Cereal mixes without nuts

[Catherine]

One of my chaps gets picky every now and then, and goes off the nuts in his mix. It's a mind thing, nothing physical, and usually happens in the winter. He is a very big, rangy TB who is tough to keep weight on, especially when up to full work. I usually swap him over to what I call "racehorse tea" which is straight feedstuffs - barley, maize, oats and bran - and a chaff filler, (and then gradualluy change him back again) but as he actually is an ex-racehorse and pretty fiery at the best of times, I'd rather not do this if I can find a quieter alternative than what is effectively rocket fuel.

Does anyone know of anything that has either no nuts or the very skinny ones (like Equilibra/Blue Chip). I know I could swap to one of these latter products, but he is a horse who likes large meals!

Many thanks!

[ros]

Can't say do off-hand, but I had a couple of thoughts. First is that if you need to feed straights but find they're heating him up too much, I'd leave out the maize. An old instructor used to say to people who asked, that if htey wanted to put a bit of fizz into their dull, lifeless horses, give them a handful of maize. JUST a handful, mind, as it really IS rocket fuel.

Also, can you still get hold of "grass nuts"? I used to feed them years ago with straights; I just wondered whether your horse might not go off them in the same way as ordinary nuts, so you could use them to balance the straights but temper down the feed a bit.

Like I said, just a couple of thoughts.

[Piaffe]

I used to feed my TB Spillers Cool Mix, or Allen and Page Quiet Mix - he's now on 16 plus (as he's a little older now - but doesn't think so himself!).

I found that Allen and Page's Weight Gain was excellent for keeping weight on - it is also very palatable and contains probiotics. It doesn't contain any nuts and is again non-heating. I used to mix this with his coarse mix, chaff and sugar beet. I also at a bit of veg oil to his feed which also helps with his weight.

My horse has currently gone off hay - because we're lucky in that we've just changed fields and there's plenty of grass - so I don't need to worry about his weight at the moment. I now feed him haylage/horsehage, which also means I can cut down a bit on hard feed, even though he's in work. Haylage also helps to keep his weight on.

I could never feed my horse maize, oats etc!! He's bad enough already!!!!

Hope this info helps.

[Catherine]

entirely about the maize being the most "potent" element in there; I'd included it as it's good for weight gain/maintenance, but quickly found that to feed the quantity to keep the weight on, I also needed to be prepared to travel at Mach 7. I'm perfectly happy with that speed when called for on the gallops and cross country, but not going downhill on the way home on a tarmacked lane!

When he gets these anti-nut phases, they are quite determined, and he will eat everything except the nuts, leaving them nicely polished in the bottom of the bowl; nothing gets wasted, as they go to the pony for his next meal, nicely softened!

I'm beginning to think I might have another go with the Bailey's No. 1 Conditioning cereal mix that I used when he first stopped racing in 1995, and looked like a bag of coathangers having an argument. I know the formula is much improved on the way it was then - I was constantly fishing little bits of plastic bread wrapper and jam-tart foil out of it, because it was all bakery throw-outs in those days.

Maybe a trip to the feed shop is called for. It's always a bit of a gamble trying to get the calories in there without getting too high a protein content, which both blows his mind and can set off nettle-rash. I just wish the specially formulated feeds weren't so damned expensive, as he's 17.1hh and therefore gets through the stuff pretty sharpish!

Many thanks for your thoughts; it's always helpful to bounce ideas around like this.

[lamprellsarah]

i like barley keeps on the weight well!! and non heating :)