult to put weight on him). Plus now if he doesn't get food he gets very agitated about it and probably believes he is back to his old owners ways of little food.

I have a happy and healthy horse though so he will continue getting the feed. Would be nice and cheaper to take him off it but I don't want him suffering and i am pretty sure he would if he came off it.
 
SO1 said:
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I also wonder how they worked out what should the RDA of vitamins and minerals be for the average horse. A lot of horses do well on less than the RDA or no feed at all so I think they can't quite believe it when nutritionist says horses cannot get all they need from forage alone.
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Horses will be getting the most of the minerals they are getting from hay and grass and this will have a much greater effect than a scoop of bucket feed however having analysed grazing at a few yards (and knowing quite a few people who have done the same) this often means almost nothing of some minerals and huge quantities of others.

The horses that are doing well on less are maybe in a situation where the grazing or hay is providing all they need however in another situation the same quantity of grass or hay may not provide what is needed as it is lacking.
 
Moomin1 said:
I never follow any 'recommended' feed amounts. I make my own mind up on my mare's needs.
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Same here. No way in a rats fart am I going to feed my horse 4 kilograms of a feed. And that's for a horse her size (650-700kg) in light work (1 hr schooling and some hacking). More like 500gm to 1kg depending on what she has done!
 
ApolloStorm said:
Being my yards resident sticky bum. A few liveries have asked me to get on their horses because they are being "nutty".
Invariably all of these horses aren't in regular work or just hacking once a week, yet are fed enough for a horse in regular hard work.
To give an example, an 8year old TB not in work at all, barely turned out. Has thrown 3 people off in the past week and has dire ground manners. is fed 1 Stubbs of Alfa a oil, 1 Stubbs of equerry conditioning mash, small scoop top spec cool condition cubes and comprehensive balancer, per feed! Given horse looks very well but is so full of itself the owner won't handle it!
It seems bonkers to me to not reduce feed intake of horses like this. Anybody else ?
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Its a miracle that horse hasn't had colic. That's way to much in one feed. Why cant people learn about horses BEFORE they buy the unfortunate animal?
Even hubbys 16 hh shire x doesn't get anywhere near that much, She has High fibre cubes, with a handful of readigrass she would also be a nutcase on the feed that tb is getting.
 
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