Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Food for Thought

It seems that lately everywhere I turn there is talk of what we feed our horses. What kind of supplements do you use? How much is hay costing in your area? Do those supplements work? So for today's post I thought I'd fill you in on what my ponies eat.
For starters they are out on grass whenever possible. My horses live turned out (almost) 24/7. The exceptions to that being 1) if someone is sick or injured and 2) if we are away at an overnight event (such as our provincial finals). In the winter and early spring they are fed hay instead of the grass. Hay is in the form of round bales (squares for horses kept in) and are usually grass but sometimes they are grass/alfalfa mix. They also are provided with salt blocks to use whenever they want.
In addition to the grass (or hay) the horses all have their own little individualized "extras" as follows:

Cessa gets 2 cups of beet pulp (measured dry but then soaked). On top of that I add 2 cups of senior feed, 1 cup of rolled oats and 2 scoops of Joint Combo (by Farnam) and 2 scoops of For the Long Run (by Smooth Run). This is all mixed together and then topped with some ground flax and about 1 cup of vegetable oil.

Raincloud gets a small scoop of sweet feed with 2 scoops of Smooth Run (by Smooth Run, duh lol) and ground flax.

Fat Bastard... er, I mean Quinn gets a very small bit of sweet feed (like maybe a handful) with 2 scoops of Joint Combo (by Farnam) and 2 scoops of Smooth Run plus Calmer (by Smooth Run). The SR+C does seem to help him not be such a freak show but due to his antics at the trainer's (see previous posts) I still can't trust him. I will continue feeding him this until he is re-homed in the hopes that it will keep him "even" enough for me to handle his day-to-day stuff. He just gets enough sweet feed to add the SR+C and the Joint Combo.

All the Smooth Run product comes in powder form, therefore there is no filler! However the horses can pick their grain out and leave the powder behind. :( BUT, I have a trick... I mix just enough water into the grain and Smooth Run product to bind the powder to the sweet feed. It works! The ponies eat their grain and Smooth Run and none of the powder is left behind!! :) This is only necessary for the boys, Cessa's "extras" has enough moisture without having to add more water.
And of course, the ponies all get their share of horse cookies! My horses live with Kimfer's and her dad's horses... strange thing, none of our horses eat the typical horse treats like carrots or apples. My horses however aren't picky about what kind of horse cookies they get! (although Kimfer's can be)

What about you, what do your horses get fed?

11 comments:

  1. Ok.

    My trainer and I are very traditional on what we feed. Alfalfa/Grass mix twice a day - heavy on the alfalfa side. Plus vitamins & some oats.

    The younger horses that have a hard time holding their weight in training get a full helping of LMF Development G (I think its G - their supplement to alfalfa feed) with their daily hay. That seems to usually do the trick.

    Everyone also gets free choice salt and of course plenty of water.

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  2. My last horse and my new horse are pretty easy keepers.

    In the winter they had round bales and no grain. Jackson went to a trainer for April and with a heavier workload needed some grain. He gets sweet feed - I'm not a huge fan of plain old sweet feed, but that's what my barn owner feeds.

    In the summer, the horses are out on grass for 4-6 hours a day, with a few flakes of hay morning and night. Rusty's weight isn't quite where we want it, so he gets sweet feed.

    I'm probably going to start supplementing him with vitamins and a hoof/joint supplement - the one you recommended sounds good. I'm going to call around to feed stores today to see what is out there.

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  3. My mare is a SUPER easy keeper... she is turned out 24/7 year round and only gets grass during the summer and hay in the winter.

    When she was working harder we'd give her a little bit of 10% protein pelleted feed.

    I tried to supplement her with Majesty's Flex wafers with Biotin (they look like horse cookies) but she absolutely refused to eat them. And she sorts out anytype of pelleted supplement, mixing doesn't work either. She'll just walk away. So per her decision she'll never be a supplmented horse :o)

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  4. thx for visiting our blog.
    your feeding schedule sounds a bit like ours. every horse has their own feed. most of our horses use the A-OK Cubes, some eat rye, alfalfa, senior feed, oat bran - the list goes on.
    We have the most excellent cousin that is willing to come and watch our animals and try to figure out the feed when we go out of town - usually 1 time a year.

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  5. Hi, just came over to say thanks for your nice comment! Sure I would love to be one of your add on's! Thanks!

    Ok now, we feed our horses cubes oats / alfalfa. Its great! No waste, no mess, they don't choke on them.they eat them through out the day, so the "graze." You can put them in your tack compartment of your horse trailer! I love them. We don't feed supplemnts at this time, all of our horses are between 4 & 7. I do give them treats (frequently!) Thanks for stoppin by my page, I will check back on you too!

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  6. CDNCOWGRIL: There are 14 pounds in one "stone" -- but somebody else also answered the question on my blog before I logged on this morning!

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  7. Hey, just wandered on over here from your comments on other blogs! I'm looking forward to reading what you write.

    We feed as much hay as she'll eat, which is probably more than she needs. She gets a small scoop of orchard grass pellets in the morning - it's so we have something to mix the supplements in with, and so that she thinks she's getting grain, or else she'd be heartbroken. She gets a selenium-fortified vitamin since our area is selenium deficient, as well as a bit of a joint supplement and some raspberry leaf (main thing in Mare Magic).

    She's a bit of an air fern, I must say -- she doesn't need the pellets at all.

    The TB I used to have got about 6 pounds of Ultium per day, plus as much has as we could stuff down him (which never seemed to be enough). Yeah, he was a bit of a hard keeper . . .

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  8. Fat Bastard- Love it :-D Less gets the least food in the barn... 1/4 to a half a scoop of Triple Crown Senior feed and a scoop of soaked beet pulp...he also gets Thyro-L, electrolytes, corn oil, I'm reasearching joint supps again... Less eats anything I put in his feed:-p
    He too gets an obscene amount of treats.

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  9. Denise: Quinn is SO fat right now. And due to his "issues" I'M sure as heck not going to be the one riding him to slimness! He is THE definition of "easy keeper". And since coming home he's been a real jerk to Cessa. Seems to have settled down over the last few days, no new bite marks at least. (my poor little girl!)
    Love the vid of Less slurping his soup :) And I've noticed he seems to eat anything and everything you give him (omg chocolate chip cookies! lol)

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  10. manymisadventures said...
    Hey, just wandered on over here from your comments on other blogs! I'm looking forward to reading what you write.

    We feed as much hay as she'll eat, which is probably more than she needs. She gets a small scoop of orchard grass pellets in the morning - it's so we have something to mix the supplements in with, and so that she thinks she's getting grain, or else she'd be heartbroken.
    -----------------------------------
    That is the exact reason Quinn gets a tiny handful of sweet feed. Just enough to mix his supplements and to let him think he's getting a grain ration too!
    Hope you enjoy your reading and visit often!

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  11. My Baby Doll is an easy keeper and just gets a large flake of alfalfa hay twice a day, and an additional flake of grass hay once a day when she is worked.
    A few times a week we give her some alfalfa pellets mixed together with her vitamins and some powdered minerals. She refuses to lick a mineral block. Silly girl.
    Oh! And lots of horse cookies (or rather 'horse candy', and carrots. and she only eats apples if we slice them for her. ;)

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Wordless Wednesday ~ new trailer!