Here is a halved recipe of the Old Horse Special Mash, for your convenience:
This is a scaled-down version of Recipe #1, which I developed to put condition on an ancient draft horse. This mix has several steps that are done in separate buckets, and the feed requires soaking from morning to evening or vice versa, but once you get the routine in place, it is easy to prepare.
Ingredients:
2 quarts crushed oats (milled enough to crush hulls) - measured after grinding; could substitute oatmeal (steam-rolled oats) if desired
2 cups steam-rolled barley
2 quarts alfalfa pellets
1 quart beet pulp
1 quart wheat bran
1 cup whole flax seed (measured before grinding), then ground (makes a scant pint)
2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup molasses
1 Tablespoon salt
STEP ONE: Combine the oats and barley with 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar and 2 cups water.
STEP TWO: Combine the alfalfa pellets with 2 cups vegetable oil.
STEP THREE: Combine the beet pulp with 2 cups water.
STEP FOUR: Combine the ground flax, molasses and salt with 1 quart BOILING water. Put a cover on it to hold the heat in. (Easily done using a quart jar, then wrapping it in a towel, and setting the works in a bucket to cool.)
Leave all of these buckets of stuff to soak, then come back that evening or the next morning, depending on when you started, and dump all ingredients from all the buckets into a tub. Add the wheat bran, and mix until everything is well combined.
That's it. After this sits for a while, the mix gets a little drier, and the alfalfa pellets soften up and fall apart, as they soak up the excess moisture in the feed. All of the farm animals surveyed so far have loved this recipe: horses, cows, goats, and even dogs.
This mix should make roughly 7 quarts of finished feed. Feed changes should be made gradually. If starting a new horse on it, I might start with a quart a day, maybe a bit more for a big horse, and increase gradually, if desired. The old Belgian mare for whom it was devised, and who really needed help putting condition on, got about a gallon a day. Rations depend on size of horse, condition of horse, and amount of exercise. My present large draft (1700 lbs) gets no more than 1/2 gallon of mash per day, of Recipe #3, and that is plenty to keep the shine and condition on her. She is already fat and sleek. The smaller draft, 1200 pounds, also gets 1/2 gallon a day, but she needs to gain a little weight and condition at present. I may cut her back to a quart for maintenance, and we often skip a day here and there, depending on work load and schedules.
Mashes have to be used up while they are fresh, so it helps to evaluate your rations and make just enough for one, maybe two days at most. Keep it cool in hot weather, if you can. If it sours, you have to pitch it (or give it to the chickens) and make a fresh batch for the horses.
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Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Conditioning Horse Feed #2 (Simpler than Old-Horse Special Mash)
If you saw the earlier recipe that I posted for the old-horse special mash, you probably noticed that it was a recipe with several steps. While none of those steps was terribly time-consuming in itself, it did require some work, and there are times in the busy life of the farm when something simpler is called for. We will keep the previous recipe in our arsenal and use it as needed, but meanwhile, here is a more streamlined recipe that is getting noticeable results.
We have been using it to put condition on our two other horses, ages 5 and 6. Both are drafts, one large (1800 lbs) and one small (1000 lbs); but because of differences in condition (the bigger one is also fatter), they each get half. This mash is working wonderfully well. In fact, it has turned their coats to silk in short order.
The basic ingredients are flax, oats, barley, and bran.
This recipe makes enough for two horses.
1 cup whole flax
4 cups whole oats
2 cups steam-rolled barley
2 cups wheat bran
Measure out the flax, 1/2 cup at a time, and grind it in a coffee grinder. (We have a grinder dedicated to this purpose.) Put the resulting flax meal in a quart jar and add boiling water to fill the jar. Stir to mix well. Put the lid on, then wrap the jar in a towel, and place this in a pail or other container, to hold in the heat. Let this sit for at least four hours. It is easiest to just do this in the morning, and come back to it in the evening, when you are ready to feed (or vice versa). (See note below on the importance of heating the flax.)
Next, grind the oats. For this, an old cast-iron feed mill works well. If you don't have one of these, you can just use steam-rolled oats. If you have a mill, then grind the whole oats enough to crush the hulls well. Then grind the steam-rolled barley. This barley grinding isn't absolutely essential, but it does help to make the mash nice and fluffy.
Combine the ground oats, the ground-up steam-rolled barley, and the bran, and mix together well. This mixture will be very light. Then add the flax mixture, which after sitting for hours will be a nicely cooled flax gel. Mix this thoroughly into the oats-barley-bran.
About the flax:
According to what I have read in old livestock-feeding books, flax should be heated because in its raw state it contains a substance which in rare instances can give rise to prussic acid, which is poisonous.
Also, you can buy flax meal, and it doesn't have this problem, but it also has most of the oil removed, which for my purposes, materially decreases its charm as a conditioning feed. In the old days, you could get flax meal that still had the oil in it, but not so anymore. Thus the homemade flax gel.
We have been using it to put condition on our two other horses, ages 5 and 6. Both are drafts, one large (1800 lbs) and one small (1000 lbs); but because of differences in condition (the bigger one is also fatter), they each get half. This mash is working wonderfully well. In fact, it has turned their coats to silk in short order.
The basic ingredients are flax, oats, barley, and bran.
This recipe makes enough for two horses.
1 cup whole flax
4 cups whole oats
2 cups steam-rolled barley
2 cups wheat bran
Measure out the flax, 1/2 cup at a time, and grind it in a coffee grinder. (We have a grinder dedicated to this purpose.) Put the resulting flax meal in a quart jar and add boiling water to fill the jar. Stir to mix well. Put the lid on, then wrap the jar in a towel, and place this in a pail or other container, to hold in the heat. Let this sit for at least four hours. It is easiest to just do this in the morning, and come back to it in the evening, when you are ready to feed (or vice versa). (See note below on the importance of heating the flax.)
Next, grind the oats. For this, an old cast-iron feed mill works well. If you don't have one of these, you can just use steam-rolled oats. If you have a mill, then grind the whole oats enough to crush the hulls well. Then grind the steam-rolled barley. This barley grinding isn't absolutely essential, but it does help to make the mash nice and fluffy.
Combine the ground oats, the ground-up steam-rolled barley, and the bran, and mix together well. This mixture will be very light. Then add the flax mixture, which after sitting for hours will be a nicely cooled flax gel. Mix this thoroughly into the oats-barley-bran.
About the flax:
According to what I have read in old livestock-feeding books, flax should be heated because in its raw state it contains a substance which in rare instances can give rise to prussic acid, which is poisonous.
Also, you can buy flax meal, and it doesn't have this problem, but it also has most of the oil removed, which for my purposes, materially decreases its charm as a conditioning feed. In the old days, you could get flax meal that still had the oil in it, but not so anymore. Thus the homemade flax gel.
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