“Ten Points to Help you Feed your Horse Better for Less”
About Larissa
– If you would like to know more about Larissa then listen to her previous chats
First Chat (120) Larissa Bilston
Third Chat (413) – Larissa Bilston 3 – “Ten Things Horse Owners Should Know About Calcium, Oxalates And Their Pastures”
Fourth Chat (444) – Larissa Bilston 4 – “Oils In Horse Nutrition – Ten Tips For Getting The Balance Right”
About This Episode
“Ten Points to Help you Feed your Horse Better for Less”
To Listen to Larissa Bilston 2 on YouTube – Click Here
To Listen to Larissa Bilston 2 on iTunes – Click Here
Or Listen below
“Ten Points to Help you Feed your Horse Better for Less”
First we have to know how to feed a horse the optimal diet to meet it’s needs. Then we can look at how do do it as cost-effectively as possible.
1) Know what your horse’s nutritional requirements are
– Nutrient Requirements of Horses from National Research Council website
2) Analyse the current diet so you can work out how to improve it
– Estimate Energy/Calories
– Free analyse diet
3) Feed forage as the basis of your horse’s diet.
– Become knowledgeable about your horse’s roughage
– If viable do a mineral analysis. When there is not enough grass feed grass hay.
– Horses trickle feed through the gut
4) Do you feed chaff? Why? When is chaff worth feeding?
– Drought, Old Horse, Poor Teeth
5) Use hard feeds to add calories and protein but only when necessary.
– Only give feed hard feeds if grass/hay doesn’t keep your horse in good condition (although you will still have to provide salt and some form of mineral balancer pellet or powder in a token feed)
– Bog day, minerals
6) Become an expert at assessing your own horse’s body condition and change hard feeds accordingly.
– Body Condition Scale
7) Providing all the vitamins and minerals your horse needs improves fuel efficiency.
– Save money with vitamin/mineral supplement
8) Live yeast also improves feed use efficiency
– Effective form of pro-biotic
9) Many people are surprised to learn that you DO NOT HAVE TO FEED A PREMIXED FEED! – You can make your own ‘pre-mixed’ feed from only 3 or 4 ingredients – and it is usually cheaper AND better if you use a really well formulated mineral premix. 1-2 calorie sources, 1 vit/min, salt (if not in vit/min) and add omega-3 source when required. And if you ‘mix’ it every day at feed time, you can save on feed costs by reducing hard feed portions whenever grass is rich and horses are gaining weight without having to recalculate optimal supplement amounts to balance the diet with every minor change.
10) Get the base diet correct and you WILL NOT NEED hoof and top-line supplements.
Time Stamps
01:30 – Background
02:30 – Help you Feed your Horse Better for Less”
03:02 – 1) Know what your horse’s nutritional requirements are
06:31 – 2) Analyse the current diet so you can work out how to improve it
08:05 – 3) Feed forage as the basis of your horse’s diet.
12:00 – 4) Do you feed chaff? Why? When is chaff worth feeding?
14:55 – 5) Use hard feeds to add calories and protein but only when necessary.
17:30 – 6) Become an expert at assessing your own horse’s body condition and change hard feeds accordingly
19:55 – 7) Providing all the vitamins and minerals your horse needs improves fuel efficiency.
21:26 – 8) Live yeast also improves feed use efficiency
23:00 – 9) Many people are surprised to learn that you DO NOT HAVE TO FEED A PREMIXED FEED!
27:12 – 10) Get the base diet correct and you WILL NOT NEED hoof and top-line supplements.
28:12 – Summary
Contact: see details below
Larissa’s Contact Details
Phone: 0409 477 404 or +61 409 477 404
Email: larissa@equinevitmin.com or diets@farmalogic.com.au
Website: www.equinevitmin.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EquineVitMin
Book
Music
BenSound.com
When Larissa is a return guest on Horse Chats, what question would you like to ask her?
(Please leave comment below)