What do you feed your barefoot horse?

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DGIN

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Well, my poor Navicular horse is coming home from his holiday to rockley on Sunday!!! He is doing very well and I'm excited to get him back!!

Anyway I am just curious as to what other barefoot owners feed there horses and why? (I just need to get a bit more clued up about this as I'm new to it!) I have been sent a feed sheet so I know what he should be having but though it would be interesting to see what others feed :-)
 
My youngster's still barefoot. He gets hay and a little barley and beet pulp.

Crow's barefoot for the moment :P (lost a shoe, farrier didn't have time to re-shoe him entirely so we just pulled the other 3 shoes for now. He only wear shoes because his feet gets worn down too fast on the ground I ride around here, so he's fine without them a week). He gets hay, barley and beetpulp too.
 
don't get too hung up on the 'barefoot'.

Every horse is an individual and needs to be fed as such.

However experienced barefooters are very aware that there are a number of horses who are 'metabolic'; usually meaning they have some issues with sugar/starch and the side effects of this show up very clearly when a horse is unshod.

For these horses it is wise to choose a forage based diet which is low in sugar/starch.

But equally it is wise to feed all horses on a forage based diet which is low in sugar/starch.
 
LucyPriory said:
don't get too hung up on the 'barefoot'.

Every horse is an individual and needs to be fed as such.

However experienced barefooters are very aware that there are a number of horses who are 'metabolic'; usually meaning they have some issues with sugar/starch and the side effects of this show up very clearly when a horse is unshod.

For these horses it is wise to choose a forage based diet which is low in sugar/starch.

But equally it is wise to feed all horses on a forage based diet which is low in sugar/starch.
Click to expand...

MIne is sensitive to sugar so gets low sugar, high fibre feeds such as oat chaff, hifi lte, speedibeet and then just meadow hay. Oh and the straw he eats off his bed.
 
Mine is also metabolic so that influences how/what I feed. Currently getting soaked hay, restricted grazing, Hi Fi lite and a small amount of unmollassed beet to add supplements (magnesium, seaweed, linseed and brewer's yeast.) I am changing on to Feedmark's Benevit soon though; I also sometimes use Fast Fibre to mix in supplements.
 
LucyPriory said:
For these horses it is wise to choose a forage based diet which is low in sugar/starch.

But equally it is wise to feed all horses on a forage based diet which is low in sugar/starch.
Click to expand...

Exactly. All horses are meant to eat grass (or hay, straw) :3
Solon started to get extra since he was overly skinny and malnourished. Since he's not getting fat from it there's no reason to take it away.
Crow needs it or else he will get skinny.. it's the only thing that has worked on him.
Both of them get as much hay as they will eat beside the grain.

Dacke on the other hand doesn't get free access to hay, unfortunatly our hay is too rich for him. He has straw in his stall though.. But he also needs more protein than he gets from the hay he get.. so it's a bit of a mess but with quite a lot hay - not free access though - and a bit of protein feed, he's getting into a nice shape.
 
Mine is barefoot behind and will *hopefully* be in front next time he is due for shoes (about 4 weeks). He gets his main feed in the evening which consists of Simple System Luci-Cob (pure alfalfa), but only about 1/3 of a Stubbs scoop daily, plus a big mug of SS Total Eclipse (seaweed, linseed and Brewer's Yeast), and MagOx. He also gets a joint supplement. In the morning he gets a handful of Dengie High Fibre Nuts, though this will stop when the bag runs out and he'll just get a bit of extra alfalfa I think.

When the SS Total Eclipse runs out, I will feed the seaweed, BY and linseed straight. Pre-prepared supplements are too expensive!

Forage is soaked hay with a bit of haylage (and it is a bit, he gets about 85-90% soaked hay, the rest haylage) and turnout on poor grazing.
 
ours are both barefoot
just have hi-fi and livery mix and hay
and za has baileys no 1 in winter cos she drops weight..
both have really good feet an have had the same all the time ive had them
 
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