Lets Talk About Diet...because all the other threads I've looked at are old

[Justmyluck]

I have a 10 year old 14.2 Welsh Cob gelding we live in Florida. He is very ulcer prone on any kind of processed feed.

He currently eats.

1/2 scoop of Seminole alfalfa pellets x2 a day.
Smartvite Thrive - Vitamin/mineral balancer
Free choice salt block - He loves his salt and his sweating has been 10x better this year than it have ever been.
Lush grass - 8 hours a day
T&A - Free choice in stall

Supplement wise he is on couple due to rehabbing some musculoskeletal thing.

Omega Horseshine
Cosequin ASU Plus
Select the Best At-Ease.

All three of these supplements are to reduce inflammation and make him sane enough to only be lightly ridden he is a work horse who has been dropped down to walk and light trot only.

[Mango20]

6 year old QH/Draft/pony mix in work and 20 year old Hungarian warmblood not doing a whole lot:

1.5 lbs Legends Performance Pellets
.5 lb Triple Crown 30% ration balancer
(2x/day)

8 year old small pony in work:

.25lb Legends Performance Pellets
.25 TC 30
(2x/day)

33 year old medium pony, missing teeth, retired:
2.5 lbs Triple Crown Senior 2x/day
1 gal. bucket of soaked beet pulp and timothy hay pellets 1x/day (2 take-out chinese soup containers of hay, 1 beet pulp)

[zippyrider]

[QUOTE=J-Lu;7774497]
Hi,

Can you elaborate on this post? You feed 4 lbs of cool stance a day? It’s so light and flakey! How many ounces or cups does that add up to? I ask because I used to feed cool stance but at a much lower amount, maybe I wasn’t feeding enough. Why chia seed and why Emerge Oil or WildGold? I never heard of these but I’m really interested in your feeding regime and how it’s working for your horse. Thanks![/QUOTE]

Sure! I will try! When trying to figure out my horse’s regimen, people told me that I’d need to feed more CoolStance than Genesis (his old feed). I don’t do the feeding, but the barn manager weighs the food and then soaks it. I believe she now eye-balls the amount, but I am sorry that I don’t know how many cups it equals out to be. He gets the Connemara Crunch to balance the Ca:Ph ratio and to add essential vits and mins since CoolStance is not a complete feed.

Another rider at my stable also feeds CoolStance for her senior, and he does get less than mine…probably around 1 or 1.5 pounds AM and PM.

I add the chia for the omega-3 fatty acids (among other benefits). Emerge and Wild Gold are both camelina oil, which is also very high in omega-3s. Because they are cold-pressed and non-GMO, they should be free from solvents used in oil extraction (like hexane) and free from the possibility of glyphosate residue. I still need to do some more research on these brands, though. I want to reduce the pro-inflammatory omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids in his diet, so I needed to up his intake of omega-3 acids to get the ratio of these fatty acids in a more beneficial range.

He is doing really well on this feeding program, knock on wood. Much more focused and happier in his own skin.

I hope that helps!

[SLW]

My herd allows me to stay a minimalist, which I am by nature. Located in eastern Kansas where it can be 105 in the summer and -5 in the winter, not factoring in a strong north wind.

Connemara- 13 years old, ridden 5 days a week with 2 of those being hunting days, gets free choice hay and/or grass paddocks depending on the season. Gets 1 dry pound of beet pulp that is hydrated 2 times a day and I’m just now offering her 1 pound of Purina Senior when we get home from hunting or a good long 3+ hour trail ride.

QTR - 20+ years old, rationed hay and/or rationed grass paddocks in the summer. Maybe a handful of beet pulp so I don’t feel like a jerk giving the other two their beet pulp. In the winter she gets a little more hay. This mare is fat as a tick.

Donkey- 3 year old jenny. Hay and/or grass paddocks and about 3 handfuls of beet pulp 2 twice daily.

Most people over grain their horses. Unless it’s an aged horse, a hard keeper TB, a horse in hard daily training or something else special they do not need grain. A healthy horse that is ridden 2 or 3 times a week in an arena would do fine on hay/pasture alone. And if it ain’t being ridden it does not need grain.

[Abbie.S]

Another (more or less) minimalist here. I couldn’t be such with my late gelding, who ate ungodly amounts of grain and hay pellets as a senior, but my current mare is quite easy.

7yo TBxQH mare, medium work, in rehab for proximal suspensory injury. She is also gas colic prone. I live in Vermont.

6 flakes of hay/day, about 10-12 hours of access to grass during the grazing season.
1/2 quart of alfalfa pellets, 2 oz Rice Bran oil, 2 oz magnesium pellets, 1 oz vitamin/mineral pellets, 1 scoop Cosequin, 1,000 IU Vitamin E powder, one 125mg generic Simethicone (Gas-X) tab - all twice daily

I don’t do grain because A) she doesn’t need it, and B) her diet is set up to minimize colic episodes. The addition of the simethicone (which someone here on CoTH mentioned!) really has done it: no colics in almost 7 months now. The magnesium and vit. E are for muscle support in her rehab (Vit. E was started last year when she got injured, we pulled blood because she was coming out of winter with muscle wasting after being treated for Lyme, found her Vit. E levels were very low).

[LauraKY]

I’m down to one horse, an easy keeper.

During spring, summer, fall, he gets turnout from 5 pm until morning in a grazing muzzle, 2 to 3 flakes of T&A hay and 1 lb of Nutrena Empower Balance (I would prefer TC but my Southern States doesn’t stock it)

In the winter, he’s turned out from dawn to dusk, no grazing muzzle, free choice hay plus the ration balancer.

[Bouncingthetrot]

WBx, 8 yo, Northern VA, turnout limited in Winter, adequate all other seasons:
4lbs Hi Fybe Plus (Local feed by tri-county), AM and PM
3-4 Flakes of orchard/timothy when stalled
2500UI Natural Vitamin E
5g Probiotics
Maintenance dose of Tri-Amino
5000 Magnesium

[dqsid]

I have a 12 yr old WBx mare (easy keeper) and a 2 yr old Hano filly (growing like a weed…soon to be a equine WNBA player = ). The 12 yr old has had an epic journey of medical weirdness, and after many, many complications and zillion dollar vet bills, I switched to whole food which made all the difference…

They get: Plain beet pulp & alfalfa pellets, the filly gets a few oats too, a vitamin/mineral supplement, chia seeds, probiotics & the mare gets a joint supplement

They both get pretty much free choice hay mostly timothy hay (mare gets a bit less, but takes it with only minor complaints…usually) and they go out on grass for about 10 hrs in the summer, about 6 hours in the winter (depending on how long I think they can make it until they are pathetic frozen ponies)

[findthedistance]

I manage a barn of 10 therapy horses and 7 boarders, including my own mare. Located in the Maryland suburbs outside DC. I’m a big believer in the KISS principle.

Most of the horses get 1/2 lb Triple Crown 30% (ration balancer) AM & PM. This year our “summer hay” is last year’s 1st cutting tim/orch/clover, one flake per day to keep them busy in their stalls. Turnout on grass overnight, or free-choice hay provided in the dry lot. In winter they all have netted round bales in turnout and 2nd cutting orchardgrass hay in their stalls.

The moldy oldies (four in the 29+ age bracket) get Triple Crown Senior in whatever amount required. Max 5lb/feeding. If I can get them to eat it, they’ll also get compressed alfalfa, chopped forage, or alfalfa cubes. They all like to have a little hay to play with, but only one has any success chewing it. I also sometimes top-dress with Legends Omega Plus, a flax supplement.

[INoMrEd]

I’m in the suburbs of Los Angeles, CA. I own two TB’s - Louie is 17.1 hand 25 year old gelding, and Vinnie is a 16.2 hand 8 year old gelding.

Both horses are fed by the boarding stable approximately 1.5 - 2% of their body weight in Alfalfa/Oat/Barley/Wheat hay mix per day.

Louie’s Porridge
Use 7/8 bucket of water in a two gallon bucket
1 tablespoon of mineral salt
2 cans dry beet pulp
1 vitamin “E” capsule

this concoction soaks forseveral hours. Before feeding it I add

2 two ounce scoops of Nutraflax
1 cup of oil
2 heaping scoops of Select the Best I Vitamins
1 scoop of MSM

Vinnie’s Porridge
1/2 of a two gallon bucket of water
1 tablespoon of mineral salt
1 can dry beet pulp
1 vitamin “E” capsule

Before feeding the wet beet pulp, I mix in:
1 scoop of Nutraflax
1/4 cup of oil
1 scoop of Select the Best I Vitamins

Since he is worked more than Louie and because Vinnie was formerly starved he gets lunch which consists of a large flake of Timothy hay (approximately 6 lbs).

[SugarRush]

I’m in Southern Massachusetts. My horse is a 16 year old Paint Gelding, somewhere around 1300 pounds at 16 hands. He is in light Dressage work (ridden 2-3x a week for 30-40 minutes) and 24/7 turnout on semi-decent grass. He gets 1.5 quarts Triple Crown Lite morning and night, with free choice hay–he eats about 20 pounds a day of that. For supplements he is on SmartOmega 3, SmartDigest, and Cosequin. He also gets an unnatural amount of treats

[fordtraktor]

SugarRush, just as an FYI, you are overfeeding Triple Crown Lite. you aren’t supposed to feed more than 4 pounds per day of it, and it is very dense (1.42 pounds per quart) while most of their feeds are more around 1 pound per quart, so you are probably unknowingly bumping over that limit because of the density. Just wanted to let you know you might want to switch out a portion of that for something else so you don’t OD your horse on the vitamins/minerals in it which can be unhealthy at too high a level.

I used to feed TC Lite so I ran into this issue! Now I do TC 30% for the super easy keepers and TC Senior for everyone else. For a horse getting what yours is getting I would put them on TC Senior and probably a 1/4 dose of a good multivite.

I also do free choice hay; first cutting orchard/tim for the easy keepers and second orchard/alf for the TBs.

[SugarRush]

[QUOTE=fordtraktor;7782284]
SugarRush, just as an FYI, you are overfeeding Triple Crown Lite. you aren’t supposed to feed more than 4 pounds per day of it, and it is very dense (1.42 pounds per quart) while most of their feeds are more around 1 pound per quart, so you are probably unknowingly bumping over that limit because of the density. Just wanted to let you know you might want to switch out a portion of that for something else so you don’t OD your horse on the vitamins/minerals in it which can be unhealthy at too high a level.

I used to feed TC Lite so I ran into this issue! Now I do TC 30% for the super easy keepers and TC Senior for everyone else. For a horse getting what yours is getting I would put them on TC Senior and probably a 1/4 dose of a good multivite.

I also do free choice hay; first cutting orchard/tim for the easy keepers and second orchard/alf for the TBs.[/QUOTE]

Good to know, I had one of those measuring cups from TC a long time ago and thought it was almost a 1:1 ratio…luckily I only just bumped it up from 1 quart am/pm a couple weeks ago! Will definitely be making adjustments tomorrow :). Thanks for the info!

[fordtraktor]

You are welcome! Here is their density chart which can help you figure out what things weigh: http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/articles/density-meaurements-tc-horse-feeds-horsefeeds/

Also the TC Lite page has the 4 pound max limit on it, it suggests TC Low Starch as another option. I’ve never fed that before but it looks similar but less vitamin-dense.

[Alibhai_s_Alibar]

Central New Jersey.
18yo, 16.1h, 1,200+lb Thoroughbred gelding (was weighed on a scale this winter). In light to moderate work, mainly trails/hunter paces and low-level dressage and jumping. Moderately hard keeper, cribber, scoped and treated for low-grade ulcers in the past. Aside from cribbing damage, teeth are good and maintained regularly. Blanketed in cold, wind, wet weather.

24/7 turnout on grass with good shelter
Grass hay fed 2x per day, all they can eat per feeding
7-8lbs Pennfield Ultra Energized Senior, split into two feedings with added water
1lb Purina Amplify, split into two feedings
Standlee compressed alfalfa hay, fed as a snack after I ride, about 4 days a week