Hello! The little barn I board at, 4 horses, is currently looking for a new source of food. We had an exceptionally wet spring and hay is hard to find. Most of the first cuts got soaked and are moldy. We are looking for suggestions on all grass hay, my horse is IR, and what brands you like the best? Any suggestions on how to buy in bulk or coupon codes would be awesome as well.
Timothy Balance Cubes–made by Ontario Dehy up in Canada, sold through Triple Crown in the states. I would see if you could buy direct from mfg. Cubes are the smaller ones, soft as opposed to being brick-like, balanced for minerals with beet pulp as a binder, guaranteed to be 10% NSC max. I have used them before, and liked them, but they are pricey. Buying through Triple Crown dealers, the discount on bulk purchases is minimal (I checked), but buying a truckload directly might make a big difference in pricing.
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Yes, definitely. These are the best and soak in minutes:
https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/products/timothy-balance-cubes/
I like the Standlee alfalfa ones. Granted, my options are Dumor or Standlee when I go to Tractor Supply. Standlee break up faster and seem fresher. The Dumor (while cheaper!) are much more compacted and don’t ever seem to break up for me
I vote for the Timothy Balance Cubes as well - have used them since our first Cushing’s diagnosis several years ago and they are a very good quality, quick-soak cube. A bit pricier than many, but I think it is worth it for the nutritional profile and consistency of the cubes.
Ok I feel really silly for asking, but I am still learning A LOT. Can these be fed for a full replacement or are they meant only to supplement? I am not familiar at all with hay cubes and I am feeling a little overwhelmed.
They have some vitamins and minerals added to balance them out but I personally would not feed them as a meal alone.
If you have a horse that is a very easy keeper, you could probably get away with the cubes plus a vitamin mineral balancer like horsetech high point grass. That would make it a complete balanced meal and no traditional grain would typically be required.
https://horsetech.com/equine-supplements/daily-vitamins-minerals/high-point-grass
My horse is IR and mildly laminitic if I’m not careful. Currently he does well on grass hay, California Trace Plus, and Remission. He doesn’t get pasture grazing time, much to his chagrin. Hay cubes + existing supplements or would that still not be enough to balance his diet?
We fed the Timothy Balance Cubes in combination with a ration balancer (Equalizer) and any supplements the horse needed for the easy keepers. I have always added Quiessence as a supplement for any horse with Cushing’s.
If that is ALL that you will be feeding, then I would spend ~$100 to hire an expert horse nutritionist to find out. I would consider that money well spent in the long run.
Or you can guess (or find a friend/vet whose opinion you trust). But I’d personally rather know so I’d spend the money.
Thank you for the resource!
Smashley, I just came across the attached site and information: http://www.thelaminitissite.org/diet.html
I thought of this post and your query - this seems to outline the optimal “minimal grain” forage based diet so it might be something worth looking through. It is intended for laminitis prone horses but wouldn’t harm a healthy horse either:
Minerals and vitamins
Minimum (and sometimes maximum) levels of certain minerals and vitamins have been established, and these should be supplemented according to deficiencies in the rest of the diet. Horses on mostly hay or restricted diets for weight loss are likely to need more mineral and vitamin supplementation than horses eating unlimited grass.
Minerals/vitamins with an established requirement are:
macro minerals (amounts given in g): calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chloride, potassium, sulphur.
micro/trace minerals (amounts given in mg): iron, manganese, zinc, copper, iodine, selenium, cobalt.
vitamins: A, D, E, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin).
Copper, zinc, selenium, sodium and vitamin B1 may be low in a forage diet and usually need to be supplemented.
Iron is usually high in a forage diet and rarely needs to be supplemented (excess iron may be implicated in insulin dysregulation/ PPID).
The other minerals/vitamins may or may not need to be supplemented depending on levels in the forage and other factors such as whether hay is soaked (potassium, sodium and chloride and water soluble vitamins (Bs and C) are reduced by soaking, other minerals may also be slightly reduced) and how old hay is. Restricting the amount of forage fed makes the need for supplementation of these minerals and vitamins even more important. Healthy horses are generally considered to be able to synthesize their own B vitamins (other than perhaps B1 and B2) and vitamin C (although there may times when supplementing vitamin C is recommended - see Vit C and PPID).
When choosing a mineral supplement, look for one that supplies the full or close to the full RDA for copper (100 mg), zinc (400 mg) and selenium (1 mg), a contribution towards B1 (30 mg), probably some iodine (3.5 mg) and magnesium (7.5 g), possibly some calcium (20 g), phosphorus (14 g) and vitamins A (15,000 IU), D (3,300 IU) and B2 (20 mg). Potassium (25 g), sulphur (15 g) manganese (400 mg) and cobalt (0.5 mg) tend to be well supplied by a forage diet. Vitamin E and sodium and chloride will usually need to be supplemented - see below. (Figures in brackets are the NRC Nutrient Requirements of Horses 2007 minimum RDAs for a 500 kg horse at average maintenance - but these are not necessarily the amounts that need to be supplemented as some minerals/vitamins will be present in the forage and other feed).
Salt usually needs to be supplemented to top up sodium levels in mineral supplements (salt is approx 40% sodium, 60% chloride). See NRC Nutrient Requirements of Horses 2007 to calculate sodium needs for your horse’s weight and status, help with calculating salt needs here - total daily salt requirements are 25 g for a 500 kg horse not in work, 12.5 g for a 250 kg pony (a tablespoon of salt weighs around 21 g) - check the salt/sodium amount in the rest of the diet and top up with salt - plain table salt can be used. Hay and grass often have very low levels of sodium, therefore it is usually safe to supplement the full RDA if there is no other source of sodium in the diet.
Additional vitamin E may be a good idea for horses that don’t get grass. Equine Applied & Clinical Nutrition recommends feeding horses prone to laminitis 150-200 IU/kg diet DM, so for a 500 kg horse eating 1.5 - 2% of his bodyweight that would be 1125-2000 IU vitamin E per day (or approx. 300-400 IU/100 kg bodyweight - so 1500-2000 IU for a 500 kg horse, 750-1000 for a 250 kg pony). The ECIR group suggests 1000 IU per 500 lbs for horses on a hay diet.
Check the amount in your mineral supplement/balancer and add more if necessary - human vitamin E capsules from supermarkets/health food shops can be added to the feed.
This is SUPER helpful!
