Winter Feeding Question / Advice?????

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treacle86

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Basically just wondering regarding feeding this winter , A friend said last winter , I was feedng my horses too much , which they didnt really need , so probably wasting some money , so this year I am going to look into feed guidelines / advice and actual nutritional amounts that my horses do or dont need !! : ) : ) : ) : )

So what does everyone feed their horses through winter ?? What breed ???
Living in or out ???
In work or not ????

My 4 winter out , all quite good doers , Thoroughbreds and Anglo Arab rugged up from Late October - March / april according to weather , full necks / heavyweights on when very cold .
Pony only rugged sometimes

To be honest they dont do ANY work through winter really , maybe 1 hour hack on a saturday , if that , so possibly 4 days hacking a month through winter months .

Bale of Hay or Haylage in Field around every 10 days to fortnight depending on how they are eating it .

Feed = Beet Pulp , Cooked Barley and Coarse Mix / Handful chaff making up to 3/4s full in a standard plastic bucket , ie a B& Q orange one , thats maybe a bit vague , will have to check my feed scoop measurements and weights !!

Is this too much for what they are doing , although they are living out ???


Pony gets handful beet pulp, barley , chaff.

Where can I find good feed guidelines based on weight / workload etc ????

Thanks Guys xxxx
 
I have an Irish Sports Horse 16.2hh. He lives out 24/7 and chaser clipped (but with whole neck off and rugged!) in Winter. I feed him on Baileys Lo cal and Outshine all year. In Winter he gets lots of Hay. This is fibre based, balanced and extra oil for coat condition.
What you feed sounds like too much in one go and also unbalanced. Horses can only take about 2 stubbs scoops of concentrate in one go. I feed about one scoop total plus chaff (scoop is made up of 3 mugs lo cal plus 1 mug outshine).
Best bet is to phone your favoured feed company and ask for advice (and ask for freebies!!).
 
That sounds like really quite a large volume of feed ( I have one of those orange buckets too!).

If they're in no work, well rugged and have adlib hay/haylage, I'm suprised they need more than just a token feed.

I would go with how much they need fed to keep their weight correct and basically ignore what the bags say. They always seem to be totally OTT in amounts! If I fed my lot anything near the reccomended amounts they'd be the size of balloons. And I'd be broke!!

I always stick the 'fibre first' moto:

Ad lib hay/haylage to start with.

If that's not enough then add in suarbeet (tis high fibre) and alfafa. I use Alfa-A Oil as it's low in mollasses and high in oil, so great for weight gain without fizz.

I up the amounts of sugarbeet/AlfaA Oil until the volume becomes too much to be manageable for them or practical to feed: 3/4 of one of those orange buckets would be the max.

Then I add in high calorie 'weight gain' grain feeds - usually Build Up cubes or similar. I will up them to the reccomended amounts (usually a kg).

And if that doesn't work I find out what's wrong with the horse!

They also get a general supplement, unless being feed the full RDA of a complete feed.

I don't pre-empt them needing more feed - they get once they have started to loose a bit of condition, not before.

I have various horses to feed (small cob, big cob, small hunter, big hunter) and they rarely get past the 'ad-lib hay only' stage.
 
i've got a 16.3 irish draught who lives in over the winter nights and out during the day he gets two small feeds a day consisting of 3 mugs of safe and sound one mug of competition mix and 1 mug of speedi beet and his supplements of pro feet and pink powder and he comes out of the winter looking fab

he gets one hay net over night which he hardly manages to finish and there are ring feeders with haylage in it during the day as he gets turned out with the boys that live out
and he gets ridden or lunged or even both every day as he is a good doer and cant cope with no work

i would say you are feeding far too much if they are only getting ridden once a week if it was me i would probably give them a mug of each if that twice a day just so they still have food going through theire system
 
Similar to the above really - have three that live out all winter in rugs. The 1/2 and 3/4 TB get haylage only, not even ad lib as it's always finished when I go out with the next lot. The full TB is not a good doer and he gets one feed of oats and sugarbeet once per day. None of them do much work over the winter and the only issue I have is that the 1/2 TB (other 1/2 Welsh) keeps too well!
 
The cheapest way to feed is to give them as much haylage as they can eat, and then slowly increase the feed from here if they're looking like they need it.

I find Graze-On a great way to keep condition, it's high quality with no icky molasses, and around £7 per 15kg so works out much cheaper than Alfa-A for example. Keep feeding the sugarbeet as well, cheap as chips but always helps horses in winter.

If there are any that need any more beyond this, micronized linseed is a cost-effective conditioner as you don't need to feed a large quantity.
 
Thanks everyone , will be def downsizing feeding this year , as They are all good doers, anglo arab gets super duper hairy furry winter coat and always has a good layer of fat too !! Tbs do well too , They could prob do quite well with just a token feed , as they have plenty hay and haylage .
Hopefully save me some pennies too as i was starting to find was going thru quite a bit of dosh last year !!
thanks guys xxx
 
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