Fattening foods for my frisky friend

[donnamm]

Hello All

My horse is being fed 1 hard feed a day of sugar beet, cool mix and chaff in order to keep his weight on him as he is rather lean. Since introducing sugar beet he has become rather frisky to say the least when I ride him.

Its not a huge problem, apart from when he jogs along and gives me a stitch….but was wondering what other people used to keep their horses nice and fat over the winter without making them excitable??

Thanks

[teabiscuit]

speedy beet has no mollases added so will help keep him calmer than sugar beet. the sugar in that makes my horse spook at everything so he doesn't get it.

happy hoof chaff with a cup full of sunflower seed oil is good for keeping wieght on i've found plus ad lib haylage/hay that is good quality

[Stella2]

Apparantly SB has this effect on some! Oil is good at keeping condition on horses. I have heard that Soya oil can be 'heating' for some horses. Linseed Oil isn't heating and is also great for their skin and coat :) It might also be worth considering replacing your mix (cool mix it may be, but they are still mixes and are not great for some horses - I'm just not a fan!) with a fibre feed (e.g. Badminton Fibre Nuggets, the other manufacturers all do their own).

[jenren!!]

Could you perhaps replace the cool mix to a fibre feed, such as one from the Dengie range? And definitely look at the sugar beet, sugar can really get to some horse's head.

There's also a feed called 'calm and 'condition' by Allen & page which might be of some benefit.

[donnamm]

Thanks, I was thinking about replacing the cool mix (you cant really tell whats in it) with something more natural. I was thinking barley (not the extruded type). I know barley is good for weight gain, but do you think it would fizz him up?

[jenren!!]

I would stay away from barley, its often even worse, but it depends really.

[Pink's lady]

'Cool' mixes can send some horses sky high, as can mollassed sugar beet (the normal stuff that takes 24 hrs to soak).

I would swap the cool mix (which isn't really a weight gain product anways) to a good canditioning cube such as Bailieys No4 conditioning cubes. Much more condition, much less fizz. ETA - Barely rings can be good for keeping weight on but if you've got the type of horse who's fizzed up by food Barely is likely to set them off.

I'd also swap to Speedibeet (soaks in 10mins too which is brilliant) as it's unmolassed. It's still high fibre and keeps them warm and great for keeping weight. There are the occasional weird horse that are fizzed up by it though:rolleyes:

And I would swap to a good-quality high-energy chaff. Loads of people just use it to pad out the dinner but it should be the most important and biggest of a horses dinner. Alfa-A (by Dengie) would be a good place to start and if it's still not enough swap to Alfa-Oil, which is the same energy content as a hard feed but doesn't fizz them up, keeps them chewing and keeps them warm as their gut digest it. It should be making up at least half the dinner.

[Stella2]

And I would swap to a good-quality high-energy chaff. Loads of people just use it to pad out the dinner but it should be the most important and biggest of a horses dinner. Alfa-A (by Dengie) would be a good place to start and if it's still not enough swap to Alfa-Oil, which is the same energy content as a hard feed but doesn't fizz them up, keeps them chewing and keeps them warm as their gut digest it. It should be making up at least half the dinner.
Interesting, I know of several horses that become hyper on Alpha-A. I know its not supposed to make them fizzy but it does with some horses :rolleyes: Imagine how simple life would be if we just kept cats :rolleyes:

[Iron Maiden]

Can I put another plug in for Simple System stuff here? It's not grain based & aims to mimic the horse's natural diet but is surprisingly good at getting condition on a horse. You can also use some of it as a forage replacement if the grass gets poor. I've never had fizzy horse problems whilst using it (other than after my horse was laid up with an abcess, but I think a week for a fully fit horse to have no work or turnout will make anything go a bit whappy!). If you google Simple System you should find their website, which gives lots of info on the theory/philosophy & product range.

[jenren!!]

Well it's like alcohol with us isnt it, vodka makes some people fall asleep yet others it makes them hyper :D.