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Regular
Posts: 60
| What are you feeding besides good quality hay? Which vitamin and mineral supplements are you using? Are you feeding Renew Gold or another similar product? How long have you been feeding this way? Are you feeding alfalfa also? Hay, pellets, or cubes? Can you post pictures please of before and after if you by chance have them? Thanks |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
   
| My two broodies get about 5 pounds of Legends Performance a day, and the rest get a handful for their vitamin supplement and squirt of soy oil daily. I use the Purina loose vitamin/mineral supplement. They get a 5 pound flake of western alfalfa plus three or four flakes of a nice timothy mix hay. While not obese - they are all in great flesh. Not a visible rib in the bunch. Even my hard keeper crazy broodmare is fat this year!
Part of what I like about this feed strategy is that I could feed 5 pounds of grain all at once and they'd snarf that in what, 3 to 5 minutes? But that 5 pound flake of alfalfa takes almost an hour to eat. And I know the assimilation rate of the forage over grain is ever so much better. Obviously, since I'm actually feeding less total pounds now with better results than I did when I fed with grain products. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I have been grain free for about 4 years, had issues with colic and ulcers. I feed renew gold for fat, 707 essential vitamins and minerals- put in soaked beet pulp for a little volume plus I like the fiber and mositure, alfalfa (hay) for protein, they have 80 acres to graze. I could not find a before but here is one of my guys- I took this just the other day.
Little man
Here are 2 more, the black one is old and retired, the sorrel was suppose to be on stall rest  00:25
Edited by rodeomom3 2014-10-09 8:40 PM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 920
| I have 2 off grain and 2 on grain. The older horse(25) gets eq sr. active. The harder keeper barrel horse gets(14) gets healthy edge. the other 2 grain free fat as ticks. They get pasture(crappy 24/7) and I put out mineral/salt licks. the two who get it get a small sandclear bucket in the evenings. They also get feed hay once a day when we have the grass and twice when it dies or gets ate up. Right now we have rounds out. Normally feed alf/orchard grass squares or pure alf. also feed forco to them and they look better on it. I would like something to feed them all and go grain free. Any suggestions? |
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Regular
Posts: 60
| I'm in same boat. Want to go without grain and more basic. Had a bad colic scare few months back and been researching it a lot more since then. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 920
| MIne got into the chicken feed yesterday...well two did....i have most of a 5 gal bucket gone but hes doing good so hope we're in the clear. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 490
| Im one that wants to cut out grains completely but Im scared to.... I feed chaff haye, forco, acv and diatamaceous earth along with a 12/6 pellet. They are out 24/7 and in the winter get really nice horse quality rounds. I keep free choice minerals out for the herd 24/7. What can I do for added fat? The chaffhaye is alfalfa so theyll get their protein. The forco and ACV keeps the gut happy. Would beet pulp add anything?
HELP!!!! |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | I've been grain free for the most part for years. I however have access to top quality hay. It is 80% orchard grass 20% alfalfa it runs 15-18% protein. I feed a free choice mineral that balances it. The best investement I ever made was buying a hay probe so I could test my hay and only feed what I need. If I do need grain my go to is renew gold and whole oats or an organic home mix that costs about the same as renew gold.
I have less colic problems and no ulcer problems.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | Bluebonnet Feed's Stride Supplement has a great vit/min option one even comes with digestive support. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| I feed a medium quality hay because of the ongoing drought here, 3 are on max e glow, 1 is on renew gold, all are on alfalfa/timothy or alfalfa/oat cubes, grostrong vit/mineral and flaxseed. They look great, shiny and fat. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1034
| I've been feeding Renew Gold for about two years. I'd love to give you some before/after pics but I can't figure out how to do it (I have iPhone, iPad and a Mac mini if anyone wants to give me some pointers).
I've not had a single bout of colic this entire time, not even the 21 year old and a previously colic prone 18 year old.
I asked my vet if I need to add a vitamin supplement for the elderly, pregnant, and young in training. He said no. Between the good quality alfalfa, renew, mineral blocks, and clean fresh water they had all they needed and describes all their condition as 'excellent'.
I've also noticed we use less hay per feeding. Always a bonus when it's $20/bale.
Their attitudes have all seen great improvement across the board. My mare quit running her teeth across the rails, which was a super annoying nervous habit. |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | I made the choice to go grain free when my gelding tied up on me on his first overnight trip away from home. Could have been a number of factors, but I know his grain was a big one. This was at the first of August.
I started feeding Renew Gold in the middle of August. My brown (but should be black) gelding got jet black in about two weeks. I really believe that the RG has helped calm his always nervous mind. He was more pleasurable to ride and be around (not that he's a looney, just always on high alert). I was feeding Timothy and Alfalfa flakes in a ratio of about 3:1 He gets one scoop of Biotin added into this his feed in the AM and in the PM I soak about two large handfuls worth of Alfalfa/Timothy cubes just to mix his PM feed in with because I add one scoop of his THE MM blend and one scoop of MSM to his nightly feed. The MM and MSM aren't in pellet form and he will pick around them, so I soak the cubes (or some nights it's pellets) just to get everything mixed together.
He is now on stall rest for the rest of the year and my TSC can't seem to keep Timothy bales in stock so I was having to feed an Alfalfa/Grass mixture bale and it was wayy too much protein for him on stall rest, so we now are on some native grass hay bales that's about 7.5-8.5% protein. If he starts going downhill (looks wise) on me then I know it's the change in hay.
I also feed it to a gelding that I'm bringing out of retirement. He's overweight and doesn't need the added fat, but I give him about a handful in the AM & PM to give him biotin and MSM....and mostly just so he doesn't feel left out when I feed the other horse!
I will try to get some pictures of him up in a bit.
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | HorseMommyFiveO - 2014-10-10 9:52 AM I've been feeding Renew Gold for about two years. I'd love to give you some before/after pics but I can't figure out how to do it (I have iPhone, iPad and a Mac mini if anyone wants to give me some pointers). I've not had a single bout of colic this entire time, not even the 21 year old and a previously colic prone 18 year old. I asked my vet if I need to add a vitamin supplement for the elderly, pregnant, and young in training. He said no. Between the good quality alfalfa, renew, mineral blocks, and clean fresh water they had all they needed and describes all their condition as 'excellent'. I've also noticed we use less hay per feeding. Always a bonus when it's $20/bale. Their attitudes have all seen great improvement across the board. My mare quit running her teeth across the rails, which was a super annoying nervous habit.
Download the Photobucket app and create an account. You can then upload the pictures from your devices and it will give you a URL you can copy & paste on here and you'll have pictures! |
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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| I feed renew gold , beet pulp in the mornings and oats and alfalfa pellets in the evening. At first I was worried about some weight loss but ive started noticing how good they are looking ... very fit looking and are running great. The biggest thing I noticed since taking them off commercial feed is that at feeding time they are no longer trying to kill eachother and no more making ugly faces at oneanother. It use to be really bad in the barn at feeding time! Now they just wait patiently while im mixing up their feed. I add a vit/min mix into their feed too. DAC Orange Superior for one and THE MM for the other two. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 164
| Grass hay, flake of alfalfa a day per horse, a few handfuls of sweet feed 2x a day for the scoop of platinum performance to stick to. basically grain free. Using it as a treat/for the powdered supplement to stick to |
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