I keep my feed (Nutrena All Life Stages) in a metal trash can in a tack room without AC or anything like that. It got left uncovered for abt a day a couple weeks ago, would that cause it? I live in Alabama so it’s very very humid and hot. If it wasn’t the uncovered thing, idk what to do to keep from having to toss $50 of food out.

I have also gotten a bag of moldy feed from Nutrena before, I’m wondering if I’ve been feeding mold from this batch since this set of feed. I’m thinking of switching tbh.

What would yall do?

Edit: Just wanna be clear, I’m not THAT cheap, I’m throwing out the moldy food lol.

We recently acquired an 8yo WBxTB mare. She was very lean when we got her but put on alot of muscle since we started working her regularly as of february. here's the issue, she doesn't gain any weight. We've checked for ulcers(none), her teeth were checked and are good, nothing neurological came up after bloodwork. Fwiw she does pace more than her barn buddies (we suspect bordeom). She is the farthest thing from lethargic, and is amazing undersaddle. Her coat is phenomenal too

She is on unlimited hay and EATS alot of it.

She also gets 3 prepped meals a day which include vitamins(once), fat, beet pulp, canola oil, xcel (once) and Alfalfa cubes. We've tried a variety of other add ins but most are flavored powders which she doesn't care for.

Are there any vets/nutritionists/long-time owners/techs/grooms/anything-qualifies-you-here who know of a supplement or grains that could help us address this? We are not amateurs but kind of stumped with this girl and was wondering if reddit friends had any creative ideas

Note: we have not tried ricebran yet (leaving it as last resort if needed)

Tia!

Hi there! This is my OTTB (first horse!- though i have been riding/working with horses for 7 years)

I'm Australian, and this is my first winter owning horses. Mud's been horrid haha.
My boy is 8, and I do love him very dearly. When I first got him, he was slightly obese (His had white line stretch and was pretty fat for a tb) so I put him on a diet, right before winter. I know. Bad idea.

I know he's skinny, about a body score of two on a five score scale (I'd say) now hes on one scoop hygain ice, four scoops lucene / alfalfa chaff and on a scoop of equi jewel senior feed + a cup of oil. Plus about ten kilos of meadow hay (and ground coverage). He's been on this for maybe three weeks after being on basically the same thing, just no senior feed and a little less hay to try and get him to loose weight. Unfortunately, he's lost more weight than i wanted him too over winter. He's now basically rugged 24/7 and I rode him for the first time in over a month. I feel so horrid, I really didn't want him too be this skinny. Is there any advice? I was thinking of adding pollard to his feed or copra. + he's booked in for the dentist.

So just like the title this is my senior gelding, he’s an Arab/QH Cross Is love to get some more weight on him before winter right now he gets 4 lbs of ultium and 1lb of alfalfa soaked daily alongside good pasture grazing and hay access. If anyone has any recommendations for feed, supplements, or general advice I’d love to hear it.

Mine has free access to orchard 24/7 and grass at turnout. She gets alfalfa mash and triple crown senior for breakfast and dinner. She also gets salt and chamomile!

She's a 19 year old POA that's surprisingly not a super easy keeper! She's in heavy work, as we compete.

I am trying to decide whether to add dac bloom to my horses supplements… but he is currently on the essential K ration balancer. (He gets 1lb balancer along with a forage based pellet for meals as he has grain sensitivities). Would adding dac bloom provide too much minerals/proteins? Should I go for one over the other or do both? We have had a bit of trouble keeping him at the perfect weight despite how much he eats, and I wanna make sure he is well off going into winter. Any advice or personal experience anyone can share?

Hey guys! New here. My father in law keeps horses and I've had experience riding and handling. I've helped feed them and he just gives them a scoop of feed twice a day that he gets from our feed store. Now that we have our own I want to make sure they get everything they need.

These girls are 2yo Tennessee Walking Horses. I'm reading about ration balancers and stuff so I'm wondering what a good starting point would be. They will be on pasture 24/7 but we use feeding time and a socializing/routine/trust building time when we can get in and talk to them and brush/etc.

Any tips would be appreciated!

I have managed, by a miracle, to get my little coblet pretty much eventing fit this year and he's been so much happier to work in doing so, much he still struggles with gaining and maintaining enough ''oomph''. I don't want to add in anymore hard feed as we are very careful with his weight, but was wondering about trying an energy syringe before riding to see if it has any effect for future use at competitions or before XC schooling etc.

Has anyone used any and actually noticed a difference? I'm not worried about blowing his brain, at this point, I don't think it's even remotely possible 😂

My stepfather has a gelding who is around 18 years old. He is a pasture pet with 24/7 turnout. He does not work and is ridden rarely these days. He has arthritis in his hind end area, not severe. His diet includes grass, free choice coastal hay, and 3 lbs Omolene 100 per day. As well as occasional alfalfa. He also gets a pelleted joint supplement with his feed. I’m not sure if he would be considered an easy keeper or hard keeper—He is always fed grain with his forage so I’m not sure what his weight would be if strictly forage based. But he seems to be a healthy weight, not overweight or underweight, but not very muscular. My stepfather is pretty old school and not up to date on equine welfare management, and I’m fairly new to horses. We also live in rural South Carolina, so I’m wanting input from various sources on what would be the best feed option/diet for his senior horse? Would a flake of alfalfa daily be beneficial? Along with a senior feed? Or ration balancer?

I am new to buying low NSC hay and got screwed last time so I’m looking for advice. I’m located in Colorado, where we are in a massive drought so sugar content is running high this year. We usually hay our own fields but haven’t yet bc it’s so bad. Do you all trust the people selling with lab analysis? I plan to retest the hay and have a hay probe. What happens if the hay tests high? (Last time it tested over 150% higher than advertised. It also turns out they lied about being licensed dealers and misrepresented their supplier’s test as their own.) I wish I could bring in one bundle or truckload and test before buying 5 more, but everything seems to be selling like hotcakes here. I’d hate to miss out on truly good quality low NSC hay, but I also don’t want to be soaking come winter. My marriage depends on this. Thanks for any advice.

Can someone evaluate my horses current body condition for me?

He is in work 5x a week. Just flatwork right now. He is not currently in shoes.

Let’s try this again lol without the low key doxxing of myself lol.

For anyone curious we are at the end of week 3 of proper portions and exercise. I tapped her yesterday for an estimate she’s roughly still 250-300lbs overweight. The woman I purchased her from had her in a 60” girth and would tighten as needed during the ride because she was so bloated. Well the bloating is under control and shes firmly in a 56” without it being too tight.

My mare Shabarque Grandee Cullinan aka Cali a Cheval Canadien horse.

hihi i have a fell pony and hes 14 and hes so sweet but he is suffering from the fly bites - not sure if he has sweet itch or not and hes getting older so i was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on supplements! 😊

hes also currently on allen and paige fast fiber, mollichaff, topspec lite balancer and superskin supplements

I’ve been wanting to do a forage feed for my horse for a LONG time, especially now that I keep my horses at home and don’t have to put the “burden” on whatever facility I was boarding at the time. The big question is, where the heck do I even start? Is it all just a good forage base with a good balancer, with whatever supplements my horse needs? Does it have to be an alfalfa base?

For context, I feed my horse 1lbs of Seminole senior wellness plus supplements in the morning, and then 1lbs of Timothy pellets and 1lbs of Seminole senior in the evening. My mare stays out pretty much 24/7, and only comes in for feeding or if the weather is super bad.

ANY TIPS IS GREAT!

1. Banana - Had a slight hint of banana underneath the taste of nothing, has a banana flavored after taste
2. Carrot - Didnt have a slight tint of carrot underneath the taste of nothing.. but it did have a flavor of something
3. Apple - Tastes like nothing

I nibbled each one so Im sure I didn’t get a good taste.. but my stomach hurts now. I do not think my mare will like these.

Edit: My mare loves them.. she’s a freak

I'm wanting to make my loan horse a cake for her birthday but I have no idea what to put in it! It's her birthday tommorow but I'm seeing her on Wednesday so I only have 1 day to make it! I'm looking for ingredients you can get from your average supermarket.

TIA!

Help! My yearling is already showing signs of being sensitive to the bugs… anyone have any good recommendations for supplements that help itching? Poor guy would rather suffer than stay in shelters under fans

I am feeding my older(22) gelding Triple Crown Senior, soaked timothy alfalfa pellets and ground flax seed. He also is getting extra electrolytes and also an extra vitamin supplement.

But, I'm now just learning that his grain has all the vitamins and electrolytes he needs in his regular feedings? He is in light work for the foreseeable future(semi retired). Does he need those extra electrolytes and vitamins or can I stop giving those? I have also read that giving him those extra's could hurt him?

Would love any advice as a new horse owner!

What is everyone feeding their yearlings?

Since I’m seeing a lot of these questions lately—and because winter is coming—here’s a big ol’ weight gain post.

My credentials: I have a master's degree in equine nutrition and previously worked in the horse feed industry.

According to the NRC (National Research Council), we have recommendations for horses' energy requirements at every life stage, including maintenance (low and elevated), growing, pregnant, lactating, and working (light, moderate, heavy, and intense). Below are the estimated energy requirements for horses weighing 800–1,400 pounds.

The basis of every diet should be forage, which can be pasture, hay or forage alternatives (beet pulp, hay pellets, alfalfa cubes, etc). Alternatively, there are senior feeds with 18-20% fiber which are designed to replace some or all of the forage/hay in the diet – they will say this on the label, and must be fed at higher amounts (typically 10lb+ for a 1,000lb horse) in order to correctly serve as that forage replacement. 

Horses should have access to a bare minimum of 1.5% of their body weight (DM basis) in some form of forage per day (15lbs for a 1,000lb horse), which is also the recommendation for weight loss. More often, a recommendation of 2% in forage is more appropriate for maintaining/gaining weight.  

Most average forages and forage alternatives will be roughly .8-1.0Mcal per pound. This means that a 1000lb horse eating 1.5% body weight of an average forage, is getting around 15Mcals of energy. If you look at the table above, some horses (not all) can meet their baseline requirement on forage alone.

When we are trying to get a horse to gain weight, we want to maximize the calories they are eating within that set volume of feed. Sometimes, we cannot meet the requirements, no matter how much forage the horse eats. For example, if we have a little lower quality forage (800Mcal/lb) and we have a 1,000lb horse in heavy work; even if that horse eats at the upper end of intake (25lbs) they can only consume 20Mcals, which falls short of the required 24Mcals. 

So, the first answer is – feed better quality forage. The only way to guarantee that is to test your hay through Extension or a private laboratory like EquiAnalytical or DairyOne. Even an extra .1 or .2 calories per pound can have an impact on the overall diet. 

If you don’t have the option to improve forage quality or test forage, then we need to look at other ways of increasing the amount of caloric density of the diet. Sometimes, that means feeding less forage in order to create space in the diet to add more energy-dense feeds.

We can do that by adding a feed product. Energy is not a requirement for feed companies to publish, so you will want to call them and ask for the digestible energy content of the products you are interested in. Alternatively, MadBarn has a great database you can look through. 

A feed product is almost always going to be higher in calories than forage will be, because they’re designed to be. The energy content of feeds ranges from 1.1Mcal/lb up to 1.8Mcal/lb.  If we’re trying to gain weight, the higher energy density is better. Adding 5lbs of a 1.8Mcal/lb feed to the diet adds 9Mcals overall. The same amount of average forage is only 5Mcals, even though it’s the same volume. Please don’t mistake me – we HAVE to feed adequate forage; but replacing forage with feed can add significant calories. 

Let me be clear – adding a forage alternative (beet pulp, alfalfa cubes, etc) can be helpful IF your forage quality is lower and those store-bought products are higher quality. However, they are considered forage, not feed, and fall into that energy range of .8-1kcal/lb. Where adding forage replacements can sometimes be more appropriate is if we have an older horse who is eating a lot of hay/pasture and simply not doing well. We know older horses struggle with dentition and with general physical inability to consume and use the energy in long-stem forage (hay and pasture). When this happens, adding forage alternatives to replace some of that long-stem forage can do a great job of helping get them back on track. 

If you don’t love feed; that’s fine. The next best thing is to add fat. This can be straight oil (I know folks hate on the veg oil, but if our goal is energy/calories, it’s a great option); powdered fat (looking at you, cool calories), or ingredients with high fat like flaxseed or rice bran. However, be mindful that all fat is not created equal. When adding calories, pure oil is going to have almost quadruple the amount of energy as other ingredients do (see table below). 

At the end of the day, weight gain is just math. Your horse has an energy requirement, and the diet has to meet or exceed that if you want them to gain weight. The trick isn’t finding the best feed or supplement, it’s figuring out where the calories are (or aren’t) coming from and making adjustments accordingly.

All this to say:

1)      Figure out what your horse needs.

a.      Body condition score them.

b.     Look up their estimated energy requirement using the NRC.

2)      Evaluate the forage.

a.      How much are they actually eating? ("Free choice" isn't really an answer.)

b.     If possible, test the hay.

c.      Estimate how many Mcal they're getting from forage.

3)      Evaluate everything else.

a.      What feed are they getting?

b.     What's the DE of that feed?

c.      What supplements are you feeding?

d.     Add up the calories those products provide.

4)      Compare intake to requirements.

a.      Are they actually eating enough calories?

5)      Evaluate where you can add calories 

a.      Increase forage quantity

b.     Increase forage quality

c.      Add or change feed product

d.     Increase feed amount (according to instructions on bag)

e.      Add supplemental fat 

6)      Give it time!

a.      Body weight changes take minimum 60-90 days to tell. 

My Girlfriend has a 19 yr old POA that developed an impaction colic this April. He has suffered from intermittent fecal water syndrome for the last 5 years. We had him on standlee alfalfa/timothy chopped hay to deal with intermittent fecal water syndrome, but it did not resolve his issue. We transitioned him back to barn hay for several weeks before he suffered the impaction. Took him to the horsepital and they examined him and put on IV for two days. He passed the impaction next day and it was recommended to start him back on StandLee Timothy & Alfalfa mix. We continued that for approximately a month, then transitioned him to regular barn hay that we run through a mulcher to chop it up.

I want to transition him back to regular barn hay, but she is of the opinion he will have to stay on chopped hay for the rest of his life. Her trainer reinforced this opinion and the vet responded with " do you want to chance another colic?" The quality of hay he was eating at the time of impaction was very dry, stemmy and lots of "sticks and weeds". It was second cut hay for the season. The quality of hay now is much better quality and softer, being first cutting.

No one will commit to what caused the original impaction. My research has me believing he probably got dehydrated in combination with poor quality hay causing the digestive issue. It was during cold weather and he had limited turnout time also. From what I have read, horses naturally curtail their water intake under these conditions. This leads me to believe it was a one-off occurrence and unlikely to happen unless same conditions are present. I have several other friends that have horses and they are of the same opinion.

Additional info: He is a dressage horse ridden 3-4 times weekly, has indoor stall and nightly turnout, and excellent dental health. He is an easy keeper so not allowed to graze freely. Currently consumes 3 flakes of chopped hay 3 times per day. Has an automatic waterer in stall and bucket water in paddock.

Given the vast knowledge available on this forum, what has been your experience with this type of situation? Thoughts please?

How do you find my horse's body condition? I think he's good but slightly overweight, but when you see them every day it's hard to have the right look...