Feeding advice please

[Casey76]

All the horses on my yard (busy RS) are on the same diet, just the amount varies.

Pinto gets 1.5 scoops of lucerne pellets every day and a pint of crushed barley every other day.

He also gets haylage every day, and as he's on a straw bed... he has wheat straw every day too.

I supplement him with biotin for horn and hair growth, but I was wondering if I should be feeding a mineral and vitimin supplement too?

Thanks in advance

[Jessey]

I probably would yes, lucerene (alfa) pellets are great, I use them alot but you never can be to sure what the trace element content in them is, depending on when the crop was cut and how it was processed etc can give you variying qualities of goods, you may be able to check with the manufacturer what their tolerances are for trace elements but they may only check the main ones. If your grazing is very good and is maintained (horses graze the trace elements out of paddocks over time so these have to be replaced somehow) then you may not need to worry but most grazing isn't so I would choose a supplement that is meant for horses on a forage only diet, I have found 2 brands so far that I like that are specifically for these types of horses, I would count Pinto's diet as being almost forage only (which is great).

J x

[Casey76]

ah yes... no oats for my boy - he has plenty *spark* without eating anything 'heating' ;)

Thanks Jessey, I'll look out for a product like you described.

[Jessey]

I am currently using the Winergy vitamin and mineral supplement http://www.winergy.co.uk/news_optimixpr.asp
don't know if you can get it there, it does have quite a strong vitamin smell, two of mine are happy to eat it but the other (who will normally eat anything) is not so keen, I'm sure he will get used to it though.

J x

[Bay Mare]

Casey, I would split the barley amount up and feed it every day (ie half the amount every day instead of the full every other day). The less you change their feed the better. That's just one of the reasons that they don't recommend the bran mash on their 'day off' anymore because it's a sudden change to the diet which can lead to digestive problems including colic.

With regards to the vitamin supplements, have you any reason to think that it is necessary? Most of us feed supplements to make US feel better. It can be a waste of money or even dangerous to feed supplements that aren't necessary.

I was number one supplement woman at one time, I was a real shopaholic and could stand and look through the supplement shelves for hourse at a time (still can, just don't buy them anymore)! I had to go cold turkey when Saff said NO to hard feeds and NO to supplements. It was difficult but I admitted that it was MY problem not hers and, surprise, surprise, she survived. She's actually in a lot better condition than she was when I was feeding her supplements and hard feed! All she's supplemented with now is Sarc-Ex which has been beneficial for her sarcoids.

[Megans mum]

I don't think you should be feeding wheat straw as it is very hard iff not impossible for horses to digest' oat or barley is ok' I feed lucie nuts grass nuts and chopped oat chaff' no problems and full of energy'

[Casey76]

I don't *feed* wheat straw... but Pinto is on a wheat straw bed, so he just tucks in.