4 TBs, one schooling 3rd, one schooling 2nd/Novice Training eventer, one Modified eventer and one BN eventer.
They all get the same thing;
Free choice high quality hay loose and in hay nets.
Large pasture in summer
Masterfood Roughage chunks (Mostly this)
Brooks Fit n Fibre Omega
Loose salt
No supplements or additives.
All are performing at their best and look fabulous imo.
Can’t beat a Roughage/fibre based diet.
My 2 KWPN boys schooling Grand Prix both get Tribute Kalm N’ Easy 3x per day. They both are on a low amount of grain for their size for right now. They work about 5 days a week for about 20 -30min. I’m starting to ramp up the time on the weekends to increase fitness levels.
They both get grass hay 3x per day and eat about 7-8 flakes a day depending on flake size. My smaller guy has a slow feed hay net because he won’t each much off the floor. My big guy gets a alfalfa substituted for one feeding once a day.
They both get about a cup of beet pulp for their supplements at night and I adjust the beet pulp amount to adjust their weight.
Daily Supplements:
Purina outlast
Farrier’s formula DS
Tri-amino
Mag-Restore
Ultra cruz Nat Vit E
Ueckle GUT
I’m currently trying Vermont Blend (no Selenium) to see if I can switch off the FF DS, TA, and Mag.
They both get pasture time in the summer, just not everyday. And will also get Apple a day electrolyte once the weather warms up.
My horse is a coming 14 year old Westfalen and his diet has changed DRASICALLY over his lifetime. He’s turned out 24/7 in his personal pasture with supplemental hay in the winter only. He used to have to have calories shoved into him to keep him at a body score of 5.5 because he was such a mental wreck but now, he mostly lives on balancer, fed under the label (so maybe 3 cups twice a day?) on the advice of my vet. This month, I’m adding 3/4 cups of Nutrena safe choice as he’s lost alot of weight this winter (he needed to lose a bunch of weight) and his pasture has warm-weather grasses. He gets fat these last couple of years on his 1 acre personal pasture in the summer/fall. The pasture is well maintained and weeds are regularly killed.
He works at about fourth-ish level, schooling some FEI as his brain can handle it even though he hasn’t learned flying changes (long story there) so he works. He gets Cosequin ASU, some electrolytes year round - more in the summer. He’s a very good drinker, which is great. He is a horse that will overwork himself on adrenaline even if it is very hot and humid.
I will say that I base his food intake based on analyses I’ve done. I’ve sent samples of his pasture out to Equi-Analytica for nutritional analysis, and our local extension analyzes our hay and soil. So I have a good idea of the nutrient profile he gets.
21 yr old Lusitano stallion, shown through I-1, now stepped down a bit. Ridden 4x per week, 3 work days and one hacking day. Still playing with things like piaffe/passage and changes - 2’s and 3’s. At boarding barn, t/o about 6 hours.
He eats Triple Crown Senior, 3x per day. Timothy hay only - anything w/ alfalfa gives him the squirts. Salt block in stall - he loves his salt. Molasses horse cookies; staff and I are well trained to deliver them at least once/day.
21 year old Welsh Cob mare in moderate work at 2nd/3rd, stepping her up to show this year after several years off from competition (hoping for those Bronze scores finally!) AND a 21 year old Arabian gelding who does mostly trails and light hacking. Both get Purina Enrich (which I love), 1 lb alfalfa pellets, DuraFlex EQ pellets, magnesium, 2 oz wheat germ oil, and a digestive/electrolyte powder. My 4 year old mustang gelding who is in light Baby School/training level/Learning About Things work gets Purina Enrich, a high-fat and low sugar forage supplement that’s local to our area, alfalfa pellets, magnesium, 2 oz wheat germ oil, and the digestive powder. Everyone is turned out spring through fall on grass and in a sacrifice paddock in winter with free-choice low sugar hay during the day, low sugar hay in stalls at night. All are glossy, sound, and seemingly happy!
Five horse of different work loads and ages thriving on the same simple diet:
~ 17 yo Hanoverian competitive GP horse
~ 8 yo recently imported unregistered lusitano, hopefully on road to FEI dressage
~ 19 yo homebred TB mare ex prelim eventer/fox hunter, still jumping coursework regularly, trail riding, etc
~ 26 yo hol/tb (competed prelim and 4th level in his day, some jumpers, fox hunted), still in very regular work trail riding, some jumping, some galloping
~ 25 yo Percheron/tb (competed prelim, some jumpers, fox hunted in his day) still in regular work hacking and low jumps
(My interests changed from hunting and eventing, that’s why the last three aren’t doing those things any more.)
All I’ve fed for the last 4-1/2 years is:
• Pasture and/or grass hay (free choice in slow feeders)
• A flake or two of alfalfa hay twice a day
• Himalayan salt block free choice
• 1-to-2 pounds of dehulled soybean meal per day for protein/amino acids (usually 2-1/2 cups per day but the bigger and older ones get more to max of five cups)
• Fresh water
I feed Seminole mini alfalfa cubes for treats (no cookies or carrots or peppermints)
(I’ve also fed some Coolstance on two occasions for a couple months when one needed some more calories from fat in winter)
I’m so glad that I got my horses off of grains and grain byproducts, supplements, ulcer meds and preventatives several years ago. Life has been better for them, feeding has been simplier and streamlined and less expensive for me. Systemic inflammation that caused ulcers, stiffness, irritability and overreactions and impatience has gone away as I eliminated pretty much everything except grasses and legumes and naturally mined salt. If not for this diet there is absolutely NO way I’d ever have got the GP horse to that level.
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