Grain-free diet... WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

[sublimequine]

So, my mare is officially off nearly ALL concentrates for the first time ever. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile, but at boarding barns it can be difficult.

We moved barns, and the new barn doesn’t feed grain. The only concentrate she gets in her diet now is about 1 cup of Triple Crown Senior, to mix supplements with. That’s it.

I rode today at the new barn for the first time… I have a different horse. :eek:

Tacked up in the middle of the indoor with her ground tied… perfect mare, stood quietly and wasn’t nervous or jumpy at all.

Hopped on, and walked quietly around the arena. Looking around at her new surroundings, but curiously, not spooky. Totally at ease.

Since she was being so good I decided to take the ride outside, but I forgot to unlock and open the gate… so we rode over to it, I had her scoot sideways over to the chain/latch, bent over and unlatched it, and had her quietly move over to open the gate and leave the arena. Very ho-hum, totally fine with this. We haven’t done gates in MONTHS!

Rode outside for just a few minutes (it was hot and muggy), and watched the horses in a nearby pasture run around and play… no prancing or jumping, just watched calmly and then wanted to graze. :lol:

I am so shocked that the diet change has made such a different in such a short period of time. We moved in only 3 days ago, and quit the grain “cold turkey” at that time. And now my mare’s a different horse!

So… anyone else out there who is playing with the idea of cutting the grain out of their horse’s diet… try it! I’m very glad I did. :yes:

(Just for an idea, this mare usually need at LEAST a week, more often 2 weeks, to settle into a new barn because she is so jumpy and nervous. Usually takes us about a month to get back to being able to ride seriously. The last time she was at a new barn, the first ride there was her screaming her head off the entire ride.)

[Hampton_Bay]

I saw a HUGE difference in my mare too when I cut her grain. She would refuse to stand tied on grain, and was fine without it. Put her back on, wouldn’t stand tied. Took her off, back to being a good girl.

All of mine now get soaked alfalfa cubes and rice bran if needed for weight. Then just grass (hay in the winter).

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=Hampton Bay;4287009]
I saw a HUGE difference in my mare too when I cut her grain. She would refuse to stand tied on grain, and was fine without it. Put her back on, wouldn’t stand tied. Took her off, back to being a good girl.

All of mine now get soaked alfalfa cubes and rice bran if needed for weight. Then just grass (hay in the winter).[/QUOTE]

Yeah, her current diet is…

• Grass 24/7 (really nice stuff too)

• 1 cup TC Senior with an alfalfa cube or two

• Mega Cell, Tractgard, and Rasp Leaf

That’s it, and she’s doing great.

I never really thought it made so much of a difference, besides making her chubby. But wow!

[Bluey]

Our horses are only on alfalfa hay and grass pasture and do fine for light to medium riding.
Only if we use one very much and he starts dropping weight we add grain, or a senior that can’t eat good any more, we don’t have one of those now.

We do give them a handful of grain when they are brought in the barn, as a treat, when we catch them and bring them into a bucket hanging there, where we brush and saddle and they love that little bit of grain.

When feeding in a group, just feeding hay, no grain, makes for no fights.

Now, horses in heavy training, they did get grain and they needed it.
For most other riding, no, they don’t need it.

Glad that your mare agrees with it.

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=Bluey;4287038]
Our horses are only on alfalfa hay and grass pasture and do fine for light to medium riding.
Only if we use one very much and he starts dropping weight we add grain, or a senior that can’t eat good any more, we don’t have one of those now.

We do give them a handful of grain when they are brought in the barn, as a treat, when we catch them and bring them into a bucket hanging there, where we brush and saddle and they love that little bit of grain.

When feeding in a group, just feeding hay, no grain, makes for no fights.

Now, horses in heavy training, they did get grain and they needed it.
For most other riding, no, they don’t need it.

Glad that your mare agrees with it.:)[/QUOTE]

Yeah she’s just a pleasure horse, if she started dropping too much weight I probably would just add oil.

[manyspots]

I did it too!!!

After years of struggling with my gelding, I also quit grain a month ago. His current diet consists of beet pulp, rice bran and his multivitamin.

WOW!!!

He is coming around at light speed. He is a little tough to keep wieght on, hence the rice bran. Too soon to tell how well that will work but so far he is way calmer than ever before. Just less flappable and easy going all around. This was a horse we finally determined could not handle soy or alfalfa so even low starch grain (TC) made him high!

[MistyBlue]

I’ve never been a big feeder of grains…only if the horse is a seriously hard keeper and/or in pretty hard work and can’t keep up condition without it.
Mostly my horses always get about 2 handfuls per day tops, split into two feedings. And I have small hands. I call it my “bribe” grain…it’s what gets them into the barn at the end of the day without me having to call them. :lol:
Otherwise it’s decent quality hay…about 25 lbs per horse per day right now and bucket of 2 quarts of timothy cubes / 2 handfuls of Totally Timothy soaked to mush with 2 oz of ration balancer in it as a nightly treat. Little to no grazing here though. At least not enough to be part of the daily diet, more as a treat.
Although I’ve never noticed a horse have a personality change with or without grain unless they’re getting quite a bit of high octane stuff.

[ThoroughbredFancy]

That’s great that it’s worked so well for your mare.

I don’t think I could ever get away with that with my hard keeper TB eventer.

I did try once in the past he dropped weight.

At least the grain he does get is Carb Guard so it carries a low NSC level.

[manyspots]

I also figured I would not be able to get away with dropping grain. But, I discovered a few interesting things:

1. We believed we NEEDED grain to keep the wieght on… because he would “worry” it off. Hence more grain = more neurotic behavior. A vicious cycle so to speak.

2. Good quality hay really does go a long way. My guys are also on 20-25 lbs. a day with their beet pulp “meals” twice a day. If I could find timothy cubes I would feed them! No grazing here because my pasture is brand new. :no:

3. I learned from research and this forum that even low carb grains are HIGH in soy. This meant my guy was getting large qualities of the very thing that was causing the spooky/worried/flightly behavior.

He is about a 4.5-5 on the scale. More a 4.5 most days. He was a halter horse in his younger days (2-4 y.o., he is now 8) he was usually a 6. He is a stock breed so the heavier the better for them. He is MUCH leaner than back then and much healthier for it. He is the type with a lovely topline and ribs that can be felt but not seen. More hunter like now.

Try oils or rice bran for added calories that will not make them high. It is a simply way to get needed fat into them. I personally love the pelleted rice bran because it is easy for others to read (i.e. fiance) and no mess compared to oil. It also will not freeze like oil likes to do here.

[matryoshka]

@ThoroughbredFancy;4287637

That’s great that it’s worked so well for your mare.

I don’t think I could ever get away with that with my hard keeper TB eventer.

I did try once in the past he dropped weight.

At least the grain he does get is Carb Guard so it carries a low NSC level.

Same here. Everybody but the TB and the aged pony who has cancer is off grain. I do this ever summer and only add concentrate when they start to need it as cold weather sets in. When they do get feed, Carb Guard is on the menu. Other than that I feed beet pulp and hay pellets (and more recently, rice bran pellets) to add calories for the horses who need more.

Pony is doing much better now that I added rice bran pellets to her diet. I decided to try it on the OTTB, too, and he’s responding well.

I can’t say I ever noticed my horses being particularly rambunctious on grain. They are turned out 24/7, so I guess they could run off any excess energy at will.

The trouble with feeding hay in a turnout situation is that the fatties get more than they need in order to have the harder keepers get enough. I’m thinking of getting enough Nibble Nets for everybody and feeding hay that way to at least slow the fatties down.

[Auventera_Two]

My two Arabs get grain. The stallion gets between 6 and 7 pounds of Oats/Omolene200/BOSS mix a day. He also gets two 8 quart buckets full of soaked beet pulp. He gets Flax, and all the alfalfa hay and pasture he can eat. He’s turned out 24/7 so he eats all day, though right now he’s eating a full bale of hay a day as we’ve been having a drought. And he is very hard to keep weight on.

Our old OTTB is gone now, but when we had her, holy cow could she eat. We tried to reduce or eliminate her grain and she could lose 20 pounds a day, it seemed like. She got various weight builder supplements, oil, rice bran, flax, beet pulp, free choice alfalfa hay, you name it. Nothing kept weight on her like a high quality grain feed. At various times she was on Strategy, Ultium, Equine Senior, etc. Omolene seemed to keep the weight on her the best.

She was a big horse - over 17 hands, and had a high metabolism. That was just her. Always was. When she was nursing a baby, oh my. Her feed consumption would triple just to barely maintain weight.

All the “grain free” horses out there are wonderful, but when you own a really hard keeper, its just not that easy.

But I’m glad to hear that Joy is doing so well sublime!! That’s excellent! I’m happy to hear that you’re doing well in the new barn too.

[chancellor2]

sigh
How do you guys get your boarding barns to feed more hay and less grain?

[Ridge_Runner]

I have 95% of the horses on my farm grain free now…hard keepers as well. I have a Saddlebred broodmare nursing a foal who was fed 14 lbs of Strategy daily last year to try and meet her needs. She had free choice hay and pasture and she lost weight and looked terrible. This year on mainly alf. pellets, rice bran and beet pulp…and mainly hay…she looks like a butterball. It is amazing. I’ve kept WB’s and TB’s this way also with the same great results.

The only “grain” I’ll feed here now is plain oats…nothing with molasses or cheap processed fillers. I’m very pleased with the results.

[matryoshka]

I feed alfalfa pellets to help keep weight on hard-keeper TB’s. Actually, even the not-so-hard-keeper TB’s. They seem to need more protein than my other horses. I know a lot of people don’t like alfalfa and think it makes their horses hot, but I haven’t seen this to be the case with mine. Perhaps some horses have sensitivities others lack. Mine thrive on alfalfa, whether as loose hay or pelleted.

p.s. I always soak any type of pellet to avoid choke.

[HuntJumpSC]

This is my first time ever having a horse out 24/7~ when I had my lesson/boarding business going, I did 12/12, night turnout in summer, day turnout in winter.

Since I am now living about 10 minutes from the farm & have an 8 month old boy (does hubby count as a kid too?), I can’t make it out every day to do the in & out thing (Mom feeds her when I’m not there, they’ve become buddies). I decided when I got my new filly (who was already used to being out) that I’d set things up and keep it simple. She has two entire pastures to herself, about 6-7 acres. One acre is a pecan orchard, so she has plenty of shade and clover. The rest is lush grazing she can’t keep up with, so we keep it mowed for her. She also has access to an indoor stall with shavings~ we just keep the sliding door open so she can come & go as she likes. She doesn’t even poop in there, and she likes to nap out in the pasture.

She gets one 3 quart scoop of mixed 12% sweet & dry pellets from TS (couldn’t tell you the weight of it, basically she gets it to make my Mom happy, right now she’d be fine without) It’s more of a treat for her than anything. She’s in good weight and looks great. I’ve got 80% timothy put up for winter when she finally does need hay.

So far, I’ve been really pleased with the setup. She is the most laid back baby I’ve ever worked with and has a puppydog personality. She literally follows you everywhere, and whinnies to greet you. Never gets in a hurry or silly, always walks up nicely and follows.

I intend to continue to do as little grain as possible, maybe even cutting it out completely at some point unless she needs a supplement. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t need what she’s getting now, but it isn’t hurting her or affecting her attitude so I’ll leave it be.

[Amchara]

It’s good to read all of these success stories. I’m deciding what I’d like to do with my mare; this summer I cut her down to nothing while she had nice pasture grass but when the winter comes she’ll need some more calories. She’s been on safechoice most of the time I’ve had her and I realized that it sent her brain into a bit of an orbit. Had her on nutrena senior for awhile and liked that, but I hear all these nasty things about senior feeds so I’m interested in trying something else.

It sucks, she won’t eat beet pulp, the base in so many non-grain programs. Currently thinking I’ll give alfalfa pellets for more forage (she gets grass hay) and the higher calories, and if more is needed try oats for more fiber. I’ve never had dealings with rice bran but I could try that if the oats don’t go over so well, and stay grain free.

Basically, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for my mare, let me know!

[angie_j]

I realy feel for all you who are at the mercy of ‘others’ to make these decisions for your horses. I went MANY years without a horse because I knew I couldn’t live with that. It’s great to have the horses at home and everyone can have their own special diet.

Although, other than a VERY underweight Saddlebred (purchased that way) they are all on 24/7 turnout and grass hay; NO grain. The Saddlebred will go off the grain when she is at a safe weight and no longer needs to gain.

[MoonWitch]

I run a boarding barn with just the opposite problem! I try to cut out grain to the obese horses & the owners freak! Even when I try to tell them that they are in danger of founder etc. they seem to believe that they need the grain. They get good quality pasture - I have to bring them in during the day for heat, flies & so they don’t get even fatter!! Grain is down to handfuls for those that I can and minimal for the others. The only ones that get it now are the very old ones & the nursing mom. I wish more people would understand that their pleasure/trail horses really do not need grain to thrive!!

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=Auventera Two;4287728]
My two Arabs get grain. The stallion gets between 6 and 7 pounds of Oats/Omolene200/BOSS mix a day. He also gets two 8 quart buckets full of soaked beet pulp. He gets Flax, and all the alfalfa hay and pasture he can eat. He’s turned out 24/7 so he eats all day, though right now he’s eating a full bale of hay a day as we’ve been having a drought. And he is very hard to keep weight on.

Our old OTTB is gone now, but when we had her, holy cow could she eat. We tried to reduce or eliminate her grain and she could lose 20 pounds a day, it seemed like. She got various weight builder supplements, oil, rice bran, flax, beet pulp, free choice alfalfa hay, you name it. Nothing kept weight on her like a high quality grain feed. At various times she was on Strategy, Ultium, Equine Senior, etc. Omolene seemed to keep the weight on her the best.

She was a big horse - over 17 hands, and had a high metabolism. That was just her. Always was. When she was nursing a baby, oh my. Her feed consumption would triple just to barely maintain weight.

All the “grain free” horses out there are wonderful, but when you own a really hard keeper, its just not that easy.

But I’m glad to hear that Joy is doing so well sublime!! That’s excellent! I’m happy to hear that you’re doing well in the new barn too. :D[/QUOTE]

Thanks A2! I’m just so ecstatic with my move, totally glad I did it.

And don’t mistake my original post for “EVERYONE MUST CUT GRAIN FROM DIETS IMMEDIATELY! :mad:” or anything, folks! :lol: I just wanted to share my good news with some people who would understand what I was talking about. But I totally understand that it’s not a doable diet for a lot of horses.

But considering my mare is…

• A relatively easy keeper
• A big bulldog QH
• Fat at the moment… :lol:
• In light work, no shows or competitions
• Kind of a nutty personality so quieter is ALWAYS good

It was a good choice to remove the grain from her diet. Your results may vary.

[Ambrey]

My horses have been on a no grain diet for quite some time. I tried adding in a low carb/low cal “ration balancer” but then ended up switching to beet pulp.

They are both air ferns.