Feeding for feet

[Loulou]

I have read with interest posts about barefoot horses and the problems associated with them and have posted myself about my own BF horse who has been having a few problems.

Many replies to these posts talk about dietary changes and I am interested in general about feeding to benefit the feet.

What are the things that one should be feeding in a normal day to day diet to ensure that the feet keep good condition? I am interested in the prevention is better than cure route.

Gail

[debbiec]

Well you basically can't get healthy feet without having a healthy horse, so you don't need to concentrate on 'what's good for the feet' as such. Off the shelf products can be difficult to recommend as it's a case of find what suits your particular environment. Often problems in nutritional balance can be that your horse is getting too much of something rather than too little. That can be a bit more difficult to sort out as it's most likely to be the grass that has too much of that thing.

Top Spec balancer or anti-lam (even if he's not a laminitic) tend to get good results as does baileys lo-cal. I don't think i've seen any other feeds where I'm impressed with the results. My top recomendation is to get your grass tested and/or get professional nutritional advice.

There are some pretty big problems with feeds as I see it. Firstly feed compaines don't have to state what's in a feed. Secondly there hasn't been nearly enough research into what the RDA's are for horses. Alot of the figures have been arrived at by extrapolation so it can be a little hit and miss.

What you really need is something that suits your environment and that might take a little bit of trial and error.

Debs

[Loulou]

Thanks for that Debs. Unfortunately I live in SW France and it is very difficult to get a lot of the feed stuffs and what you can get is mega espensive. Here they sell very low quality nuts or mi*es or just straights. It is near impossible without driving 50 miles to just buy rolled barley.

Gail

[debbiec]

Ah in that case a good quality suppliment in some chaff or nuts should help. You can soak the nuts and they expand quite a bit. That way you don't have to feed as many nuts and they take up the suppliment much better. You can contact the feed companies directly and ask for the COMPLETE nutritional breakdown. I'd pick a company who are helpful rather than one who gives you the run around.

[phoenix]

Hi Gail - I live in Normandie and have much the same problem regarding feed. Thankfully, we have very good grass - too good, really :-) I do make sure mine have access to a good quality, sugar free, mineral bloc, tho. Destrier do a good one in a bucket, similar to the ones the farmers use for the cows. It's huge and not that pricey - about 22 euros - and you just leave it out in the field for them to lick as they want. I get mine from the local farm supply merchant, Gamm Vert. They will always order things in for you if they don't already have them in stock, so it's worth asking. Destrier seem to be the main horse feed company in France from what I can tell. Hope that's some help.

[mcinallyk]

Have you tried ordering your feed online if it costs so much in France? I buy a lot of my stuff online. It also helps with determining which feed to give, as it describes everything the feed will do. Try the Baileys website, they helped me out a lot! I am sure they deliver to other countries as well. I hope this has helped!

www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk

[gillmcg]

You have to go back to basics to survive over here really! Before I moved over from the UK I changed to a lucerne/sugar beet/hay diet and the only branded feed/supplement I used was Total Eclipse (linseed/seaweed/brewer's yeast) from Simple Systems which I can have delivered to the UK for my OH to bring back as he's still working in the UK predominantly. I get grass nuts too but that's a bit of a treat really and not necessary.... I decided that the TB needed something else this winter - their grazing is really restricted and I wasn't convinced he was having all the vits and minerals he needed from this year's poor quality hay. I decided to start him on orge aplatie (crushed barley) and some Top Spec feed balancer (on top of the basic sugar beet and luzerne feed) when the Total Eclipse ran out - he's really keeping his weight on and looks great. Their feet are looking good too (my other horse is an arab cross). As said above, get the feed right for their overall health and the feet follow - unless there are feet-specific problems e.g. laminitis, bad trimming, no turnout, 24 hour turnout in mud so their feet don't ever get dry etc.... I've definitely found that with restricted grazing the TBs feet have improved enormously - the two of them are only on a paddock of about an acre for the winter (trashed!) but have ad lib hay.

PS meant to say that Wendy (who posts on here ordinarily but is having a little break to get some 'proper' work done I believe!) can get Top Spec products and she's about half an hour west-ish of Toulouse I think.