What else can I feed her?

Doormouse

Doormouse

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 February 2009
Messages
1,680
Location
The West Country
Visit site
My mare has shown an intolerance to hard feed. Tried so far, cool mix, horse and pony nuts and ERS pellets.

She is now on hay and haylege and readi grass which suits her very well but she is now hunting and needs far more energy.

What can I try now? Please, if anyone has any experience of this or any ideas I would be very grateful.
 
We feed soaked grass nuts to our oldie who can drop weight, she does well on them, along with speedibeet. It is so difficult if you have one who has feed intolerances, we had a mare who had intolerances to cereal and sugars, she did well on alfalfa cobs. The Current Appy cannot tolerate alfalfa or carrots!
 
All mine are on a blend of the following according to their individual needs..

Alpha A
Soaked grass nuts
Soaked Euro beet(unmolassed) or Sugar beet
Micronised linseed
Calm & condition (one fussy bum)
RiceBran (falcon feeds Omega Rice)
topped up with oats or barley if really needed.
Benevit advanced vits/minerals
Rapeseed or sunflower oil (for the one who spits out linseed!)
Salt & ofcourse adlib hay/haylage & grass in day.
The beauty of sugar beet is the quantity you can feed daily safely. ie an advanced eventer in full work in the coldest of winters could be very well provided for in quantities you simply couldn't risk from other feeds to get the same benefits..and at fractions of the cost.
 
Mine does not do well on cereals, sugar or alfalfa, so he gets unmolassed sugarbeet and micronsed linseed. That and a mineral balancer and some yeasacc and he is in amazing condition, which is impressive given he is ulcer prone and typically drops weight very easily. :)
 
Fast Fibre
TopChop Lite
Speedibeet.

They don't need half the stuff in mixes and nuts.. fibre is the important part of a horses diet and you can supplement if they need it.
 
I don't really have any idea what I'm talking about but surely it's likely to be an ingredient within the mix and nuts rather than the food as a whole?

I would go old school and maybe look at straights oats or barley or whatever.
 
Thank you for all your replies.

Sorry, I should have put more information about her, she is a very good doer and is on a constant diet which makes her very cross. Her intolerance manifests itself as a personality change, she becomes incredibly tense and spooky and then ties ups.
 
Try Thunderbrook feeds, especially if she is tying up. Google it and give them a ring, very enlightening. My youngster is on it now and looks really good.
 
There is a common fallacy that hard feed gives them energy. It does not give any more energy per kg than good quality haylage. Good quality premium haylage gives 12 MJ per kg which is the same as most comp mixes. So I would think you need to change all her hay over to premium haylage and this should give her all the energy she requires.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top