Barley in horse feed

[Marsha Cassada]

Does anyone have thoughts about barley in horse feed? I saw a site recently that made me question whether it was neutral/bad/good in horse feed or supplements.

 

[madmax]

I saw a show on pbs once about irish horses and their training for racing. They cooked large vats of barley for a couple of hours or so as part of their feed. They also fed them guiness ! I think it must be cooked.

 

[BSharpRanch]

When we lived in the PNW, we would buy a couple ton of beardless barley hay to feed in the spring. Kind of like oat hay, however the horses would slick off quickly when they had the barley hay added.

I will sometimes get rolled barley if I need the horses to slick off a little quicker, however it doesn't seem like it works as well os the hay.

 

[disneyhorse]

Neutral. Oats, barley, and most grains are neutral to me. Anything in moderation as part of a balanced feed program is my rule of thumb when feeding my horses or my children . If an individual intolerance comes up, then it's time to deal with it.

 

[chandab]

If I could get it around here, I'd go back to 1/2-1/2 rolled oats and barley as my grain. The barn I worked at in college fed it with hay and supplements to the horses and they looked and felt good; and it was simple.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Never fed anything except barley. No advantage to cooking it- I buy it micronised so it is already cooked, but if you put hot water on it it makes a wonderful porridge for a cold day! My feed mix consists of a base of barley, mixed with peas, beans soya (also micronised)and flax (as a top dressing. The barley is three times by volume the amounts of the other ingredients, which are also micronised. Maybe the Irish are feeding "raw" barley, and boiling it used to be a traditional way of releasing all the nutrients the horse cannot utilise form raw grain but with the advent of micronised feeds this is unnecessary.

 

[amysue]

I have a lot of clients feeding their draft and pulling horses the COB program. corn oats and barley rationed individualy for each horse. I know some dislike corn b/c it digests hot, but their reason for feeding it is that they feel it is more beneficial than the additives in processed feeds as well as more consistent. We buy a lot of brewers grain which is all barley for our cows. If it is in horse feed in moderation it can be benificial.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Thanks, everyone. My vitamin supplement has barley as the first ingredient, so I thought I'd ask around. I got off it for a year or so, because it was hard to get, but they are back on it now. I always felt their hooves and coats were best on it. There is so much to know about nutrition...

 

[HGFarm]

On the ranch we fed the horses half rolled barley and half oats during round up when they were being worked hard. They did great and stayed in good shape.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Brewers grains are GREAT I envy you!!

 

[MyMiniGal]

Is Barley a hot feed...not how it is served, but how they act? And how much would you feed to a 31" mini, that is under 200 lbs.?

 

[disneyhorse]

Why are you feeding it? Does your horse need extra calories?

 

[BSharpRanch]

My experience is that it creates heat but none of my horses were " hot" when they were being fed it. I've not fed it recently though, as I generally do not feed grain to my minis.

 

[MyMiniGal]

Ok, thank you. Just was curious. I read pros and cons on it, when I Googled it.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

If you feed pellets of any kind you feed grain, look at the ingredients in the pellets. Barley and oats are very similar in their make up, barley has slightly less fibre content. Otherwise they are of equal use really. I feed barley because we had access to a cheap source and we had a stallion who showed an intolerance to oats, I never changed back.

 

[HGFarm]

The old cowboys used to say barley was a 'toughener' for stamina and oats were to keep the energy level up for horses that were being worked really hard.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

There is actually very little difference between the digestible energy in both- it is the fibre that differs the most. I think you tend to go with what you are most used to.....