“Feed” means stuff I have to “feed” to them in a bucket
[QUOTE=fivehorses;5061744]
EFF, if you mean you are feeding 1.5 in grain, I’d be cautious. Drafts, well, all horses best way to gain weight is thur hay. Grain can have negative consequences, and some grains digestion requirements actually burn more than they contribute.
I would stick to hay, grazing, the epsm diet.
Even my rescues that came here skinny minnies did not get grain for a couple of weeks. Slowly added it.
Most grain companies I believe do not suggest more than 4 pounds of grain at one feeding. My horses would love to get that amount!LOL, but there is no way I go over more than 2 pounds a meal…and that is in winter when I am dealing with the fact they cannot eat enough hay to keep on weight.
Grain does not really do as good a job as beet pulp, hay for adding on the pounds. Plus, it also has its down side too(colic, founder).
best.[/QUOTE]
fivehorses- Not to worry, when I say feed- that means stuff I have to prepare and carry out in a bucket as opposed to grass hay - that I can just dump in bunkers or troughs by the bale.
Right now, horses are getting a mixture of alfalfa pellets, soaked beet pulp and either senior pellets or Strategy-- depending on which horse it is- mixed one third of each. That is what is being feed as 1.5% of their body weight-- fed out in 3 or 4 portions during the day-- not all at once.:eek:
Since Dixie weighs 1,600lbs., she gets 2 lbs approx. of that mixture with 1 cup oil total per day, but this is divided into three or four feedings. She can eat as much of the grass hay as she likes. She gets at least 2 hours every day on grass- but sometimes she gets longer. I have figured that 1.5% of 16,00lbs. is 1 lb.6 ozs plus.8 ozs to equal 30 ozs or 1 lb. 14 ozs and I round it off at 2 lbs. I am not a math whiz so I could be figuring this wrong. Am I doing the math wrong?
But at any rate, none of my horses is getting good old fashoned sweet feed-- a mixture of grains sweetened with molasses any more.
We used to feed–more than 20 years ago - two gallons feed in the morning and two at night. (plus the hay, of course)
In the winter we did feed a 12-14% grain sweet feed-- in the summer we “cut” the sweet feed with an equal amount of steamed, crimped oats.
Everyone we knew used the “feed by volume” system and we did too back then. Now with lots of the feed being pelleted, and different pellets being different sizes and all, I use the “feed by percentage of horse’s weight” system, and weigh out everything on a hanging scale.
But I know lots of people who used and still use the “coffee can” system-- they feed one half of a 3 lb. coffee can of feed a day- that would be 1.5 lbs per day of grain feed.
All this math has given me a headache. It’s time to feed again.