Feeding your pleasure horse twelve cups of grain a day!

Are you saying the horse is obese? I feed about that per day to a couple of mine.

One of my student's TB gelding was getting NINE (9) quarts of feed TWICE a day, for a total of 18 qts of feed a day (6 qts of sweet feed and 12 qts of Safechoice) at his last home. They had round bales out, but they weren't that great of quality. This guy isn't that hard of a keeper either, and was ridden 2-4 days a week. He's only a bit chunky. I now have him down to 3 qts of feed once a day and better quality round bales, . He's holding his weight well and muscling up nicely.

Then why did you not give us the info in weight and not cups??? What type of cup?? You never defined what you call a cup. You also never said what type of grain the horse is getting. Some feeds are made to feed in more volume then others. Oats would be different then strategy which would be different then Ultium.

I agree with what others have said here...each horse is different, so what works for yours may may not work for hers. If the horse is in a good weight meaning, not too fat, and not too skinny, then 12cups is fine.
I feed my performance horses only 4cups per day (yes a cup as in 8oz) not a lot...just enough to mix their supplements in, and give them a warm mash..they do well with that. Where as my older mare and gelding who do nothing but stand in the pasture except for maybe the odd trail ride or light hack...get 14cups a day (again 8oz cup) but they need the xtra boost to maintain a good weight( one is just a hard keeper, the other just old lol) So again one should treat each horse individually...so to answer your question..IMO 12 cups isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things.
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Really, in the grand scheme of things, why does it matter to you what she feeds her horse or how much?

How many of you out there actually have your hay tested each purchase or if the hay has changed?

If you don't you should. How do you know what you are putting in your horse. In New England they have had some horrible years of hay productino with very very low protein ratios. If you don't balance with a feed than your horse over time isn't getting what it needs as far as minerals and vitamins that would sometimes be contained in the hay.

Most farm supply or feed manufacturers will test if for free to.

I buy round bales, I put them in my barn and I peel them. It's a harder way to feed because it's hard to be exact on how much they get each day, but test my hay before every purchase? I buy a round bale at least once a month, sometimes twice... that would be pretty costly.

Gary that is where the ration balancers come in they are designed off of averages on hay type/pasture type

Alfalfa NORMALLY has good protien numbers but a major Ca:P imblance so the lower % ones are balanced for alfalfa

Grass hay lack amino acids BIG TIME therefore the ration balancers for it are higher in protien.

Also need to watch WHERE your ration balancer is designed. Purina is not balancing for CA and KENT isn't either

The only company I know based in that area is LMF

Ration balancers are fine if you have a base line to work from. If you don't have a clue what your hay is providing you don't have a clue if you need it or how much.

I wouldn't add anything if not needed, your just wasting your money. If you do need it then you should know that also.
I just think far to many people don't look at there hay close enough and just waste money on useless supplements when all they need is a good hay. You'll get more out of paying an extra $.50 a bale then on a bucket of $50.00 supplements.

:roll:

It's called mineral/salt blocks. There are three varities for horses, and a MUCH wiser idea then attempting to supplement with loose minerals or with feed because horses aren't dumb like humans and they know exactly what they need - hence horses who lick dirt, eat manure or chew on wood when they're deficient.

Regardless of what type of hay you have, having mineral blocks out is a more then efficient way to ensure your horse is getting plenty of the right mineral.

Maybe you have the luxery of "choosing" your hay, but we do not. And grain will not give your horse anything that minerals won't - grain is a poison that's been foisted on the world as being the greatest invention of all time and it's slowly killing every animal that digests it because it's a toxic mess that was never intended to be eaten. It's a drug and we're all addicted, hence why we defend it to the end as the all time magnificent food source. Ugh.

Not only do horses in the wild not eat grain, raw grains are TOXIC to them. How much more proof do you need? That's like saying cooked potatoes are ok for horses when we know raw potatoes are toxic to them (also to humans, but again, we're to stupid to avoid the crap that's poisoning us and just blame our indigestion, obesity and depression on society).