Can Anyone HELP with a Menu???

[mocacino]

hi,
i have newly aquired a pale pally Qh/StockHorse, nearly 5.. his name is Dizzy, his story is the lady i bought him off got him sight-unseen and when he got off the truck, she pretty much had to bush him so he would stack on the weight, so thats what she did..  he is healthy, very fresh, but no real build to him, so im basically going to retrain him, build a bit of a topline with feed and lunging with the running reins so he builds some neck and back muscle..... my experience is i did jillarooing on a cattle station and built everything off a sensational horseman would teach me...
ive been reading about what to feed and have an idea, however im stuck with a choice i know not a lot about
i want a high fibre, protein, not really processed feed for this fella, but still not a feed that will make him hot, as he is not confident in himself and i fear hot feed with just make him a little bit more jumpier.... however he is very willing to please and very attentive... ahhh i could type forever about him but yes, that is my situation...

my ideas are:
Lots of Lucerne hay - as in 2 biscuits at the most or a big one,
not alot of; in a bucket :
Toss up between Copra meal, soybean hulls, rice bran maybe (dont know how processed that is)
some form of a pellet or biscuit ... any suggestions??
vegetable oil- a good cup (cheap and fatty!)
Supplements



Thank you so much for any advice on what i should do ... xox

[strewth]

Rice bran is high in oil content but I have found a lot of horses dont like it.  I would go with the soya bean hulls and copra with a good quality pellet.

[mocacino]

okay cool, good to know, thanks

[JM80]

I wish I knew enough to help you out... I have been lucky enough to have always owned good doers who live on grass 

However, I did have to feed my boy up a bit over the last dry season.. then I fed him Weightlifter and chaff..

[skyla]

I would ditch the lucerne, its a heating feed. Grassy hay is better. I would recommend speedi beet.  Very happy with the results of that.

[Elululu]

I fed my rescue mare a mix of weight lifter, copra, and millrun twice a day with 2nd grade lucerne within 2 months she had gone from a body score of 1 to at least a 3.5. Weight lifter is $$$$ but well worth it. I have now learnt to make my own.

1/2 - 1 cup sunflower seeds
2 dippers Mix of chaffs (lucerne, barley, oaten)
1 dipper millrun or rice pollard
1 dipper copra

I dont use pellets on mine, attempted the calm performer....horse not so calm 
I have also used Bio Mare with some success too 

I also added apples, carrots, whole cooked and mashed pumpkin to their mixes too and they are fat now. I agree that Speedibeet is great and economical too. Now that mine are in good cond. they get Speedibeet, millrun and copra in the morn with a biscuit of 2nd grade lucerne and a big biscuit at night. They keep their weight on well 
Hope this helps

[mocacino]

yeah i was reading other posts and pumpkin is up there too, so random,  i forgot to add what type of chaff so thanks heaps for that, ive written it all down, thanks guys, really appreciate, going to start the buying of the feeds tomoro.. should be fun on the bank account  :

[Seamist]

If it were me..

I would stick with the lucerne... I have never found lucerne to be heating and I have Arabs that ping when fed heating feeds.
I would use Full Fat soya meal... it has the fats that are needed and it also contain amino acid lysine which is essential to building muscle.
If  you don't want to feed a pellet but whant to mix up your own then go with
Barley and lupines, both are great for condition a horse and they are non heating. I have had good results from both.
If your feeding lucerne hay then I would use a cereal "white" chaff or even a triple blend if you concerned about not getting enough out nutrient out of it... the amount of oat heads in the triple blend is nothing and won't heat your horse up. I feed my Arabs on triple blend and they are fine on it...and they totally ping when fed oats, so that tells you how much oats is there.

I mix up my own feeds like that... it is a bit hard on the bank balance when you first go out and buy all the bags of what you need but when you go to replace bags as they run out at different times it then staggers the cost over the month, it is also much cheaper in the long run than buying premixed or pelleted feeds.

[AppleJack]

i second the barley -natural, non heating and will bulk him up in no time