Want To Feed as Naturally as Possible - Advice Needed!!!!

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MrsMurs

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Hi Everyone,
I'm posting on behalf of a friend who has a yard of 5 horses and ponies, all with varying issues such as laminitis prone, sensitive digestion, 1 with possible ulcers. She currently feeds a Lite Balancer, Lite Chaff, and a base of Fast Fibre or Calm and Condition, and adds micronized linseed. The ulcer prone horse is on UlsaGuard (or something of the like).
My friend has been discussing with me her interest in feeding more naturally, and it's and got me thinking about mainstream brands and all the "extra" "unwanted" ingredients such as Wheatfeed and Whey and Maize I keep hearing about.
But .... the more I look into it, the more confused I get.
At the moment my friend is looking at Thunderbrooks feeds (Healthy Herbal Chaff) and also Progressive Earth (Pro Hoof Balancer). The added Linseed gets the thumbs up all round from what I can gather. But then the more I read into this way of feeding, the more I start to become confused about whether or not the above would have sufficient pre/probiotics, if adding a supplement for ulcers to the ulcer prone horse (Gastro-plus) is the right thing to do .....
I just don't have a scientific brain and such a lot of the natural way of feeding seems to end up with so many different ingredients I get lost, such as whether to add Brewers yeast, or salt, or extra magnesium.
I'm thinking of following suit;I want to feed naturally, but I need to keep it simple, for my mental health and purse strings. I do however appreciate you get what you pay for in terms of quality.
Is there anyone out there who can advise me on the basics of a well balanced, simple way of feeding naturally is, and for my friend, natural ideas to support a laminitis prone pony, a horse with possible ulcers and sensitive digestion?
Phew!
Thank you to anyone who has read this far.
Really, any advice, experiences would be very welcome.
 
I feed emerald green grass chaff and a balancer with micro linseed if weight needed.
You could feed emerald green grass chaff, pink powder (like a balancer with pre and probiotics) and micro linseed if weight needed. Thunderbrooks chaff is great, but it's twice the price of emerald green.
 
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My boy is also fed like yours, to a degree. He is on TB feed, pro hoof, linseed, brewers yeast and coolstance which he loves at the moment. He was previously on FF aswell and unmolassed sugar beet too.
 
Brilliant, thank you for replying. I haven't seen the Emerald Green grass chaff so will look that up. Agreed that Thunderbrooks looks just the ticket but very pricey. Will check out Coolstance too and the other things mentioned.
Thanks once again.
 
Good quality forage is the appropriate thing to feed- horses are designed to graze on various forage so good quality forage, plenty of turnout should be your first port of call, lots of supplements shouldn't b necessary
 
Thunderbrooks chaff is lovely, but expensive. How about a plain grass chaff, grass nuts or kwik beet and a balancer? Micronised linseed if anything is underweight and a tablespoon of salt in each feed.

I'm a fan of forage plus balancers -I think they already add salt to some of their products.

Do you know what is driving the ulcers in the horse that has them? Nothing above should cause them to get worse, but generally you need to knock the underlying cause on the head to get permanent improvement.
 
Agrobs is my chosen brand! Not as pricey as Thunderbrooks, though I know a lot of people swear by it!

http://www.agrobs.de/futter/en/main_left/gesundes_tierfutter/

I feed:

agrobs aspero (as a chaff)
Agrobs Pre_Alpin Compact (hay blocks effectively)
And something else which has a lot of protein in (I've forgotten the name- but it's another natural Agrobs one, and it's to replace Baileys No4, which I am just using up my last bit of)

They do all sorts of balancers too, but as I stocked up when it was half price last year I still use TopSpec Balancer.


The AlpenGrün Müsli its meant to be really good too and looks so tasty, but I can't justify any more feed for my cob!
 
SusieT said:
Good quality forage is the appropriate thing to feed- horses are designed to graze on various forage so good quality forage, plenty of turnout should be your first port of call, lots of supplements shouldn't b necessary
Click to expand...

I agree - get the forage right and don't add anything else unless needed. I did a detox with my mare a couple of years ago and found that actually - she really only needed copper and a bit of salt to keep her sound barefoot. I was giving her way too much. Since then, she just has a handful of soaked hay cobs (agrobs) for her high copper powder from PE. I let her have her own salt as loose salt in a bucket in her stable and field. She takes what she needs.
 
Simple is the way forward! i have a 22yr old tb and a 2 yr old irish sports who both get fed the same.

Im also an EP so diet is something i care alot about as it shows in their feet.

I feed:
Pro earth balancer
coolstance copra
Micronised linseed
handful of grass chaff (something like thunderbrooks or agrobs with added herbs)

they have 3 salt licks that they use but add extra in feed in summer.

most horses dont need anything exciting in the bucket (though both mine love theirs!) as long as they are getting plenty of forage
 
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