[CANDYGIRL]

To my friends in America. When I read your posts on feeding, I hear alot of mention of feeding grain. Would you explain to me what you mean by grain. Do you use complete mixes, or straight grain or corn like oats?

[belle4]

I think that when Americans refer to grain its generic. For example, I feed a mixture of oat pellets and cracked corn. When my sister and I are doing chores in the morning I will ask her, "did you grain Reno yet?" When we lived in Louisiana, they fed a Strategy like feed. Again, someone would say, "You throw hay and I will grain." It's just a catch all phrase for feed that gets put in a bucket or feeder--not hay.

[spyro1]

way funny, I never really thought of it until Candygirl brought it up, but yeah, I feed pellets to my Spy and katie Pony gets her Equine Senior, both *grains*, but different type of *feed*..(they are thinking over there, Crazy Americans)LOL What do you guys call your feed over there??

[QHGirl]

Yep... Just picked up grain today.... Well Pelleted feed, so not grain. So funny never thought of that before!

Crazy Americans!!!

"Did you grain them yet?" That is a great phrase we use....

Any one else???

[Petie]

Our grain is Omelene so it actually IS a grain. I would like to know what you Brits say for grain. Horse mix, or something like that isn't it?

[Jumpers]

We "grain" our horses daily with a mixture of Strategy brand pepared mix, rolled oats, rolled barley, and then top-dressed with Weight Builder powdered fat supplement and PowerPunch nutritional supplement. Our horses also eat 3rd crop alfalfa hay.

They've been fed like this their entire lives and we never have diarehea, founder, etc. as some people might think.

We do this to maintain healthy weight and coats. Of course we have Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods who are MUCH harder to keep than ponies like your Picollo. Most Quarter horses, grade horses, Arabs, etc. are easy keepers and exist beautifully on just hay/pasture and possibly a few oats or something.

But.....that's one of the downsides to riding hot Sporthores. They require much more feed and a more of a variety to stay healthy.

Here's an example of what our coats look like: The first pic was in the fall when the temps were dropping at night, trees were just dying, we were already feeding hay because pasture died, etc. and the second picture was in December of this year. (We're in Wisconsin - COLD)

[Catapultcomformation]

that isnt the same horse is it the white markings look different? yeah we feed our horses a sweetfeed pellet mix with something else that I dont know biut it has some grain in it

[Jumpers]

Nope - different horse. One is Twos and one is Echo

[CANDYGIRL]

Thanks for all the responses When I hear you talk grain, I don't think crazy Americans Over in UK we use the terms 'have you fed them' meaning their bucket feed.

What I would consider as grain, is each type of grain seperately, like oats, barley, flake maize, bran.

There are so many ready prepared feeds on the market over here, and I wondered if it was the same for you guys. A few examples, Baileys do a range of feeds, ready mixed, containing all types of grains for different types, and disciplines, like conditioning mix, competition mix, pony nuts(I think you call these pellets?, correct me if i am wrong). There are so called cool mixes, which contain no oats, to keep ponies from getting what we call too hot(frisky, a handful)Basically these are complete feeds, and need nothing added.

An example of two opposites:

Pic, he gets Dengie Hi Fi Lite, and Speedibeet, both approved for laminitics.

Tony,(Pics companion, Old Arab, retired, 31) is fed what I would call straight grains: Rolled oats, flake maize, bran, barley, and mollassed sugar beet pulp. Mari (His owner), chooses not to feed him a complete mix, but buys each bag seperate, bag of oats, bag of bran, etc. She could feed him a senior mix, there are loads to choose from, Spillers do one called 16 plus, made to the needs of the older horse.

Do you get complete mixes and nuts(pellets)? I am still a little confussed, apart from Jumpers reply.

[Blistering Winds]

I think "grains" refer to the concentrates we feed. Doesn't matter what it is, it's just the "other stuff" we feed besides hay.

I "grain" with a sweet feed, Horse and Mule mix. Only thing my horse does good on. He use to eat the pellets from Tractor supply ok, but he's never looked as good on anything else, including the $$$$$ Feed.

He eats it, he looks good, I'm happy cause it isn't eating my pocket book to death.