YO upped my horses feed without telling me!

I think i do understand where your YO is coming from tho even if she should have told you she has upped his feed.

Hard feed from a feed company will be nutritonally balanced meaning that it will contain the horses daily levels of vits, mins etc. Hay cannot guarntee these levels as you cant tell what the levels of nutrients are in hay (even if it looks good quality) without having it anayalised so i do understand what YO means when she said the nutrients in the hay will not be enough. Maybe she thinks she knows more about nutrition than yourself but as you are paying her she should really explain to you why she is doing this. But if your horses isnt getting his recommended ration of hardfeed the vit/mins levels will not be sufficent anyway so would be better on a balancer.

Does your horse need hardfeed to maintain weight or is he a good doer?

What is she feeding him and how much does he actually get?

If he does need hardfeed for the calories to maintain weight feeding a low energy diet how ever much you feed will not cause excitable behaviour.
 
Trot_On_Dressage said:
you can't tell what the levels of nutrients are in hay (even if it looks good quality) without having it analysed
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Let's not forget that horses have been surviving on hay for quite a lot of centuries before analysis was invented in the last few years. They are remarkably good at thriving without "perfect" nutrition and balancers are not essential.
 
Trot_On_Dressage said:
I think i do understand where your YO is coming from tho even if she should have told you she has upped his feed.

Hard feed from a feed company will be nutritonally balanced meaning that it will contain the horses daily levels of vits, mins etc. Hay cannot guarntee these levels as you cant tell what the levels of nutrients are in hay (even if it looks good quality) without having it anayalised so i do understand what YO means when she said the nutrients in the hay will not be enough. Maybe she thinks she knows more about nutrition than yourself but as you are paying her she should really explain to you why she is doing this. But if your horses isnt getting his recommended ration of hardfeed the vit/mins levels will not be sufficent anyway so would be better on a balancer.

Does your horse need hardfeed to maintain weight or is he a good doer?

What is she feeding him and how much does he actually get?

If he does need hardfeed for the calories to maintain weight feeding a low energy diet how ever much you feed will not cause excitable behaviour.
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I would prefer a balancer, but anyway. He is def not underweight and does not loose weight easily. She is feeding a cereal based feed, 2 litres a day in two feeds which he maintains perfect weight with and then a little hay. She upped his hardfeed to 4 litres, he doesn;t need this I don't work him enough for this amount of food. I would prefer to stick to the two litres and give more hay instead of the 2 small portions of hay aday and then going hours with nothing.
 
NoCollection said:
Let's not forget that horses have been surviving on hay for quite a lot of centuries before analysis was invented in the last few years. They are remarkably good at thriving without "perfect" nutrition and balancers are not essential.
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I am not suggesting they are not, that is very true. I was simply trying to explain what the yard manger was doing and why she may have been doing it.
 
I'd be fuming! He is your horse, regardless of whether he is on full livery or not, you decide what and how much he gets fed, not her! I personally would be out of there as soon as possible - if she's done that, what or things could she have/possibly do to your horse without your permission!?
 
Quartz said:
I would prefer a balancer, but anyway. He is def not underweight and does not loose weight easily. She is feeding a cereal based feed, 2 litres a day in two feeds which he maintains perfect weight with and then a little hay. She upped his hardfeed to 4 litres, he doesn;t need this I don't work him enough for this amount of food. I would prefer to stick to the two litres and give more hay instead of the 2 small portions of hay aday and then going hours with nothing.
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Ok if it is a cereal feed than yes it probably is causing the excitabe behaviour and if you are not working him enough to warrant that your YO is quite out of order! Can you not get her to feed a better suited diet? Most British horse feed companies do distribute through France so it would not be that difficult to find even a bag of horse and pony cubes.

Does she charge you for the feed?? I think i would leave the yard to be honest!
 
I agree with many on here and would be looking for another yard. I had similar problem at old yard. Horse becoming idiot to ride and found out she was adding competition mix to his feed. Then they changed feeds over to really cheap stuff full of sugar without telling us.
 
Echo Bravo said:
Sell him, it would make your OH happy and you can always hire horse to go riding.
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OMG are you joking!!:eek: Think that would be a bit drastic, I aim to please OH by not brining all my yard problems home but would rather not go that far over this!!! Think I will take some of the other suggestions first, but thanks for your input:cool:
 
Do you want really vicious phrases in French?!

I'd be furious: your horse, your rules, end of.

She's using your horse in lessons? That could be a fab ultimatum: no lessons if she doesn't do what you're paying her to do. Simple.

I see you don't want to change yards-sounds fab bar the YO and were you to move, you'd have further to travel etc so you need to sort this to your satisfaction. (not hers).

As for the OH, what's the issue? That you spend too much time with the horse? That it's expensive? Can you pay for the horse yourself?
 
cinammontoast said:
Do you want really vicious phrases in French?!

I'd be furious: your horse, your rules, end of.

She's using your horse in lessons? That could be a fab ultimatum: no lessons if she doesn't do what you're paying her to do. Simple.

I see you don't want to change yards-sounds fab bar the YO and were you to move, you'd have further to travel etc so you need to sort this to your satisfaction. (not hers).

As for the OH, what's the issue? That you spend too much time with the horse? That it's expensive? Can you pay for the horse yourself?
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Lol, there would love some vicious phrases in French.

OH doesn't know anything about horses so doesn't understand itime and attention they need. I guess a horse, 2 dogs and 2 kids puts OH pretty low on the pecking list!!! Think he gets jealous:)
 
Quartz said:
Lol, there would love some vicious phrases in French.

OH doesn't know anything about horses so doesn't understand itime and attention they need. I guess a horse, 2 dogs and 2 kids puts OH pretty low on the pecking list!!! Think he gets jealous:)
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Poor OH! Get him a horse so he can join in the fun!

PM anytime for rude French!
 
My YO likes to do things her way, and it has to be said a lot of the full liveries leave her to decide what their horses are fed, however if she knows that you have a requirement it will be fulfilled. She suggested my boy come off Sugarbeet, I agreed, we did it. If she did do it without asking, it would always be mentioned to us and a good reason given. If we didnt agree, it would go back. However I have to say I would trust her judgement. Sounds like you know exactly what your horse needs so I am sure you know what is best for him. Have to say her attitude would frustrate me but I am sure she only has your horses best interests at heart, so dont be too disheartened :)
 
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