Why do people insist on over feeding their horses?

arwenplusone

arwenplusone

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I know, it's none of my business, but there are (more than a few) horses on my yard that seem to be on highly mollassed feeds and alfalfa, big feeds twice a day. All to just be ridden for half an hour a day mostly in walk & trot.

And then, the owners wonder why they are 'forward going' and a bit silly. Or say 'gosh this is her winter attitude' No, love, it is just that you are piling starch into her....

*sigh* No real point to my post I suppose, just having a whinge...
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Yeah it gets on my nerves too!
Honeys on just enough, but shes not been excercised in a few weeks and shes got a big belly and is on her toes constantly!
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Oh and shes run out of calming herbs!
 
I don't get it either. Isn't there a statistic that says that a very low percentage of horses in the UK are actually classed as being in hard work, and most of those are racehorses and eventers. The majority of horses are classed as being in light work only. My mare lives off fresh air and has a vitamin lick and a bit of hifi to disguise a tendon supplement she's on.

I actually think that some people like mixing up feeds, and think they should feed, because everyone else does.
 
Its very annoying I agree, it seems some horse owners just feed what others feed and don't do it to suit the horse! Bloody ludicrous. One horse on my yard is hideously overweight and seems to be fed the wrong feed and way too much of it to boot, I just don't get it!
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I'm the opposite and get comments at the yard from people thinking I'm not feeding Genie enough! She's doing pretty well on Dr Green and forage, so only gets the handful of happy hoof to get the supplements into her.

Completely agree with you 100% MayFlower
 
Theres a few people at my yard who feed their horses such huge feeds that i can hardly pick them up and put them over the door in the morning. The horses behave like maniacs cause they arent worked only trotted around the school for twenty minutes every few days.
 
Oh yes, stuff loads of hard feed down their necks and wonder why their horses are spooky and have a bad ride.
 
Glad its not just me. It seems to be the people who 'baby' their horses a bit too - think 'oh hello daaaarling shall I get you a lovely BIG breakfast? Here comes the choo choo train...'

eugh.
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because it's something people do which makes them "feel" that their horses "like" them or because it "looks tasty" , because horses are really humans don't you know...grass surely isn't all it's cracked up to be?!?
and obviously 'cos horses have comparable human emotions...
bah...
I agree, no idea...
but with a lot things - no idea why people do other things with their horses ..like bringing their horses in when it looks like rain....the list could be endless...
 
yeah Ill never forget it when my ots brother in law came to visit a yard that I worked, based in France and in his rather pigeon english accent asked why zees hosees so fat? they can still jump when they look like charolots..... assumed he meant charolet, it did make me giggle, a few years later when we returned the visit I noticed how much leaner they all were, not thin well muscled but you could just see the ribs on every horse but they were athletes and rightly or wrongly you never see athletes carrying excess weight unless its shot pot or summit but thats kind of muscle right.
 
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Glad its not just me. It seems to be the people who 'baby' their horses a bit too - think 'oh hello daaaarling shall I get you a lovely BIG breakfast? Here comes the choo choo train...'

eugh.
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PMSL Here comes the choo choo train, genius! It is just like that too!
 
I think some people think that because of their size they must need big meals and compare them to the size of meals we eat... never mind that a horse's digestive system works completely differently to a human's... also its a comfort thing - leave them all snuggled up in their knee deep staw bed wearing lots of cosy ruggles and a GREAT BIG bowl of dinner to munch through but only 1 section of hay (because thats epensive apparently)
 
ah yes
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The same group of horses I speak of are, as we speak 'all tucked up snug as bugs in rugs'

Or, actually, sweltering in large duvet like stable rugs, when they aren't clipped & some of them are natives..... *sigh*
 
and whats the maximum at any one time a horse can digest 4lbs????its not really a lot is it. I think the problem as well what I c at our yard is liveries just feed twice a day and they read the recomended manufacturers guidelines as 4 - 6ks a day.. ok if its split four times a day like our jumpers and the horse is in intense training and competition but seriously 6lbs plus alfa plus hay is way too much for the few happy hackers we have but you cant explain to them the difference and i guess they see the jumping stallions feeds made up split into four and think they need to feed the same split into two.. pass dunno....... mind you you get the numpties who think their OTTB can survive on chaff and beat and a lightweight rug then wonder why they are looking so thin... takes all sorts I guess.
 
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ah yes
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The same group of horses I speak of are, as we speak 'all tucked up snug as bugs in rugs'

Or, actually, sweltering in large duvet like stable rugs, when they aren't clipped & some of them are natives..... *sigh*

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Now there you go making me feel bad!!
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My wb and cob are fully clipped and still out 24/7 with no fill rainsheets on - and they only get some chaff to get their supplements in............

How bad do I feel?? Not bad at all - neither one has wasted away - yet!!! O and they are both naked in the day too......
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My horse overfed, in your opinions, atm and feeling very very well off it- on his toes and bouncing everywhere. However, he's an old man who works hard in the winter, and we've found the only way to stop him from going like a hat rack is to keep him a bit rounder at this point. He still looks well, he's nowhere near chubby, but he's being fed a large amount of chaff and high-fat alpha-beet, with some pony nuts. Keeps him looking well when it's v cold.
 
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ah yes
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The same group of horses I speak of are, as we speak 'all tucked up snug as bugs in rugs'

Or, actually, sweltering in large duvet like stable rugs, when they aren't clipped & some of them are natives..... *sigh*

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Don't get me started on this one!! My horse was clipped (hunter clip, cos he is actually hunting) nearly 3 weeks ago. Whilst it's as hot as it is, he is out during the day either naked on in a LW (no fill) TO, and in at night in a cotton sheet. YO keeps putting him in his 110g full neck stable rug...when I get there at 6pm he's soaking with sweat. There is just no need for him to be in a heavy, or even MW, rug ATM. One on our yard is humoungously fat, has just had a low trace clip, and is the same height and type as my boy (17hh IDxTB)...it gets twice the amount of haylage mine gets and easily twice the amount of hard feed, plus it's loaded with sugar beet. Oh, and he has a MW stable rug on over night...don't get it at all
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I can't stand it when people say their horse is "nice and toasty" in his rugs. He shouldn't be! If he's toasty, he too bl00dy hot
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For the record, my 17hh IDxTB who works for about 45 mins to an hour most week day evenings, plus minimum 2 1hr walker sessions per week, plus either long hacks or a competing/lesson/fun ride or hunting at the weekends...is hunter clipped, currently in a cotton sheet overnight, fed 3/4 scoop chaff and a handful of high fibre nuts to get joint supplement (and when needed, electrolytes) into him once a day. His breakfast is a handful of last night's chaff taken out. He is fed the least of anything on the yard and is in probably the hardest work.

*climbs back down off soapbox *
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I think feed manufactures are in part to blame - I have a 14h pony living out and he gets a handful of chaff and a handful of mix once a day as he has a breathing supplement and I have to mix it with something relatively tasty as the supplement has a strong taste. If he did not have a supplement he would just a get a carrot or apple.

However on the bag of mix the RDA for a pony of his size in light work is 1k of mix which should be mixed with 1k of chaff. This would amount to three scoops of chaff and 1 scoop of mix which even split into two meals is quite a lot of food for a small pony. If I gave him the RDA he would be huge!

If you have a horse then the RDA might be double that amount which would be a big feed.

I think people have to use a bit of common sense when feeding as horses of the same size in the same amount of work will not all need the same amount of feed and the RDA on the bag may not be applicable to all equines of that size. Also consider how much grass they are getting as well instead of just feeding the RDA on the bag.
 
If the big feeds are alfa alfa or forrage based ( the unmollased varietys ) then imo these horses are not being over fed. If its forage based then even a huge bucket when compared to a haynet full is not so very much.

Now if it is huge buckets of mix then that is totally different.

My rather large (height not girth ) horse on box rest has bucket ( ok not huge ) of cool fibre twice a day just to add variety to his very boring day. ( as well as fibre cubes in his two horse balls ) and not forgetting the huge ( really huge ) bucket of reddi grass he has daily, does that qualify as overfeeding?
 
Whilst I agree there are a lot of people who seem to feed too much for their horse's temperament and workload, I must point out that that mollasses and alfalfa do not contain much in the way of starch - starch mainly comes from cereals and feeds containing them, such as mixes. (Although I know some horses seem to react to alfalfa but that is nothing to do with starch levels, and the problem with mollassed feed is due to sugar levels!)

Also most chaff type feeds (such as alfalfa) are very 'fluffy' so a scoop of a chaff type feed can look like a huge amount, but actually weigh very little, so sometimes that big feed is actually not as big as it looks!
 
this is one of my hates!
the other day the horses at our yard moved fields into a big field with lush grass in and so i kept my two horses in the 'skinny' field, or a field with not so much grass in and people said i was cruel.
do you think I am?
none of the horses are exactly thin, they could do to lose some weight.
Also, all the other horses are in medium weights but right now mine are in LW rugs and will be until they get clipped.

I dont know whether I am doing the right thing, but my horses could do to drop weight, and i cant up their workload as they already in relatively hard work.
 
General thoughts...it's no wonder given the mind boggling array of feeds and even worse with supplements available. No wonder calmers are so popular! I feed Baileys Lo-Cal and outshine (Outshine only a mug and because he hasn't got great skin....this helps a lot) all year with hay in winter, out 24/7 and that's all. Funnily feed merchant had no Lo-Cal left last time so I bought topspec leisuretime and he's been a bit loopy on it. I won't be doing that again! Mine is in a mediumweight and trace clipped (whole neck off) but is in a very exposed part of the country....does have a field shelter though. His weight is spot on.
I know loads of people who simply feed too much or totally the wrong balance. Most Horses would be fine on just a balancer or similar. You really only need more hard feed when the workload is pretty high.
 
Blue, 2 year old Fell gets no hard feed at all and won't be rugged this winter either.

Ellie is fed heaps but she's a skinny old girl, and Tara, who I have on loan at the moment is on no hard feed either and is looking a lot better now she is losing a bit of weight. Her owners came to see her and commented on how well she looked and how shiny her coat was and asked if I had changed her feed. Well yes I have - to just grass
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I'm not one to mollycoddle
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We have a couple of liveries like this, its crazy. We are an event yard that has a few liveries to help pay the bills, now our 5yo was out eventing on a hanful of high fibre nuts and a handful or alfalfa twice a day, he lived out at night and in in the day, and is worked for 30/40 min a day and was eventing every other weekend. Our 1* horse was off with injury, but would have probably had 2/3 performance concentrate and a few oats and a handful of alfa, and would be in hard work.
Liveries horses are "schooled" for 20 mins or walked round the block, and are on all sorts of feed, larger quantities than ours and much higher eenergy. The horses then get fat so they want them to stand in wiht no hay in the day, but wont let us put them on a less grassy field, and wont cut down their feeds.
Mine was eventing on nothign but grass!
Grr over rugging and over feeding drive me maaaaaad.
 
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