who's barefoot doesn't use suppliments at all?

posie

posie

Honey's slave...
Feb 28, 2008
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Scotland
www.barkscotland.com
do any of you barefoot people just feed grass/hay and don't suppliment at all?

i'm having a conundrum (whats new there eh?!) honey is verging on over weight - not stupidly so but certainly i don't want her to gain any more weight.... next week i get my saddle so i think we'll be fine keeping her weight as she is/reducing it slightly...

she is out 24/7 on rather good lush grazing (lots of different types of grass/ herby plants, odd shrub) and she has ad-lib poor quality hay (shes on that as she seems to crave course fibre due to the lush grass - same happened last year -she just eats what she wants and i top up when its nearly gone - it equates to about half a hay net a day)

now - i have had real trouble getting this horse to eat any additional food that holds her vits and mins oil and mag ox. :rolleyes: and believe me i've tried most things i can think of in terms of feed and different suppliments/balencers....

so - do you think she actually needs the suppliments? she certainly looks wonderful but has not eaten her food properly for weeks.... surly if she needed/craved it she would self medicate??

i am so tempted to just take her off everything until she starts to need additional food again in autumn... do you think this would be detremental for her feet? i could prob hide her mag ox in an apple once a day....
 
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I've been feeding "timothy balanced cubes' to my won't eat fussy feeder and she loves it. It's just soaked grass cubes so I figure it can't do any harm, and can hide any amount of supplements in it. I can't avoid the supplements because our pasture and hay all tests to be deficient in the same nutrients.
 
I dont feed any supplements, hoofy related or otherwise, and haven't been recommended to either by our trimmer.

All i've ever fed in addition to hard feed is electrolytes when we were competing. And Jez is a gleaming picture of health so am not too concerned :)
 
KateWooten said:
I've been feeding "timothy balanced cubes' to my won't eat fussy feeder and she loves it. It's just soaked grass cubes so I figure it can't do any harm, and can hide any amount of supplements in it. I can't avoid the supplements because our pasture and hay all tests to be deficient in the same nutrients.
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ooh - i'll see if i can get a sample of anything like that up here....

tried redigrass - liked it dry but wont take suppliments in...

i did have her on fast fibre but she stopped eating it...

and alphabeet but it sent her loopy (alfalfa seems to do that to her :rolleyes:)

and ride and relax (another soaked feed)- but she stopped that too...

started fine on safe n sound (laminitic chaff i was just adding water to to hold suppliemnts) but now wont eat it - even when dry with nothing in :mad:
 
all mine are barefoot and dont get any supplements,
they are not fed either in summer ,
they are out 24/7/365, all 3 are doing well,
one of them is 32 years old :)
 
Storm is barefoot and the only thing I give her is Biotin - just a scoop at night with a tiny tiny (ridiculously small) scoop of Happy Hoof. Just a token gesture to get her to eat it really. She's a good doer and a bit porky - sadly gets that way off fresh air and rubbish pasture (believe me at our house its rotten - but she still manges to get bigger than she should!)
 
see i worry that taking her off all her magic potions and lotions will be detremental to her feet/health (i'm soo a marketing persons dream lol!) but sounds like your horses all do fine :)

it's the biotin and mag ox i worry about more than the rest.... but i suppose she's not really been eating them anway for the last few weeks- the crows have :rolleyes: i'm telling you - i have the glossiest coated, healthiest looking bunch of crows round here :eek:
 
All my horses/ponies (12 in all, how'd that happen:eek:) are barefoot.

The 2 flatfooters get a bit of biotin in winter, the rest live out 24/7, no feed, only grass and a bit of hay in winter - got many different breeds, sizes, types ranging from a 13hh NF to a 15.3 Dutch Warmblood and they are all happy to be ridden across flinty/stony tracks and on roads

Hope this helps:D
 
Both my horses are barefoot (3yrs and 4yrs old) and have good feet without any particular 'hoof' suppliments. They've had half rations of Top Spec balancer through the winter and a course of probiotic when they first went out 24/7, but they're not getting anything now. I've just had to trim them and I have to report they're growing very good hoof on no suppliments :)
 
I don't feed any supplements to my barefoot horse. My farrier says if you are feeding a balanced diet you shouldn't need to supplement it for their feet. I've never had any problems without a supplement but maybe I'm just lucky!
 
Mrs P is on some supplements but nothing for her feet :) I did give her MagOx for a while but it made bugger all difference, then I spilled it everywhere and never bothered with it again!
 
I've got three barefoot and don't give any supplements, apart from Mia who has selenevite e which isn't foot related at all, and there's another 6 barefoot horses on the yard on no supplements at all. I faffed about with hoof supplements for a while and would use one again in some situations but don't have a horse that needs one at the moment. I tried magnesium and it either did b*gger all or made things worse so won't be using it again.
 
I feed a half ration of Top Spec comprehensive balancer, which cotnained all required nutrients for a horse. Soon we'll be moving onto 1/3 ration or maybe to onyl a few times a week!
 
If you are worried about a) being bankrupt b) calories then you could feed Happy Hoof (Spillers) or Healthy Hooves (Dengie). I prefer the Dengie one as the Happy hoof is like sawdust in comparison to the Healthy Hooves moist loveliness. It has biotin at a level to make a difference but is lami approved too and replaces chaff and some of the fibre (hay or haylage) depending on how much you feed.

I fed it to my Haffie and then the big IDxTB who has had Hifi and H&P nuts for years started kicking the door to have her dinner instead so he gets it too now. SOOO much easier than complicated multiple feeds.

The Haffie has never been shod and we used boots in summer the first year and then nothing after that, even tho her feet are wide and shallow. We live in the Cairngorms so lots of stony rocky gravelly ground, wet ground, grass and tarmac.

Im saving a packet not having to buy hoof supplements and Ive noticed only improvement since stopping Farriers formula and normal feeds and switching to just feeding Healthy Hooves.
 
Neither of mine get anything specific for their feet - i've tried millions* over the years and none made any difference so I gave up :p

Dyl gets Benevit and J gets selenevite E and pink powder, they both get cortaflex.

*maybe not millions, but plenty!
 
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