So I am changing My horses diet and wanted to hear what you all think about it, and if you could share your experiences with something along the lines of this one!

Current situation and Diet:

15.5 HH QH, built like an athletic TB or WB, elegant bone structure.

Works 1 hour, 5 days a week doing : flatwork, 3ft jumping grids, or galloping at full speed 1/8 of a mile, or lunging. quite fit.

Eatinge regime:

Breakfast; 3 quarts of pro force fuel, 1/2 cup of BOSS, 1/2 cup of oil.

Lunch; 2 quarts of pro force fuel, 1/2 cup of BOSS, 1 cup Apple cider vinegar, One fleck of Hay.

Dinner; 3 quarts Pro Force F, 1/2 cup of oil. 1 fleck of hay.

She is on lush pasture all day. gets groomed once a day.

Very hard keeper, not fat at all on this diet, just maintains herself. sorta shiny, but should be more, considering how i groom her!

Now...

-reasons for wanting to change diet-

I feel like she is getting to much concentrates and crap filling her system, I want a happy shiney and healty, fit athelete, and this is not doing it for her even though her feed is top of the line. I want her on a diet that will be leaning more towards a natural proccess of things.

On to the new diet!!!

Workload is same as above. I won't list how much I will feed because (obviously) I haven't started it, and don't know what my crazy hard keeper will take or need. 

breakfast; rolled oats, a little bit of high quality sweet feed, BOSS, ACV. lace of Alfalfa.

lunch; rolled oats, sweet feed, fleck of hay.

Dinner; rolled oats, BOSS, ACV, lace of alflafa.

-note-

please remember she is on lush high quality pastures 24/7.

And thats it! Please tell me what you think, would love your thoughts and comments/success stories, anything!

Thanks,

nutritional crazy horse mother.

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I have Standardbred race horses (I was a rider long before I got into racing)...they are not just race horses to us, but my family too...so we take great care of them...

your horses sounds like a lot of Standardbred horses that I see, and some that I have got from other people...they either have acidosis or they have ir....in this case your horse sounds like it has acidosis... hind gut issues.

these type are shinny, but never really gain weight, they are always a little off in their gut...and some of them stand with their hind quarters against the wall...and rock, or act like they have stifle issues..but not all...

I don't know how much you know about race horses, but they are the hardest working horses of the 'fine' horse...heavy horses are a whole other story...

my horses are always the shiniest...and always the ones that are almost fat (fat brings on ir, and hard on the legs)...I have trouble keeping weight off...not on...this all so you know that I've had success.  this is all just my opinion...and from years and years of learning how to keep weight on horses and healthy at the same time and work them at a very hard level.

currently I have 5 races horses and three are ir...the other two one is 'normal' and the other a severe acidosis horse as in weighed 428 lbs when I got him and should weigh 1000lbs.

we feed all 5 the same way.

they are NOT allowed all the grass they want...unless we are on standing tall grass...

lawn...low cut crass that is of one variety is the WORST...if it is mixed variety..no issues all but by my really severe ir horse...he is allowed almost no grass unless the sugar is almost not existent..but he is the exception...the rest we don't have to be so strict about.

they get 2 cups as in  a two cup measure of accelerator (a ration balancer from shurgain) 3 times a day... and once a day 2 cups of fat n fibre from the same company....and ALL the second cut hay they want... if they are currently racing or if I think they need more weight I will either ground flax up for them and add it to soaked hay cubes with their supper and 2 cups of accelerator on top, or use a product called shine from the same company at 1 cup per horse mixed in. 

I always feed alfalfa as pure as I can get it, or at minimum as rich a second cut hay as I can find.

I don't feed oats ( I used to feed strictly oats with watered molasses 4 times a day at a coffee can amount)...but my stud who has ir changed all that...and tattoo our old acidosis horse solidified my change...

I used to bran mash them as well...but found that if the horse had gut issues it made things worse not better...for the acidosis horse or hard keeper, some do well on beat pulp, but I found that their is still issues with it...so I have used it to gain weight for a short period, then change over to soaked alfalfa...pure...hay cubes.

also yogurt helps any horse with a gut issue regardless of why they have it...I feed a tub at a time a large tub...until I see them to the way I want them and then back off till they don't need it anymore...watch the sugar...but they usually like blueberry, and raspberry better than plain.

I do believe they need to get out and move and while I warn against the wrong type of grass I am a firm believer that horses need to go outside and move around naturally as much as possible.

I have no use for 1st cut hay...unless you are trying to give a really over weight horse something to chew on to slow it down...plus it can have more sugar with little value than what appears to be richer hay.

oil is usually corn oil...and while I used to feed corn...after I had my stud 'educate' me the hard way...and after research for the last 9 years of owning him (or him owning me rather) I stopped...it is almost pure sugar.

it is my belief that it is an over load of sugar in its various types that damages the stomach and then passes issues on to the feet and laminitis.  after making my switch, and many, many friends following my lead and omitting all the added extras...I have yet to see one horse not improve.  it is not an overnight thing...and I would make the changes over time.  also watch the bags...a lot of products are loaded with selenium and you could be easily over feeding it as well.

take care and the best of luck,

deb mcdaid

Deb, 

Thank you so much for your long and knowledgeable reply! I have nothing but respect and admiration for someone who has been/is in the Racing Industry. 

Your diet regime sounds really healthy and solid, I really want to try the accelerator, I have heard a lot of good things about that product. I posted this forum about 5 months ago, so things have changed, and I have had some time to play around with things. I have recently started using Seminole Wellness products, are you familiar with it? It is a low starch, low sugar herbal feed/supplement.  She has done amazing on this product. I now feed her the following;

Pro force

Seminole Herbal blend

Race Horse Oats steamed/crimped.

mineral salt.

I am amazed at what this has done for her. She is ridiculously shiny, happy to work, and has the energy of a locomotive ;)

also, her pastures are long (Some are 1-2 feet high!)  also very mixed with weeds and herbs, but now I am really trying to only let her graze in early mornings and nights. I know that the sunshine in the mornings are the worst, making the grass really sugary and bad. your assumption does not sound wrong, I was just about to add, especially for a QH she sure has a "tucked in" belly/hindquarters. 

I am still so surprised at how much she doesn't look like a QH though.  She really looks like a fit thoroughbred. I don't feed her oil anymore, but i do wish i had availability to flax seed. I know the wonders it can do!

Also, I live right by Tryon ( Holding the WEG next year!) so alfalfa is no more.  There is none here, and if you do find it, it is mixed, low quality, and $17 a bale. We have some of the best alfalfa come in, but everyone pre-orders it and takes it ALL. no one can bring enough in.

:( the cubes are expensive, but maybe I should to give it a try. I never feed her  1st cut hay, only 2nd and 3rd.   I don't feed much oats, she gets about 2-3 measuring cups per day.

Also, Pro Force and Seminole are somewhat to mostly beet-pulp based. i wonder if i should give pure shredded beet-pulp a try?  I was just thinking that if she already eats it, it wouldn't make much of a difference, but who knows. 

what i just can't figure out is why she only looks skinny in the rib area, everywhere else looks perfect. I honestly like my horses with a slight bit of rib ((only 2-3) showing during exercise,  (horses aren't met to be potatoes!) but when she is just chilling in the pasture, you will sometimes get a pretty good glimpse.  I need to research selenium, and see how much is in her feed, something i didn't think about, thank you!  I have some organic low sugar vanilla yogurt in the fridge, I will see if she likes it! I wonder if dried probiotics would expose the same results?

I will update back in a few weeks, We will see where we are from there. 

have a good rest of the night, and thanks for everything

Emma

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