This message is from: "Bonnie Liermann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello list: I wanted to respond to the post about the problem of feeding enough vitamins and minerals and not give your horse too much grain. I believe feeding the proper vitamins and minerals is so important, but I don't want to feed as much grain as they say you need - my horses don't need much if any grain. But you have to give them the supplements they need. You can do a couple of different things. One, buy a complete vit/Min processed grain such as Strategy. This is expensive. Or, you could have a special grain mix made up telling the feed mill you only want to feed 1 lb. of grain. They will figure out how much mineral you need to get all the horse needs in that small amount of grain. Of course, they will fight you on this -- they want to sell more stuff. The problem with this mix is that you will need to add liquid molassas in order to keep the dust down. It will seem dusty because of all the extra mineral. Also, you may not like the quality of the stuff because when a feed mill sells you corn, they have already sold all their "heavy weight" grain down the road to big feed companies that use it in their feed. What is left is the lighter, powdery corn which is what they make cow feed from. Most people think a mix from this grain is inferior. And don't forget, people who work on commission will tell you ANYTHING in order to get you to use their stuff. This method is much cheaper than other methods but you have to stand your ground against the feed mill and you might not like the quality. Another thing you can do is buy their pre-mixed horse sweet feed (that has all kinds of stuff you don't really need but makes it more expensive) and tell them you are only going to feed 1 lb. of it and ask them how much more mineral you will have to add so that you get what you need. Then just add that mineral to the top. You can sprinkle alittle water on top so it sticks together. My horses don't care at all about the extra mineral and they eat it all. Again, I don't believe we can expect our horses to consume only grassy hay and get all they need to stay healthy. They have to have a balance of vitamins and mineral for their bodies to function well. I do not believe in mineral blocks. No horse is going to lick a block to get all that they need. I think it is hard enough to feed a Fjord the small amount of grassy hay they need and then expect them to get everything they need out of it. okay, I will climb down from my soapbox now. . . bonnie in WI - a lovely fall day.
