What are you feeding your horses in reasonably hard work?

[fmftrainer]

What are you feeding your hunters and jumpers or any of your equine athletes?

I’m sure this question has been answered before, but I’m not having much luck finding it.

I like to keep feeding as simple as possible, with most of our horses calories coming from grass or hay, but we have had several more difficult keepers come into the barn and while they look okay, and are performing well, I want them to be at their best! Everyone seems to have different opinions on feeding, I want to hear all of them!

[tabula_rashah]

My endurance mare (Morgan) gets ridden an average of 3-4 times a week (about 25-30 miles total for the week, mostly at the trot with lots of hill work).

She gets:
-Free choice pasture or grass hay
-1.5 lbs Ultium and 1.5 lbs Omelene 200 AM and PM (soaked)
-1 lb of Alfalfa pellets AM and PM (soaked)
Supplement-wise, she gets:
-8 oz of Purina Supersport
-1 oz of Redmond Salt
-Smartvite Thrive
-Bioflax

So far she’s been maintaining her weight perfectly like this for the summer.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

I chose Blue Seal Performance LS as it is an extruded and will be easily digested even when my horse has some “tummy troubles”. Unlike pellets that, if fed in large quantities, will pass from the fore gut into the hind gut without being fully digested and will disrupt the fragile balance of the horse’s digestive system; extruded grains are partially predigested and break down quickly and easily. I’ve even found it to make those horses that can be a little “crampy” to be less so (if it’s digestion related).

My mare is out on pasture all night and gets hay slow fed in her stall during the day. She has one of those big 50lb mineral blocks outside and a Himalayan block inside and it fed electrolytes with her grain. On top of that she is fed this twice a day:
1-2 lbs of soaked beet pulp
2 lbs of Blue Seal Performance LS

And she gets some beet pulp at lunch along with the 30 year old pony a stall down from her.

My horse is SUPER ulcery so I have to be careful about food with a high NSC, too much sugary stuff, etc. Nothing molasses covered full of oats for her. I have used alfalfa pellets and cubes in the past and she likes them and responded to them well but hasn’t had the need for them as recently. I might rotate some back in for the winter if we can’t get enough quality Alfalfa hay for her. My horse also does a lot better on Timmothy and Alfalfa hay, I DO NOT give her oat hay, and she gets grass hay in the summer when the pasture dries out.

[batman_the_horse]

My TB mare gets ridden about 5 days a week - a mix of jumping/dressage lessons and hacking out.

AM & PM she gets:

3 qts. Seminole Show & Sport
3 qts. Soaked Beet Pulp

PM she gets her supplements:
Quiessence
Smarthoof
Smartlytes
MSM

Alfalfa/Timothy blend hay in the stall. Bermuda pasture at night.

She stays hunter plump with a shiney/dappley coat on this diet. Great feet, too.

[Manni01]

My dressage horse gets ridden everyday. She gets pasture and Grasshay as much as she wants, 2 Slices of O/A or Alfalfa per day and 2 scoops of whole oats per day in 2 meals with a mineral/vitamin supplement and 1 cup of flaxseed.
With this she turned from a skeleton (after weaning her foal) to a nice well around rounded shiny horse while being ridden all the time.

[justhoofit]

Depends on the horse! In general, I feed 3 things (besides hay, which is O&A and basically free choice):

1. Alfalfa pellets
2. Seminole Equalizer Ration Balancer
3. Seminole Show Formula (10/10/19)

With these three items, I can make combinations that work for any horse from light work to heavy work to easy keepers to hard keepers.

I’m not a huge supplement fan, but here are some I have been known to use:

For ulcer prevention (for those that need it) I feed slippery elm bark powder.
For those in harder work I feed extra vitamin E.