Very old fashioned horse feeds?

[throwawayaccount]

not a mega important post, but! i'm listening to black beauty on audible and for part of black beauty's feed it mentions giving him crushed beans. does anyone know what this would mean as i'm not going to envision the author meant baked beans ..

also, if anyone knows what a horses diet used to be (apart from hay, bran mash, oats etc) all those years ago, please share your knowledge- i just think its really interesting!! x

 

[SEL]

Possibly fava beans - the livestock equivalent of broad beans. Used to be more popular and were fed to horses

 

[scats]

Possibly fava beans - the livestock equivalent of broad beans. Used to be more popular and were fed to horses

We had fava beans grown on our land this year, for animal feed. Not sure what animal though!

 

[WestCoast]

Very good source of extra complete protein (fibre diets are a little low in lysine and I think methionine amino acids). People did on occasion add egg to feeds but I’m not sure that was a great idea.

Linseed was always popular for protein and essential oils, together with yeast and seaweed for vitamins and minerals. When I first had a horse again I found a linseed, yeast and seaweed balancer from Simple Systems to feed.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Boiled barley

 

[outdoor girl]

Flaked maize for a quick burst of energy.

 

[Starzaan]

Boiled barley

The smell of boiled barley instantly takes me back to my childhood, being allowed to help scoop it into the hunters mangers, and then give the little bits left at the bottom to my pony. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and brings back such happy winter memories ?

 

[Sealine]

My memories go back to the 80s when we fed straights i.e. rolled oats, rolled barley, boiled barley, flaked maize and bran. We also fed sugarbeet.

 

[Marnie]

The smell of boiled barley instantly takes me back to my childhood, being allowed to help scoop it into the hunters mangers, and then give the little bits left at the bottom to my pony. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and brings back such happy winter memories ?

I used to boil barley and linseed together - my mum gave me my own saucepan as she was fed up of me ruining hers! It used to make a lovely jelly that made my very fussy eater really enjoy his food!

 

[Goldenstar]

I am old enough to have seen peas and beans fed
The beans looked like broad beans and the peas like like dried peas you might use for pea and ham soup
Eggs used to be given horses ?
And beer was a commonly used tonic

 

[Sealine]

The smell of boiled barley instantly takes me back to my childhood, being allowed to help scoop it into the hunters mangers, and then give the little bits left at the bottom to my pony. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and brings back such happy winter memories ?

I got a whiff of this smell recently and I couldn't place it at first. The smell was coming from a brewery and I then realised what it was I could smell. I never really liked the smell but it did bring back memories of a tack room in winter with a permanently simmering pan on a gas stove.

 

[Cortez]

Crushed dried peas and beans were fed to hard-working horses - the term "full of beans" comes from this (when perhaps the horses weren't hard-working enough!). Barley was used more than oats in much earlier times.

 

[Barton Bounty]

The smell of boiled barley instantly takes me back to my childhood, being allowed to help scoop it into the hunters mangers, and then give the little bits left at the bottom to my pony. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and brings back such happy winter memories ?

Mine too, the smell was ?

 

[ponynutz]

I always wondered what the mash was he was given in black beauty!

 

[cobgoblin]

Locust beans.

 

[Birker2020]

I always wondered what the mash was he was given in black beauty!

Bran mash I expect. Bran was a staple part of a horses diet in the old days and they were often given once a week to try and prevent Monday morning disease as it was known then and is now known as tying up/azoturia.

https://www.dengie.com/news-articles/feed-advice/all-about-mashes/
Historically, bran mashes for horses were fed irregularly after harder work such as a day’s hunting, as it was believed that it helped prevent digestive upsets by acting as a laxative. It is now much less popular as findings from research show that there is little or no laxative effect and making a sudden change to the diet is not desirable at any time and arguably least of all after a period of hard work when the aim should be to aid recovery by replenishing what has been used up.

 

[HBB]

Locust beans.

I loved locust beans, I used to pick them out of my ponies Main Ring feed and eat them myself ?

 

[Tarragon]

I love the smell of a hot mash, with a handful of salt thrown in!

 

[SEL]

Locust beans.

I'm not sure they were imported into the UK in the time of Black Beauty.

Crushed dried peas and beans were fed to hard-working horses - the term "full of beans" comes from this (when perhaps the horses weren't hard-working enough!).

I'd never made the 'full of beans' connection. I did once try and do a dressage test on a horse whose owner had just started feeding it crushed peas for a bit more oomph. We nearly ran the judge over and there wasn't a halt to be seen.

 

[rabatsa]

As a teenager I helped out with some point to pointers and they were fed beans, not locust beans.

Locust beans are sweet and were added to the calf feed to make it more palatable to get them eating.

 

[reynold]

Guiness as a condition booster. I think substance testing put an end to it's use.

 

[onemoretime]

I am old enough to have seen peas and beans fed
The beans looked like broad beans and the peas like like dried peas you might use for pea and ham soup
Eggs used to be given horses ?
And beer was a commonly used tonic

Beans were fed to horses years ago as horses worked very hard. They provided plenty of energy hence the saying "full of beans".

 

[eggs]

Many years ago the vet told me to add a can of Guiness to the feed of my poor-doer TB

 

[Widgeon]

not a mega important post, but! i'm listening to black beauty on audible and for part of black beauty's feed it mentions giving him crushed beans. does anyone know what this would mean as i'm not going to envision the author meant baked beans ..

I can only think of @Snowy Celandine and I'm crying ?

 

[SantaVera]

It's field beans, very similar to broad beans,a few were added to the diet of hard working horses in the past, typically cart horses or plough horses. The beans are still grown as a fodder crop for use in mixes usually for cattle these days. They provide protein.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

We used to always put a raw egg and a good mug of any type of stout in feeds. Not sure if it did them any good but they did all have lovely glossy coats. Perhaps that was more to do with old fashioned thorough grooming methods that we don't seem to use these days? Hot clothing and hay wisping were all part of my childhood grooming sessions, but I don't hear of many still using those methods. ?‍

 

[PurBee]

An old technique of pollarding fine branches of (safe non-toxic) trees, mid-spring after fresh leaves emerge, and tying them up into bunches, hanging them in a barn to dry and fed to livestock after grazing months, was common.

There’s a specific name they gave to the practice, cant recall right now.

I saw a video a while back of a scottish horse owner who was trying the practice with young willow, birch branches. It gave the horses something aside from grasses to nibble on. They seemed to like the dried bunches!

 

[ycbm]

There used to be locust bean on old food bag labels. It was a nearly black crushed "nutshell" looking stuff as I recollect.
.

 

[criso]

Another who used to pick the locust beans out of a mix and the milk pellets too as they were quite sweet.

This was the local feed merchants Hunter mix which they made themselves.

 

[stangs]

Eggs used to be given horses ?

A KER webinar I watched last year recommended feeding eggs still.