What do you feed your ex racer and why?

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milz88

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If you were taking on a horse that had fairly recently come out of training in the last month, what would you feed?

Ideally you'd feed 3 times a day and increase the fibre content, decrease the energy content when the horse goes into retraining.

But what do you actually feed, brand/quantity/product?

Thanks :)
 
Hi,

We have a few ex racers and they have slightly different feed according to personality. Here are three examples. Ours are fed this twice a day:

Huge dozy one, medium work: Ad lib haylage, own brand pasture mix, barley rings and Molichaff

Little dizzy one, light to medium work: Ad lib haylage, own brand cool mix, un molassed chaff, plus oil

Medium sized relatively quiet one, medium work: Ad lib haylage, own brand pasture mix and Molichaff, EquiJewel + oil if he needs a bit of condidtion, but has not needed it for quite some time.

Plus good grass for all :)

ETA - all these we had straight out of training and they were introduced to these feeds slowly as we got to know them better. Just fed unmollassed chaff and cool mix until they were in proper work.
 
Out 24/7 on good grass, adlib good quality hay, Alfa-A Oil, Topspec conditioning flakes and sugarbeet.

It keeps the weight on him nicely, and took him from a bag of bones to a nicely covered, fit looking horse.
 
Mine gets 1/2 scoop Calm & Condition and 1 scoop Alfa A twice a day. He is a nearly 17.1hh, 5yr old dope on a rope in light work. :)

The lady that got him out of training had him 6 months and was feeding Alfa A, Conditioning Mix, Sugarbeet & Barley Rings in huge amounts (1 scoop of each twice a day!) but couldn't get any weight on, he was grumpy & windsucking.

I was recommended C&C by a friend. Allen & Page suggested that I feed Alfa A with it. He put weight on straight away and is much happier and not windsucking! :D

It works for us :D You have to remember every horse is different and will require different amounts/types of feed.
 
Thanks both.

I don't have one yet, I am in the market, just doing my research and back ground info.

How much would you budget to spend weekly or monthly on feed only, not hay or haylege?

Seems like a good idea to keep the feed very simple and low energy to begin with until you know the horse and the work load increases.

Any other useful tips/advice?
 
Food, cos he's hungry :P

Seriously though it hugely depends on the horse. Sovereign is a big raw boned TB and takes a lot of hard feed, picks at haylage so I do feed him ad lib but he doesn't eat it all. Whereas Emerald (RIPx) was a big horse with a huge frame that lived on fresh air.
As a guide I once did a working out that Sov cost me about £30 a week to feed and Emerald and Touchy where £10 between them. Now you know where my money goes...............
 
TB mare, unclipped, turned away:
Alpha beet, Dengie Hi-Fi Lite and fibre pellets twice daily,
also has ad lib hay when in and grazing when out all day

When she was in work the mare showed a tendency to be very sensitive to anything other than a mostly fibre diet but did very well on A&P's Calm and Condition

Tb gelding, clipped, light work
Top Spec, Fast Fibre and Dengie Hi Fi Apple Chaff twice daily
gets ad lib haylage and grazing (not great quality at the moment) when out all day
The gelding did well on Calm & Condition but did get quite fizzy headed on that when combined with they haylage, funny because the mare got fizzy on just about everything else but that lol!

eta-if they're just out of racing I think I would talk to a vet, when I got my mare she was 2 months out of racing and she looked really, really poor (Vet gave her a condition score of 2) the vet advised me that often because they get fed quite a bit when in training and then suddenly they're not in training and just having less rich food they really drop weight so you need to watch that. She was initially fed Alpha A Oil, Alpha Beet and Baileys No 4 iirc
 
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Again, budget will dependant on the type/amount of feed.

I usually buy 3x C&C & 2x Alfa A at £11ish each so around £55 a month. I don't use all of this during the month but like to have enough bags there so I never run out :D
 
They vary so much but fibre is a good place to start - giraffe is on a scoop of alfa a oil, a scoop of endurance mix and a scoop of barlye twice a day with 12 kg of haylage ,dizzy mre is on high fibre cubes and mollichaff calmer with 12kg of haylage and the mini tb I sold last year had alfa a and build up cubes. The giraffe and mini are naturally idle beasts so get a bit more oomph where as the crazy mare realy doesnt need anymore energy ever :P
 
The little dizzy one only costs us about £10 per week to feed as he's more into his haylage than feed, but the medium sized one costs about £15-20 per week (without Equijewel - much more expensive if we're feeding this in proper amounts).

Make sure that you can ride the horse you're looking at out before you buy him, as you'll obviously get an idea of temperament then. We tend to go for the quiet ones who don't mind if the rest of the string canter off ahead of them! (So basically the ones that really don't get the idea of how to be a racehorse!). Never had a bad one yet :)
 
Thank you for all the replies.

Lots of votes for A&P Calm and Condition.

As I said I don't have one yet, although I am heading up to a race yard on Saturday to see one and maybe another on Sunday, I know that it all depends on how long they have been out of training/current condition/temperament etc, but it is nice to get an idea.

If you want to post any piccies of yours please do... :) (I know this is a feed thread but hey)
 
ad lib haylage.
2.5 scoops of winergy equilibrium condition.

2 mugs of charnwood linseed

approx 1/4 scoop (dry weight) high protein grass nuts (soaked).

1 x simple systems alfalfa block.


bear in mind he's in hard work though, and also idle as sin, i can shovel food down him till the cows come home and he doesnt react to it!
 
ad lib hay, hifi light, half scoop fast fiber, half a scoop of nuts. I've only just got him so I'm working him out but as he has ad-lib hay he has lost his pot belly and gained a bit more actual weight.
 
It really depends on the horse and routine you keep it in.
My ex-racers go straight out 24/7 and get good quality grass. They thrive on it!

If having to stable some of the time though I'd want to base it heavily on fibre- ad-lib hay/ haylage and then an unmollased chaff and hi-fibre cube. Personally, I would resist the urge to pile in the hard feed at first. Remeber they come out of training fit, not underweight, and with a let down in fitness they will pick up weight very rapidly.
 
Okies! Here are two of mine:

This is my medium sized one at her first ever ODE:

KokoMattingleySJ-1.jpg


And here is the huge dozy one:

dan.jpg


The huge dozy one is very sadly for sale :(
 
Fig came out of racing October 2011, he had a couple of very light weeks to start. Currently in light work and ridden 5/6 times a week for 45 mins to an hour.

Between 2 feeds a day: 2 1/2 scoops winergy equilibrium conditioning mix, 1/4 scoop dry weight high protein grass nuts (which are then soaked).

He was fed smaller quanities when he first arrived as I didn't want to overload him.

Ad lib haylage.

With his evening feed he gets a simple systems alfalfa block. (which may or may not be a permanent addition).

Really, the main purpose of the type of feeds and the quanity is to put some condition on him :) It's a tried and tested mix of feeds as it's basically what CS has. So we know it will work, just a case of getting the quantities right, esp with the increase in his workload.
 
milz88 said:
If you were taking on a horse that had fairly recently come out of training in the last month, what would you feed?

Ideally you'd feed 3 times a day and increase the fibre content, decrease the energy content when the horse goes into retraining.

But what do you actually feed, brand/quantity/product?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I personally would cut out all Hard grub asap an give masses of ad lib haylage :)))
 
My OTTB has now more or less what he had when he came to me. Ad lib hay. TS Cool Condition Cubes, Alpha A Oil, Speedibeet and during the winter micronised linseed.


Low starch, low sugar.
 
I think it all depends on the horse, and their temperment.

My old Tb (or tbx) was bone idle. You could feed him oats or barley and haylage, and it didn't make a blind bit of difference to his temperment. Ideally if he wasn't out competing he would have been on own brand pony nuts and sugar beet, as he held his weight very well when fed correctly; if I was wanting to take him out competing under rules, then his ideal would be switched over to Spillers Instant Response Energy mix. Gave him a bit more on the comp day than pony nuts.

The ex-racer I have now has been fed on a variety of different feeds, dependant on what she has required. She was very thin at the end of September, so was started on a diet of Baileys Conditioning Cubes (nr 4). When she had got through about five bags of this, I then moved her onto D&H pasture cubes, as they were cheaper, and she had put a nice amount of condition on. She was then dropped back to own brand pony nuts/D&H high fibre nuts, which she was fine on, until the cold weather. As she had trashed all her rugs, she was wearing a thinner one than I would like, so she dropped off a bit of weight. I have now purchased another bag of No 4, and a "new" second hand rug, and with the warmer weather, she should put the weight back on.
 
It does depend on the horse. All ex-racers are different. But I ahve had a few now and have found that they all thrive on our farm produced haylage, adlib. It is good quality.
They hold condition so well on this that I only begin hard feed as we get established into the eventing season, and then increase it as they work harder and harder.
Then I use a conditioning cube, Alfa A, and redcell and electro salts as needed.
I really think TB's are most suited to the simplest diet possible.
Good luck with yours :)
 
Simple Systems in varying types and quantities for my 3 exracers.

Pink is in the most work she gets the Red Grass Nuts - the highest energy nuts - all year round, anything between 0.5kg and 1.5kg a day depending on how much work she is doing. In winter I add Purabeet for bulk, especially when not in a lot of work and I have cut back the Red Nuts, and Readigrass or another dried grass chaff. She also gets a cupful of Omega Rice in each feed to help her build muscle, she is the equine equivalent of a marathon runner, long and lean, and I have found this to help greatly. She did get added oats in summer when I really needed her to have some oomph!

Rascal is in work but at a less demanding level. He also gets Red Grass Nuts but in smaller amounts over winter with Purabeet and Readigrass to it bulk, he does usually end up on the Blue Grass nuts in summer as they are lower energy but we'll see how he goes this summer as he will prob be in more work this year.

Indy is not in work at the moment so is on Blue Grass nuts to maintain his weight without giving him energy, a little Purabeet and Readigrass.

We find Simple Systems works a treat with all the ex-racers we have come here, everything is fat and calm and I can alter the feeds daily to suit the work and routine the horses are in.
 
Dustry gets...

twice daily

1x scoop (level) Baileys No4 conditioning cubes
1x scoop (heaped) hi fi lite
1x scoop (level) speedi beat

scoop is the round sort that holds dry weight of 2.7 litres

Plus

when he comes in at 3pm (before I get back from work and ride then give him his evening feed) he gets another scoop of cubes to keep him occupied

He gets ad lib haylage, 2 massive nets, and he eats about 75% of it each night

thinking about upping his feed as he never carries anything spare, might also swap him to large holed haynets so he can scoff more quicker

Milz if you are looking for a project have you seen on my facebook?....
 
Bubblegum said:
It does depend on the horse. All ex-racers are different. But I ahve had a few now and have found that they all thrive on our farm produced haylage, adlib. It is good quality.
They hold condition so well on this that I only begin hard feed as we get established into the eventing season, and then increase it as they work harder and harder.
Then I use a conditioning cube, Alfa A, and redcell and electro salts as needed.
I really think TB's are most suited to the simplest diet possible.
Good luck with yours :)
Click to expand...

I like your advice, I have always thought a simple diet (where possible) with all the right ingredients is the best way, especially with fussy eaters or ex racers who might be more susceptible to ulcers etc.

Thanks for all the replies, so much information to 'digest' :)

Chloe- I haven't seen your FB, I have just requested you, and maybe all will be revealed. :)
 
2 round scoops of alpha a oil, 1/3 of the same scoop of high fibre nuts, 2/3 scoop of speedibeet for mine :) Plus Pink powder and adlib haylage (2 large nets over 24hours) and grazing from 7-5 daily.

He started off on hay and moved up to a bit of speedibeet, I put him on Build up mix perv winter to bad effect!!! He seems to be happy enough munching through that lot and still putting a bit of weight on slowly so I'm happy :)
 
All of them get ad lib haylage - properly ad lib, I open up a 300kg bale in the field and let them eat down until its finished. Then they get Pure Condition feed which they eat avidly and seems to keep them shiny and looking healthy and happy. I think the haylage is the real key to keeping their weight but the Pure feed seems to keep them a lot shinier than they would be otherwise.
 
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