low energy food

[dawn bennett]

Hi can anyone advise about low energy food its me again Dawn, at the moment I'm feeding him on chaff and cool mix and hay but Robbie is full of energy and I'm wanting something to calm him down.

Thanks

[bubblegum]

Have you tried Steady-up, its from Feedmark I think.

[Yann]

What sort of chaff is it and how much feed is he getting overall?
Cool mix is pretty good for excitable horses, my yard owner swears by it, and I feed it too, but it's sometimes worth trying a different brand in case there's something in the particular mix that's setting him off a bit.

How good a doer is he? If he's got plenty of condition you could cut the mix altogether and feed chaff and a vitamin supplement , or a feed balancer like Baileys Lo cal.

How much turnout is he getting? What is your grazing like? How fit is he and how much work is he doing?

[SarahC]

Hi,

I had a similar problem and was advised to try and cut out some of the cereals and sugar/molasses from the diet. Mixes are apparently quite high in both...even the cool mixes and though they are excellent for some horses, those with a slight intolerence to cereal and/or sugar can go a bit hyper on them (the manufacturer of my particular cool mix told me this!). So I have gone onto Fibre pencils...they have no cereal and low levels of sugar and Hi-Fi Lite...an unmollased chaff.

As bubblegum mentioned there are also lots of calming supplements to try as well.

But Yann has quite rightly asked all the right questions regarding his grazing, exercise regime, fitness etc. You should look at all these things in conjunction with changing diet.

Hope this helps.

S

[Wally]

Just feed him hay.

[Yann]

Originally posted by Wally
Just feed him hay.

May be wrong but I'm under the impression this horse is a TB, so he might need more than that through the winter at least.

[NoviceNic]

A friend of mine had a neurotic mare and fed her on Allen and Page Quiet Pencils. They worked absolute wonders. She felt sorry for her daughter's pony and gave him a few to keep him happy but she had to take him off as he was nearly asleep at shows. I have brought a bag for my cob just to keep the nerves low on windy wintery days. I have enough nerves for both of us:D

[Dizzy]

What type of horse is he? Whats his turnout regime, and how much excerise does he get?

Every horse is individual, and hay is the best maintenance feed, I would only introduce higher energy feeds, as thier work load increases.

[artemis]

Anything with molasses in is high energy - whatever the bag says! Feed unmollassed food. Some of the stuff made for laminitics is ok, but learn to read the contents list & don't believe the advertizing hype.