What do you Feed your show horses

[Samm S]

Hello everyone,

What types of feed do you feed your show minis, i just want an idea of what and how much feed everybody gives there horses during show season, and the off season.

Sam.

 

[Jill]

I pretty much feed my horses the same all year round, except that I only feed flax seed from around March - September or so.

Our show horses get about 50% of their diet from complete senior pellets and the other 50% is soft orchard grass hay. Our non show horses eat similar but get less pellets and more hay. Additionally, my foals will get Purina Equine Junior and orchard grass hay. Show horses get about 2tsp of flax seed.

Depending on how much hay we can put up for winter, all of them may be eating more pellets than hay.

 

[Miniv]

The classic feeding for show horses by many trainers is to double (plus) up the grain and reduce the hay.

Some trainers will even go so far as give large amounts of grain and feed a cubed hay or alfalfa. This is to provide a high amount of protien to the diet, but without the hay belly. I don't believe in doing that, though.

We tend to increase the grain and reduce the hay amount according to the horse. But they will always still get hay to graze/forage on. IMO, a horse is a grazing animal and needs either pasture or hay to forage on or you can disrupt their digestive system and are asking for trouble (ie. ulcers or colic).

MA

 

[CritrSitr]

I feed Complete Advantage with ground black-oil sunflower seeds, ground flaxseed, and Source. I give hay as needed (they are on pasture in summer). And, oh yeah, lots of baby carrots as treats!

:

My guys are not in heavy training and 2 of 3 gain weight very easily (i.e. the mare in my avatar is one of them).

 

[ThreeCFarm]

My show horses are fed pretty much the same as the other horses with just a change in the hay. My horses all get Progressive Nutrition's Grass Diet Balancer, oat and/or Envision if needed (Envision is a calorie booster, very high fat). As to the hay, the show horses get restricted to 1.5% of their bodyweight in hay a day, of which half of that is alfalfa and half is grass hay. My non-show horses get free choice hay and/or grass.

 

[susanne]

This year's show season has been blown out of the water for us, so it's ironic for me to even answer this...Mingus has spent the summer fat and lazy -- until the last month, when we've been conditioning for the one show that we'll make. Scarlett has been on a weight gaining program and enjoying being a pampered baby.

Whenever I've considered my show horses' diets, I end up deciding that if it's good for them, it's good for my pasture pets, and vice versa -- although in different amounts.

All of our horses are fed LMF Showtime, free choice orchard and good quality local grass hay, beet pulp and BOSS. Approaching show time, I cut back on hay for the horse being shown (and divide it into smaller, more frequent feedings), increase the beet pulp and slightly increase the grain.

I do not cut back on their overall intakel, as I want to maintain their energy level -- a hungry, lethargic horse will neither condition nor show well.

Other than at show time, I just don't worry about hay bellies. Perhaps I'm spoiled, since my show gelding's belly disappears in a few days.

 

[Al B]

Show Horses - Purina Race Ready & Alfalfa

All the others - Purina Strategy & Coastal Hay

 

[J&HMinis]

Mine get Omelene 200, crimped oates and beet pulp. They also get a small handful of hay with each feeding.

 

[Devon]

ok so how long do you put your horses outside for , we dont have a drylot available right now we have hte rescue horses on it at the moment. Also would you mind listing whats in the feed as the feed in Canada and US may have the same name but the amounts are slightly differant

: Sam and I are wondering the same things