Q1. If I am feeding a complete feed, do I need to feed a vitamin and mineral supplement?
Q2. What is the nutritional difference between a cube and a mix?
Q3. My horse is prone to laminitis. What can I feed him?
Q4. My old pony has no teeth and can no longer eat hay. What should I do?
Q5. How much concentrate feed should I be feeding?
Q6. My horse is overweight and lethargic, what can I feed him to liven him up?
Q7. My horse is regularly competing and tends to go off his feed, how can I concentrate his diet?
Q8. I have a horse who is difficult to keep condition on. What would you suggest?
Q9. How can I maintain optimum growth and development in my 6 month old filly?
Q10. My horse gets over excitable if fed a high protein diet. Why?

Q1. If I am feeding a complete feed do I need to feed a vitamin and mineral supplement?
A. The answer is generally no. Saracen Horse Feeds have been formulated so that when fed at the recommended levels, your horse will receive all of his trace elements. If you feed below these levels, then a broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement will be required. Situations that may require additional supplementation are illness or on the advice of your veterinary surgeon.

Q2. What is the nutritional difference between a cube and a mix?
A. Generally very little! Cubes tend to be slightly lower in protein and energy but are usually higher in fibre. This makes them a good alternative for those horses with excitable temperaments or those that are more difficult to keep weight on. Remember that one scoop of cubes weighs more than the same scoop of mix.

Q3. My horse is prone to laminitis. What can I feed him?
A. Firstly seek the advice of your nutritionist or vet for the best way to manage this serious problem. Diets should be high in digestible fibre and low in starch (cereals), and preferably fortified with trace elements. Always feed plenty of good quality long fibre, e.g. hay or oat straw, and NEVER starve a laminitic animal.

Q4. My old pony has no teeth and can no longer eat hay. What should I do?
A. Maintaining his fibre intake is essential. Use forage replacers and high fibre cubes to replace his hay ration, e.g. soaked Super Fibre Pencils, sugar beet and chaff. These need to be mixed together and offered to him in the same weight as his normal hay ration. For example a 300kg pony would eat 5.0kg of hay, therefore his hay replacer should be: 2.5kg Super Fibre Pencils, 2.5kg Chaff and 1.0kg of sugar beet. Adding some Yea-Sacc to his diet will help him to digest the fibre more efficiently.

Q5. How much concentrate feed should I be feeding?
A. This will depend upon many factors including work level, condition etc. Generally a horse will eat 2% of his bodyweight in TOTAL feed, e.g. a 500kg horse will eat 10kg of feed per day. This is then split between concentrates and forage. A typical leisure horse in light work should receive approximately 30% concentrates and 70% forage i.e. 3.0kg concentrate and 7kg forage.

Q6. My horse is overweight and lethargic, what can I feed him to liven him up?
A. If you try to feed him more energy in a bid to liven him up there is a real chance that he will just get fatter, which puts his health at risk. It is far better to try and reduce his weight, which should make him feel more motivated, by putting into place a sensible exercise and feeding regime. Once the excess weight has been lost you should feed small amounts of a high energy feed so that he uses the instant energy for the work that he is doing.

Q7. My horse is regularly competing and tends to go off his feed, how can I concentrate his diet?
A. Adding oil to the diet will provide more energy, while not increasing the actual meal size. Horses digest oil extremely efficiently and the release of energy is slow. This makes it the ideal energy source for those horses that are highly strung or those that require stamina.

Q8. I have a horse who is difficult to keep condition on. What would you suggest?
A. Firstly check that his teeth are OK and that your worming programme is up to date. Choose feeds that are high in digestible fibre and oil to provide the slow release energy that is required for weight gain. Yea-Sacc is also a good addition. Good quality hay or haylage should be provided on an ad-lib basis. Ensure that your horse is adequately rugged as horses can lose up to 80% of their feed energy just trying to keep warm.

Q9. How can I maintain optimum growth and development in my 6 month old filly?
A. It is important not to allow your youngster to get too fat. Regular use of a weigh tape will help you to monitor her condition. You need to pay particular attention to the following: You should be able to feel her ribs until she is at least 18-24 months old. Make sure that she is not depositing excess weight on her neck or hindquarters. If she is a good doer, a nutrient dense diet like Bio-Life 2000 will provide all the trace elements and quality protein required for correct skeletal development. Foals that require slightly more energy would be better suited to a Yearling Mix with plenty of good quality forage.

Q10. My horse gets over excitable if fed a high protein diet. Why?
A. Protein is used for protein synthesis, cell renewal, tissue and muscle repair. Excess protein is broken down and used as an energy source but it is an inefficient process. Generally it is not the protein that is the cause of over exuberance but the digestible energy level (DE). If the DE exceeds what is required for the work being carried out it is more likely that you will find yourself with a horse that is very excitable or a horse that is overweight. It is also worth considering what the digestible energy sources are; carbohydrates produce fast release energy while digestible fibre produces slow release energy.