What to feed for best barefoot results ?

[Stormin]

I've seen a few of you posting about the importance of feeds in the barefoot transition.

What should I (what shouldn't I) be feeding ?

I seem to remember having to avoid cereals and molasses ? What about a horse who has never been shod and has always been fed with such feeds - are they prone to "bad quality" feet too then ?

[poniesrule]

as i have been one of those posters who have stated the importance of a balanced diet, then i thought i should say something!!

please be aware i am no feeding expert:o

basically if your horse is doing enough work to justify being fed the quantities suggested on the feed bag, then you could follow those guidelines so that the horse is recieving everything it needs for that level of work eg light, medium, hard.

However, most leisure horses and good doers thrive without hard feed. So if this is the case, then you could either feed a feed balancer or simply a vit and min supplement mixed in with a bit of chaff. As long as they contain biotin, they will provide everything the horse and hooves need.

ive heard of feeding seaweed to the barefoot horse, but not sure why!! can any other posters shed some light on this?

[Roofio]

i'm currently feeding baileys lo-cal and fibrebeet, with magnesium for the one with terrible feet but not for the other one (although i probably should be, right?)

i was feeding happy hoof as well, but ran out and didn't see the point in replacing it.

the idea is to basically cut out as much sugar as you can - so no molassed chaffs or mixes as you say.

Dylan was shod up until the day before he came to live with us and has good quality horn growth. He was fed molassed farm shop own brand cool mix with chaff. However, he did/does have quite a lot of thrushy infection which is partly due to his contracted frogs, but may also be related to his old diet.

the lo-cal gives them plenty of hoofy nutrients without sugar and the fibrebeet is helping keep their weight on. in summer they'll prob just get the lo-cal and a bit of happy hoof.

[MelanieD]

It depends on the horse really. If the horse is eating equine junk food and is totally sound and happy with good feet then no problem, though maybe worth trying low sugar, high fibre +balancer type diet to see if they could be even better.

Some horses can't cope with sugary diets and get low grade laminitis causing them to be footy, usually they are less obviously footy when shod which is why its even more important to get the diet right for the horse to be able to work barefoot. If a horse is prone to those kinds of problems then it'll cause some problems like flaring and white line disease causing cracking and chipping whether shod or not, the footyness is just more obvious barefoot.

My three barefoot horses are eating mollassed chaff at the moment since what I normally feed was out of stock. They are likely to be eating mollassed sugarbeet (way cheaper than speedibeet and not too mollassed) + Safe & Sound (at least that's equine health food) once current stash of food runs out. Some high fibre diets, as in ones including alfalfa, really don't suit them, whereas that's a great feed for some other horses. Some of the other barefoot horses on the yard are doing well on diets that include mixes. Other horses wouldn't cope at all with that kind of diet.

A lot of barefooters supplement with magnesium, helps some horses, does precisely b*gger all for mine so I don't bother anymore. Salt is another thing that can be good to supplement, I do give mine salt and it does seem to help.

[mayoguinness]

Our barefoot trimmer is also an equine nutritionalist as he believes getting the diet right is as important as trimming correctly. He suggested a mainly hay based diet, whole oats and speedy beat also fine, nothing mollased or high sugar and to supplerment with magnisiem as most horses are lacking it and it is aparently very improtant in their diets and affects the hooves greatly too:)

[Stormin]

OK, fair enough for the molassed bit, though finding non-molassed chaff (to bulk out "feeds") isn't easy.
I thought I saw someone saying that cereal based feeds were best to be avoided ?

Mine are currently eating a bit of Cool mix with happy chaff and a scoop of benevit morning and evening. Zsaïm has really good feed and Stormin is barefoot since July. Farrier did find his feet OK but warned that the milestone is 6 months.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't change the cool mix for high fibre nuts ? If so, are they getting enough magnesium in the benevit ?

[MelanieD]

Most of the horses on my yard are on some variety of cool mix and all doing fine on it. I have mine on spiller's high fibre nuts at the moment and they are good.

A lot of barefooters like to supplement with quite a lot of magnesium, way more than there is in any general supplement. I've not been too impressed with the results of that on my horses, actually think they might be better without it, but seems to work for some.

6 months is where the new growth usually reaches ground level, generally you see improvement around that time..

[lachlanandmarcu]

mine has Farriers formula plus a handful of Hifi lite, and a half scoop of suregrow (as she is still growing) plus a pinch of Readigrass if the fields are bare.

Soon will be swapping from all that to Healthy Hooves or similar.

She has short,wide feet and has never been shod. Sometimes has Boa boots on in summer but nothing the other seasons :)

[Brodies_Girl]

OK, fair enough for the molassed bit, though finding non-molassed chaff (to bulk out "feeds") isn't easy.
I thought I saw someone saying that cereal based feeds were best to be avoided ?

Mine are currently eating a bit of Cool mix with happy chaff and a scoop of benevit morning and evening. Zsaïm has really good feed and Stormin is barefoot since July. Farrier did find his feet OK but warned that the milestone is 6 months.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't change the cool mix for high fibre nuts ? If so, are they getting enough magnesium in the benevit ?

Hiya, Ive been told that Alfalfa is better to give to barefoot horses than chaff as it contains more vitamins etc :confused:

[MelanieD]

Alfalfa does have more protein and good stuff in than plain chaff, but doesn't suit every horse. I'd have some lame nutters if I gave some of mine alfalfa.

[NuttyMare]

Well Woodys on TopSpec Comp, CoolCondition Cubes, a bucket full of HiFi Senior at night, a late night feed of hi fi lite, salt, magnesium and a joint supplement. His feet are doing really well.

[gingeremmie]

I use safe & sound as I think that is unmollassed or about as unmollassed as you can get. I also feed Bailey's lo-cal, salt and magox.

[Iron Maiden]

P's been on Simple System stuff all the time she's been barefoot & she's doing really well (touch wood). I don't feed her any sugarbeet because she seems to be sensitive to it - she goes all scabby and itchy! She doesn't get any grain either, all the feed she gets is made from either good quality meadow grass or alfalfa. She gets supplements including linseed & soya oil. She works pretty hard & I try to keep her to a healthy weight, I think that's important & I'd rather she was a touch skinny than a touch fat. She's been growing really good quality hoof and plenty of it, but (again touch wood) doesn't seem to suffer from any lami issues. I just hope she carries on like this :)

[Stormin]

P's been on Simple System stuff all the time she's been barefoot & she's doing really well (touch wood). I don't feed her any sugarbeet because she seems to be sensitive to it - she goes all scabby and itchy! She doesn't get any grain either, all the feed she gets is made from either good quality meadow grass or alfalfa. She gets supplements including linseed & soya oil. She works pretty hard & I try to keep her to a healthy weight, I think that's important & I'd rather she was a touch skinny than a touch fat. She's been growing really good quality hoof and plenty of it, but (again touch wood) doesn't seem to suffer from any lami issues. I just hope she carries on like this :)

Wow, that's really encouraging.
I'd like to avoid too many supplements and strange mixes as I'm not a horsey nutritionist and I'm not sure I realistically know how to balance a feed.
Mine are on a little cool mix (wanted to switch to high fibre nuts but told they're not available this side of the channel !! :eek:) to mix in a scoop of benevit (to be sure they get part of the vitamins they need) mixed with happy chaff to bulk out the feed.