I’ve had loads of questions about my routine, which also includes my feed. I’ll be honest, it’s something I’m consistently trying to improve and tweak better.
I wanted to do a quick write up about my daily overview with our feed to give you a bit of an insight to my day in the stables, I’m happily admitting to you that I will be doing a blog about our feeding routine soon! Because that sounds like too much fun to do!
The Morning Run
Usually between 6:30-7am all horses who are stabled and paddocked at night are fed hay for breakfast.
The happy horses enjoy their breakfast for about 30 minutes then are turned out to their day paddocks. Those who are paddocked full time are waved goodbye for the day wishing they continue to make the right life choices- ha ha!
While the horses who are stabled are enjoying their morning feed, their stables are cleaned, their rugs are changed to the appropriate weather for the day.
It’s funny, I used to enjoy getting up super early to ride before work, but now I’m finding myself getting into a better routine by turning them out into the paddocks earlier and working in the afternoon.
Probably the most important part of my routine is the cleaning in the morning, having all the stables cleaned, tidying up the feed room, tack room and general stable area. Making sure all the waters are full in the paddocks and stables and any fresh bedding put into the stables if needed. This mentally lets me fly into the afternoon run much better when everything is done in the morning.
I’ll admit it’s something I’m trying to get better at, as some days when I finish work, I don’t really feel like gathering up the energy to ride. But its mind over matter and I get it done!
The Afternoon Run
The afternoon rolls around and it’s time for the afternoon feeds, this is all their hard feeds.
The horses who are paddocked during the day are bought in around 3-3:30pm, this saves them from running around and causing too much trouble in those afternoons hoons. You know the ones that make your heart stop for a second!
At the moment I’m only working one horse, so lucky Bert is groomed, geared up and is worked in the afternoon. It usually takes me around 20-30 minutes before my ride to get him ready, then usually riding around 30-45 minutes pending on what I’m working on that day. Then about 20 minutes after our ride to finish up, untacking, stretching, hosing, oiling feet and other treatments needed.
Bert is then tucked away with his dinner and a hay bag to munch on afterwards. Our stabled horses usually have some hay to munch on at night, this is either left over breakfast (if they were given an extremely large amount that morning) or a small amount given to them. Pending on how the grass is during that time of year also helps on how much they get during the night. We are lucky in terms of grass being in the valley and we can get a little too much feed on the paddocks!
What the dinners are made of
Usually our hard feeds consist of a mixture of lucerne and oaten chaff with a few added feeds and additives.
Hygain
We feed a lot of Hygain, 99% of the horses are fed TruCare. I absolutely love this feed; all our retired horses look amazing on it!
Some of our stabled horses are fed: Hygain Show Torque, Hygain Release and Hygain Balance.
KER
EquiShure – Bert is currently on Equishure for his gut health. It’s probably the one gut health product I’m completely satisfied with. I also use from time to time when needed, B-Quiet, Restore, Hemabuild and preserve.
CEN
Most if not all our horses are fed CEN OIL. We’ve had a few horses in the paddocks who have suffered the itch, so we made compulsory that they all get CEN OIL to help avoid any sort of itching! I can say it’s amazing, I can actually have rugs off these horses who have suffered the itch in the past.
I hope you enjoyed having a little read on my insights on my daily routine. Stay tuned for my training and feeding routines, think I’m finally getting the courage to put these into a fun vlog 😉
