Since one of my horses cam down with laminitis this summer i have had to re-think there feeding. Before i had always used the traditional beet pulps that were molassed and required soaking for 24 hours before it can be fed to horses, but since this is a molassed feed it isnt suitable for my laminatic horse. Speedibeet is an unmolassed beet pulp which is 95% sugar free and is ready in 10 minutes if soaked with cold water or 5 minutes if soaked in hot water and is recomended by the laminitis trust as suitable for horses or ponies prone to laminitis. The product is presented as flakes of beet pulp unlike the pellets that are the traditional beet pulp, you soak them in a ration of 1:5 ie if you use 250 grams of speedibeet flakes you need to add 1.25 litres of water, which means they need more water added than pellets which require soak as a ratio of 1:3. I was a bit unsure how my fussy eating pony would take to it as he loves his mollassed beet pulp but he has wolfed this down as well since i have started feeding him it, so it gets his approval as well as my laminatic horses approval!
Speedibeet can be used as part of the horses diet in many ways, it can be used as a feed enhancer to make the feed more palatable, it is a very good sorce of fibre (which is essentail to keep the horses hut healthy) making it suitable to use as a partial hay replacer, it can be up to 30% of your horses total feed comsumption mix as a ratio of 1:3 with chaff, as it is high in fibre it helps to keep condition on in the winter months and helps to keep the horse warm as when a horse digests fibre it creates heat to keep its body warm.
A few people have commented on the cost of a bag of speedibeet compared to traditional sugar beet pulp, however i think this is a better choice for horses or ponies prone to laminitis so you really cont compare it that way! Traditional beet pulp is selling at £5:50 for a 20kg bag in my feed merchants where as speedibeet is £6:90 for a 20kg bag so not much of a difference esp considering that you are adding more water to speedibeet!
I am converted! a healthier choice for my horses and they like it so i cant compalin!
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Sep 16th, 2007
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