What does everyone think about what Im feeding?

[Karls Mum]

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to see what you all thought about what I feed my horse. He is a 15.2h sec d x Tb. I hack him about 3-4 x a week. Hes clipped, but comes in at night and has about 8 hrs a day turn out. He seems like he is an ideal weight but because I dont really understand how to work out the nutritional value of hay he has, and the grass hes on I could with some advice. Do you think all his nutritional needs are covered?
Hes on ad lib hay, one large scoop of Dengie Hi-Fi lite, equivite general purpose supplement, veg oil and carrots. He was on Blue Chip but I did some research and its seems like he didnt really need it as wasnt sick, is a good doer, not in much work etc.
What do you all reckon?

 

[holiday]

I dont think youl go far wrong with that, keep an eye on his weight, welsh x usually are quite good doers, if you start doing more work then maybe think of adding a bit of cool/course mix - my motto is if its not broken dont fix it!! You could use a weight measure and then can keep a proper eye on him rather than just looking as sometimes you dont notice any weight loss until its really changed when you see them every day!! Most of the feed manufacturers have a phoneline that you can call with helpful advisors if you were worried.

 

[1 morejump]

I dont think youl go far wrong with that, keep an eye on his weight, welsh x usually are quite good doers

No kidding, I had a welch cross and she had no problems with weight. Okay, here is a very crash course on feeding. Of all farm animals the horse is the least inefficent feeder(I think the most is the cow) due to the fact that they have one stomach compartment, where the cow can digest things multple times to get the most nutritional value out of it. The cow can also tolerate low quality hay because the cecum is closer to the stomach. The cecum basicaly helps to break down stuff using bacteria. The horse has a cecum but it is so far back that any moldy hay would have cause a problem by then.

How green is your hay? The greener the better, hay bales for horses should idealy be light and springy, this allows for proper air circulation. The 5 main things horses need are Vitamin A, protien, carbohydrates, calcium and phosphorus. They are all pretty self explainatory except for the Ca and P. Ca and P need to be consumed by the horse as they are critical for bones, and muscle, regardless of age. However, they need to be fed in a certian ratio. 1.5:1 all the way up to 2:1 is considered ideal. Never should the amount of P exceed the amount of Ca! The bones will start to take out Ca in order to absorb the excess P.

Also, feed your horse in weight not scoops, scoops can vary but the weight of the feed is always more accurate.

Basicly that is a really short version of feeding. Here is a very good article http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache...nd+phosphorus+ratio"&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=7