Shipston Horse Feeds

10 Golden Rules of Horse Feeding

Shipston — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:13:50 +0000

We thought we’d start the new year gently with some simple rules for feeding.

Feed each horse as a individual
Fibre first
Little and often
Horses love routine – not only does it make for a happy horse, but it also makes it easier for you to spot any signs that something might be wrong
Fresh water at all times
Feed good quality food only
Do not work hard straight after feeding – that applies to the horse as well!
No sudden changes to diet
Always ask for help most of the feed companies have good advice lines.
Buy your food from Shipston Horse Feeds, you know it makes sense!

Christmas is Coming!!

Shipston — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:17:12 +0000

MELLOR SHAVINGS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE DUE TO SHORTAGES

Shipston horse feeds would like to thank all our customers for their support over the last year and to wish you a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Xmas Orders

All orders need to be in by 12th December, any orders after this date we can not guarantee to delivery by the 23rd.

Deliveries will resume again on December 30th

Now Stocking Red Mills Feeds

Shipston — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:06:18 +0000

We are very pleased to announce that we are now selling the full range of Red Mills Feeds, and they are already proving to be very popular. Phone Jo on 07877 560411 for full details.

MELLOR SHAVINGS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE DUE TO SHORTAGES – We are sorry for any inconvenience

Balancing your Feeds

Shipston — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:35:30 +0000

Ruby - 2 yr old black mare by Wanniger (17hh !)

Ruby has been fed on Red Mills Grow Care since she was 6 months old. She is a big mare, so it is important that she gets all the correct vitamins etc for growth without getting too fat. We think she looks great on it.

Feed balancers are a great way of making sure your horse and pony receives all the vitamin and minerals he needs. They can be a cost affective way of feeding when added to basic feeds such as ‘Hifi’ or ‘Alpha’, ensuring that your horse will have all he needs to do any disipline. You can also add feed balancers to hard feed if needed. Our very popular Red Mills grow care is great for foals and young horses, our 2yr old Ruby has been on it since she was a foal with great results. We stock all leading makes of feed balancers from Top Spec, Red Mills, Equilibra all at competive prices.

Get up to date with Worming

Shipston — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 12:13:52 +0000

Autumn is the time to you need to be administering a wormer to deal with small redworm. Obviously keeping your worming up to date is important but worming your horse is not the only thing you should be doing. Worming doesn’t tackl the problem at source – to do that properly you need to keep up with your patsure maintenance.
Pasture maintenance is very important, and poo picking needs to be done daily! This makes so much difference as it greatly reduces the opportunity for parasites to go through their complete lifecycle, and is a really effective way of reducing the burden of worms on your land.
If horses are in fields together, then you really should try to arrange worming them all together. Again this will achieve a lot in helping to reduce overall parasite levels.

You will need to adminster a further (different) worming dose again in spring to combat roundworm and tapeworm. If in any doubt as to whether or not you need to do this, then have a worm count done. You can either speak to youe vet or try one of the kits which are available from places such as westgate labs.

Ross Wins at Wellington

Shipston — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:12:42 +0000

We were thrilled when Ross won the Advanced Medium open Pet Plan at Wellington on Wednesday Sept 7th with 67 %. Next stop Winter Championships April 2012!

Don’t be a Dope – keep it clean

Shipston — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:03:32 +0000

With all the new rules and regulations covering banned substances, ( bute etc) these days, you have to be very careful in the feed room.
Make sure you do not share feed buckets, to avoid the risk of accidentally medicating the wrong horse. We have differant coloured buckets for all our horses which is also very helpful if you have someone else helping out with feeding your horses.
Always make sure that feed buckets are washed separately – which is also just good basic hygene practise as well.
Most importantly of all, if your horse is on any medication and you are planning on competing with him, check in the rule book before you enter the competition.

Don’t let Feed Mites become a problem.

Shipston — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:19:58 +0000

Feed mites can be a real problem at this time of year. Not only do they breed faster in this hot and humid weather, there is also a tendency for feeds to be hanging around for longer – more grass means that you tend to give less hard feed at this time of year, which provides ideal conditions for those feed mites to breed and become a real problem.

Luckily, it is fairly simple to avoid problems with feed mites – you just need to make sure that your feed bins are kept as clean and dry as possible, and remember not to put new feed on top of old when refilling your bins, maybe keep a spare, clean, bin which you can fill with new feed and then empty the remains of the previous feed on top of that, which gives you chance then to clean out the old bin.

If you have left it too late and are faced with a feed mite infestation – which is fairly easy to spot as you will notice an unpleasant smell, and in really bad cases your feed will be moving in the bin! – then it’s time for some housework. Clean out your feed room, getting rid of all traces of spilt food, and dispose of affected feeds before giving all bins and containers a thourough cleaning. If possible you should use a vacuum cleaner to remove dust etc, otherwise the mites may just be floating around in the air and fall back into your feed after sweeping.

A Grand Day Out for Fizzy and Bruce

Shipston — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:09:14 +0000

Our Competition Winner, Fizzy Waite was thrilled when she found out she’d scooped the jackpot recently, and had a fabulous time at our yard picking up some top dressage tips under the watchful eye of Henry Boswell.

Here’s what she had to say …

Thank you ever so much for the lesson last week, it was brilliant!

As requested here are a few details about Bruce and I.

My first pony was bought for me when mum was pregnant and I’ve been riding all of my life, through Pony Club and on to BE & BD.

Bruce came to me through a rescue charity, the Society for the Welfare of Horses and Ponies. He and five others had been left in a field next to a dual carridgeway with no food for over two years. I bought him home in April 2010 as a just backed five year old, broke him in over last summer, hunted him over the winter and then got down to his dressage education this spring. He has a really kind and trainable attitude, and combined with good paces this will hopefully give me a lot of fun over the next few years.

Thank you again!

Fizzy

We Have a Winner!

Shipston — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:59:58 +0000

Congratulation to Fizzy Waite from Wales who was almost spot on with her estimate of 524kg (we had measured it at 530kg before the competition started). She will be bringing her ‘Bruce’, a 6yo Welsh x over for her free lesson with Henry Boswell very soon, so dont’ forget to check back and see how she got on.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and better luck next time …

Meet the Prizewinner