Ad Lib Feeding Horses with Bad Teeth, Elderly Horses and Hard Doer Rescue Horses. Caution ⚠️

You need to introduce ad lib feeding with caution ⚠️ Do not do this when horses are left unsupervised, there’ new people living with the horses and they need to be gradually worked up to this to ensure they do not colic. It’s to ensure there’s always fresh water. This may not be suitable for all horses

Set up a new feeder system for the horses: Will Arthur the rescue horse finish putting on weight???
So the horses are getting ad lib coconut meal aka copra with a mixture of oaten and lucerne chaff (lucerne is also known as alfalfa). It gets wet down. They also get soy bean meal.
The wet chaff can be easily swallowed and digested, the copra and soybean meal do not need chewing.
There's not much point using hay in this set up, as the hay is in chaff form, finely chopped and there's plenty of pasture.

I'm trialling with a whole bag of chaff and a bag of copra at a time. Will see how long it lasts with three horses that need hard feeding. They come and go from it. I've used ad lib feeding with all three of them. It's something you need to introduce gradually and be sure they won't just keep eating and colic.

I've worked with rescue horses for some time now and have substantial experience with getting them to healthy weight. I haven't been able to get Arthur to a healthy weight - he's come close, but will not round off and still has the bone showing in his rump and just needs more weight. So I've been trialling many things. The best results were when he had access to as lib hard feed and forage. I've also decided to substitute hay with chaff. The other two horses he is paddocked with do not require such specialised care, but at the same time, it will be of benefit to them. I need to monitor their weight to make sure they do not gain too much.

Henry helps me feed the horses!

Next video Review of ad lib feeding for horses with bad teeth, suitable for elderly and hard doers. Caution ⚠️ https://youtu.be/2Gc4K-OLd-I

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