Barn Feeding Help

[Blueroanie]

I just bought my first barn and am having trouble feeding my horses what they need in fiber/protein/sugar without exceeding their max feed. I am raising thoroughbreds and one forest mare. I was able to find a stable diet for the forest horse in the barn but the TBs I had to move to the pasture where I knew how to feed them properly. Am I doing something incorrectly when trying to feed them in the barn? No matter what combination I tried for the feed, anything that worked always exceeded their max feed amount.

[KayaineII]

I just bought my first barn and am having trouble feeding my horses what they need in fiber/protein/sugar without exceeding their max feed. I am raising thoroughbreds and one forest mare. I was able to find a stable diet for the forest horse in the barn but the TBs I had to move to the pasture where I knew how to feed them properly. Am I doing something incorrectly when trying to feed them in the barn? No matter what combination I tried for the feed, anything that worked always exceeded their max feed amount.

Hi Blue! Sorry for the trouble, but the feeding system is broken right now. I think there is probably going to be some rework on it, so I'm not sure they're fixing bugs there at the moment. For now it doesn't hurt your horses if they aren't fed the right combos. If you're feeding for weight or performance, I've found a 50/50 split between performance and weight gain mix will work for most horses, but you'll still have to play around a bit to find the right mix for each horse.

[Blueroanie]

Oh okay! So what should my goal be when feeding my horses? Just trying to make sure protein and fiber are met, or is fiber the only important one as of right now? Thanks for the help!

[KayaineII]

Oh okay! So what should my goal be when feeding my horses? Just trying to make sure protein and fiber are met, or is fiber the only important one as of right now? Thanks for the help!

Right now, I would just focus on energy and the weight. If you are training a horse for competition, then you want to maintain the correct weight for your chosen competition, which you can find by clicking on the ? on the feeding panel. Then you find the combo of feed that adds to 100% that will let you maintain that weight.

[Sarah J]

Is the feeding system still broken? I too just got my first barn and I am having issues. I put one horse in the barn to start, but no matter how much I feed him, he still loses weight, even though I stopped training him. I have him on 100% each for hay, weight gain mix, oats, and performance mix (400% total), and that still doesn't provide him with enough energy. Am I doing something wrong?

[Scythian]

That seems like even more trouble than I have been experiencing with Shetland Ponies. You're doing the best you can and it just doesn't work ... so,

1) Go to the topic "Bugs and Errors". Read the short informative paragraph in pink -before- you write a report.

2) Use what you have already written here. Adding your horse's profile page ID could be good too. For example, if your horse's ID # is 400000, its URL is:

www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/400000

3) As the pink paragraph says, be sure to provide the "What's My Browser" link as well, because our Admin folks need that. Simply clicking on "What's My Browser" on that page will open a new tab with the information on it. Copy the link, which looks like this:

whatsmybrowser.org/b/[several numerals/letters]

and add it to your message.

Best wishes, and sympathy with this aggravating problem!

[Nate]

In regards to feeding 400% energy...
Broken? No.
Intuitive? Also no.

Here's what's happening. Your horse has a fixed weight of feed he can eat, shown by his "max feed value. The feeds on the left, maximum four, are fed in the order they are shown. Hays tend to be at the top of a given list. If you're feeding 100% hay and 100% alfalfa hay, your horse isn't even touching the lower two feeds you have set for him. He's stuffing himself full of hay which is great for fiber, not great for energy.

I recommend feeding your horse 100% weight gain and however much performance mix you can fit in him. If you have a little space left over to exceed 200% feed, try adding oats or yellow corn. He will increase in weight quickly provided he is at least 2 years old.