Have a few questions about oats and feeding them to my horses.  I have fed crimped/rolled oats for a while to my horses for a lot of reasons.  Biggest reason is habit, then because they are easy to get and thirdly the horses seem to really like them.  I feed a combination of 12% sweet feed, some beet pulp with a lot of water and some vegetable oil mixed in and a little bit of rice bran.  I put the oats on the bottom, then some sweet feed, a little bit of rice bran and then slop the soaked beet pulp/oil in on top.  I top dress with a little more sweet feed and then feed.  Every single time, the horses will dig down through all the other stuff to get to the oats.  I would have thought they would go for the sweet feed before anything else?  Comments and opinions are welcome.

Happy trails.

Because oats are yummy!

I feed oat hay and orchard grass/alfalfa mix,they eat all the oat hay first.

Oats are yummy and so are the oat pellets.....we feed the alfa-oat pellets which is an extruded feed made from oats, oat by products, alfalfa with a mineral pak added, then extruded.  The horses love this stuff.  At $9 per 100# beats the heck out of oats at $17+ per 100, and with no loss of nutrients or feed value.  Our young stallion and a 2 yo gelding (working hard) are  getting Omolene 200 in addition to the oat pellets.  (And hay and pasture)

Jack, for what you are doing, you might be better off time and money wise going to the Omolene products.  We did some figuring with the cost of the stuff we were adding, and the Omolene 200 came out to be slightly better value and we know that the animal is getting the same nutrition from day to day (so long as it eats everything which all of ours seem to do, I think they are all part Beagle).

Habits are hard to break. I buy feed from 2 different sources right now.  I buy Blue Seal products from a more upscale dealer that carries a lot of horsey supplies; shoes, nails, wormers, ointments and fly spray. The other source is an "old" family owned feed mill that I like to buy from for price, convenience, some advice, some opinions, current neighborhood news, weather forecasts and so on.  I'll have to look over some recent receipts and see what I'm paying for a 50# bag of oats and do some comparing. 

I'll check into the Omolene and see where it is offered here locally.  I'm always in favor of cutting costs and saving time as long as it's a bargain all the way across the board.

Happy trails.

I checked the receipts for oats and I was sort of surprised to see that was only paying $11.50/#100 for rolled/crimped oats.  I'll admit I have to pour them out of the bag into a large trashcan so that I can check to make sure it's just oats.  Once in a while I find some stuff that wouldn't really hurt the horse, but I don't want them eating it; stalks, blooms and buds. I guess that's the advantage of dealing with a family owned business and having things done the same way for the last 80 years or so.  haha

Happy trails.

Oats are nice for easy keepers but they really are only a source of protien.They will not help with hard keepers much.They do not have much fat at all.For all the mixing you are doing.....why not just buy a really good feed with higher fat?Then you wouldn't have to mix all this different stuff.I have not found corn oil to keep weight much.It does a good job on the coat.When you look at those feed bags....concentrate on the protien level and fat content.If your horses are not in moderate to heavy work they only need 10% protien...and for those easy keepers they would not need much grain at all ,and for the hard keepers get a 10% fat content.I have worked at many different barns with top notch horses and have found this to be the best way to keep hard keepers.I pay about $8 a bag and a bag right now in the winter last my 3 gals a week or so.That is feeding 2 times a day.

Derrick...I haven't had a real good relationship with the Madison Co coop;  and the Omolene is always fresh and consistent and I can always get it no matter where we are;  not so with coop. 

Jack...What a deal on oats!  Good for you! 

Right now we are very happy with the alfa-oat pellets and Omolene 200;  however, I really like feeding oats, the horses love them, what comes thru in the poop turns into green oat grass.  Happy trails.

Casey, if you watched me feed one evening, it would probably surprise you how little time it takes to feed all the stuff I'm feeding the way I have everything set up in the barn.  Denise looks at me and just shakes her head trying to figure out how I figured it out. 

I'm not feeding any corn oil, just the cheapest veggie oil I can find at Sam's Club.

I'll start concentrating on finding some 10% fat content feed.  Is your barn locked? Just kidding!

Happy trails.

hounddog, maybe I'm being a little too viligent with my care and feeding.  Could be the influence of my wife who has a phobia of being accused of having skinny horses.

Of the 4 horses we have right now, they are quite a mix; 21 yr. old arab gelding, 16 yr. old arab/quarterhorse mare, 5 yr. old 3/4 arab 1/4 quarterhorse and a 5 yr. old percheron/quarterhorse gelding.  They all seem to have different nutrional needs (in my opinion). I have always been intent on having all of them a little heavy going into winter, but I wasn't able to do that this year, so I'm playing a little catch up with all 4 right now.  When I walk in the barn, I like to see really well rounded rumps and smooth shoulders.  I'm not seeing that right now and I have to admit that I'm more than bothered by it. 

In years past, I could throw a bale of decent hay, some decent quality bulk mill feed, clean water and sleep good at night.  I'm not at that point right now and working really hard to get there again.  My 21 yr. old gelding, 5 yr. old mare and 5 yr. old cross bred gelding are not carrying enough weight right now and I'm feeding more than I ever have in any past winter.

Someone has suggesting treating for tape worms and since I've done everything else I can think of, that will be the next thing I do.

Thanks for the comments, suggestions and opinions.

Happy trails.

monsterhorse, thank you for the info on worming.  I have heard that some where in the past, can't remember when/where. 

I'm going to do the tape worm treatment on my 5 yr. old mare first to see if I get any positive results.

After that, I'm going to try the extended wormer and see if I can get the same results you did.  I KNOW there is something going on with my guys and I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet.  With all the help I'm getting from you and everyone else, I know I'll get to the bottom of this and have to start worrying about them being too fat.

I know when my guys are doing really good and I know when something is wrong and my barn is not in order right now. 

Thanks again and happy trails.

The worms you are refering to are called "encysted Strongyle Vulgaris" .  In the 3rd and 4th stages of the larvae's migration they may burrow into the walls of the intestine and remain dormant until conditions are favorable for them to mature and continue their life cycle.  When they become "encysted" they do not show up on a fecal count and are not effected by any regular worming rotation or the daily pelleted wormer.

The only way to kill them while in this stage is to use a "power pack" dewormer.  Both Safeguard and Panacur have their wormer package this way just for this purpose.  The Safeguard actually has 10 reg. size tubes of wormer (2 per day) at around $56.00 and the Panacur has 5 larger tubes (one per day) for the same price.  The Panacur is easier I think because you only have to shoot them up once a day.

One tube of Safeguard a day for this purpose only treats a 550 lb horse....that is right on the box.

This mega dose of wormer will not harm a horse as long as you follow the directions on the package and it will wipe out these nasty, nasty buggers from your horse.....pasture rotation is important too and they migrate through the manure as other larvae do. 

Do not use regular wormers for this purpose !!  Panacur and Safeguard power packs are both sold in most catalogs.  I get mine at American Livestock Supply Inc.......they are the cheapest.

If you use a "daily wormer" check with your vet before doing this.

Beth, thanks so much for taking the time to post all this information!  I really appreicate all the research you did and the way you have presented it as well.  I'm headed out to the feed store this afternoon and will get the wormers for my guys.  I'll make sure not to get things crossed up with heavy dosing all of them and tape worming my 5 yr. old mare.  It sounds to me like you are right on track with helping me get my barn back in order.

thanks again and happy trails.

 I use "combocare" when I suspect tapeworms, its moxidectin and praziquantel.

The box says it will also get encysted cyathostomes.  Have never used the powerpak thing. 

Sometimes I will get on a kick of adding stuff, part of that is due to my enjoyment of mixing things together...think I am a thwarted mad chemist.  who knows...........

I just got back from the feed store and was told that a power pack wormer will sometimes take care of tape worms too.  Not everytime, but sometimes.

I'm going to do the power pack wormer on the 21 yr. old gelding and the 5 yr. old mare. If I get good results on both, then problem solved. If the gelding gets better and mare doesn't, then the mare might still have a tape worm.

We'll see what happens and I'll keep everyone updated on what's going on.

Happy trails.