need info please

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ibquackers20

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my minis are around 300 pounds,they get free range grass to graze during the day and a flake of grass hay at night each,mineral block/salt block - my trainer said to buy cleaned whole oats and rolled oats with molasses and to mix 50/50

question is how much should I give each mini a day ? they do not train or do any workout except one is in training to drive and just the basic to drive.

2 gelded minis are 4 years old - mare is 3 years old and other gelding is 5 years old
 
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my minis are around 300 pounds,they get free range grass to graze during the day and a flake of grass hay at night each,mineral block/salt block - my trainer said to buy cleaned whole oats and rolled oats with molasses and to mix 50/50
question is how much should I give each mini a day ? they do not train or do any workout except one is in training to drive and just the basic to drive.

2 gelded minis are 4 years old - mare is 3 years old and other gelding is 5 years old
How do they look? How do they feel? If they're doing fine with what they're on, I wouldn't add oats. I don't think I'd give oats to horses that aren't active/working.
 
well, they all have fat bellys from grass hay and all they do is eat ,sleep and the odd time play.The trainer said they need a pick me up

They are not in training right now, I do spend time with them and one I am working with the basic on driving.Trainer is teaching me how to ground drive with her big/regular size horse and when she feels I am comfortable with ground driving and have that down then she will come to my place to help train my mini and myself together.

Go figure I have lived here for 10 years and did not know there was a horse trainer just 1/4 mile away from me.

She has been and won many championships in different areas ,she is now training my foster daughter to ride western or english, not sure whitch she will choose - but my daughter seems to really like western.

is it really normal for minis to be slugish,but I do have to thank my trainer who helped me with one mini gelding that would not come up to me always stayed at a distance away.He now walks up to me and later I will work on getting a halter on him without having to walk around for 10 minutes trying to get him.MINIS ARE DEWORMED EVERY 3 MONTHS

ok this is C.J and if you look down at the top of his back he looks pretty wide,he is 4 years old now

IMG_0074.jpg


this is my black mare Bella now 3 years old who has the same big belly as what my gelding now 5 years old Justin is showing in the photo. They look fat or is it because I have been around working big horses. Even many photos on this site of minis that do not work look thinner than mine.They all look wide in the belly area,I fixed my fences since photo was taken and is escape proof now.

IMG_0073.jpg
 
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I wouldn't do any molasses at all.

The only advantage is its iron. Otherwise it is too much sugar. I use 1/3 C oats every day, mixed with my supplement concoction. (Actually, I use groats, which is the oat kernel with the hull removed.) Steamed rolled oats is a good choice.

There are so many feeding ideas, it is very confusing. Everyone you talk to will have a different opinion. But generally speaking, too much sugar is not good for our minis. If you decide to feed the oats, you won't need molasses to make the oats taste good--they love oats anyway.

One reason for a belly, I am told, is hay not moving through the gut effiecintly. More excercise would give them more muscle tone , but you could try a probiotic for a while and see if you notice a difference.

Lunging for a few minutes every day might be helpful, just to stimulate them a little. They may appear sluggish because they are "energy efficient"--why hurry when strolling gets you where you want to go?

Good luck with the driving! I'll bet your pretty horses look great in harness!
 
Yep, when I want my horses to get more active and lose some weight, I add oats. Since around here whole oats can be difficult to find/get I've just been buying rolled oats "with molasses". Why with molasses? Because Feed-Rite oats is the best quality we can get here, and Feed Rite oats comes with molasses. It's supposed to be only 1% molasses but sometimes it will be a little more than that, and other times it's less--mostly you hardly know the molasses is there so it's not at all like feeding sweet feed.

Anyway, since I don't consider anything less than a cup as "feeding grain"...less than a cup is a "treat" rather than a 'grain ration'
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I use one of the 500 ml sour cream containers as my "scoop"measure. As I recall that is about 1 1/2 cups of oats if you fill it level. Not all of my horses get grain but those that do start out with a level "scoop". That never seems like very much, so they end up getting a rounded scoop! Broodmares and yearlings get 1 1/2 scoops and weanlings get 2 scoops. Show horses may get that amount of oats plus a scoop of pellets....broodmares that drop weight when nursing get 2 scoops of oats plus a scoop of pellets.

Horses in work (driving regularly) may get their ration increased if I want them to have more energy. If a young horse just starting his harness training gets too silly then he might get his grain cut down a little.

Most of my horses are tall B's, some small b's and tall A's
 
It is interesting that your oats have molasses added, minimor. I wonder why? I have had trainers and vets tell me to cut out my measley little 1/3 C of oats, as it is too fattening. None ever told me to increase it for making them more active. I keep feeding it, in spite of advice, as I believe it is a good thing. So I like your oat/energy approach! Horses have been eating oats for hundreds of years.

My A sized horses are about 25# overweight. But they pull a cart with 2 adults for 2 miles + at a trot. So, I am a proponent of oats. Maybe I will INCREASE their oats!
 
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Marsha, you know, I don't know for sure why they do add that 1% oats. The one feed store used to get them to mix it at 2% molasses, but he quit getting that kind. Like I said, molasses isn't consistant anyway--and when they add the most seems to be in the dead of winter, and when it hits 35 below then the oats is there in a big frozen lump in the oat barrel...

I suspect that the molasses might be to disguise the taste of the steam rolling process. At one time we did buy oats that was steam rolled and didn't have molasses added. Plain steam rolled oats does often have a different texture/smell to it and I've had horses come here and refuse to eat it because they were used to whole oats and didn't like the steam roll "smell" of the rolled oats. I would even find that several of my own horses would refuse to eat new batches of oats, just because it didn't smell like the previous batch did. So my guess would be for consistancy of taste, but I could be wrong on that. One store does sell plain rolled oats with no molasses but the one time I bought it it was very poor quality oats--and so I wasn't spending money on that variety again. FeedRite oats is very consistant in quality and so that's what I buy it, molasses and all.

Marsha, if you increase the oats for your driving horses you might find that you cover those 2 miles much faster than you normally do!
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Many places add molasses to reduce the dust.

I don't mind feeds with a little molasses, personally... I don't find sugar to be the root of all evil, as long as it is part of an otherwise high-fat-high-fiber diet of good quality.

Andrea
 
Molasses to help with the dust--that makes sense. Lots of horses have trouble trying to eat anything dusty. And I did not realize oats would taste so differently to horses.

I lead a sheltered life.
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The brand I bought is from FeedRite and I only put a small amount in their feed so they get use to it,my guys are very slugish and need to perk up.The vet said they are all healthy but very lazy,which does not help with training - slow as turtles
 

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