Why we won't hand you a feed program

Every bucket has a story

Walk into most feed rooms and ask why a horse gets what he gets. You'll often hear "that's what the last trainer did," or "that's what's on the bag," or "it worked for my other horse." Sometimes the reason is good. Sometimes nobody remembers.

Derek's way of looking at it is simple. Every scoop, supplement and handful should have a reason you can say out loud. If it doesn't, that's where you start.

Why copying someone else's program goes wrong

A feed program is built for a horse, a workload and a barn. Take it somewhere else and most of that changes:

Your horse may be a different size, age or build, or simply hold weight differently.
The work is different. A horse in full training and a horse on light trail rides need different things.
Hay changes from region to region and from one cutting to the next, and hay is most of what a horse eats.
Appetite, temperament and how he handles grain are his own.

The program that works in their barn worked because somebody built it around their horses. That's the part worth copying.

Start by writing down what you actually feed

Before you change anything, get the current program on paper:

Weigh it, don't scoop it. A scoop of one feed can weigh a lot more or less than a scoop of another. A cheap scale ends the guessing.
Include the hay. Roughly how much, what kind, and how it's fed.
List every supplement and treat. The small stuff adds up, and some products overlap.
Note who feeds and when. Two people feeding "the same" program can be feeding two different ones.

Ask why for every line

Go down the list and write one reason next to each item. Energy for work? Weight? Hooves? Something a vet prescribed? If an answer is "not sure," flag it and talk to your vet or an equine nutritionist before you change it.

Change one thing at a time

When you do make a change, make one, make it gradually over a number of days, and write down what you changed and when. Then watch: appetite, manure, energy, weight and attitude. If you change three things at once and something goes right or wrong, you'll never know which one did it.

Medical and special diets belong with your veterinarian or an equine nutritionist. Writing your program down is how you have a better conversation with them, not a replacement for it.

Go deeper

Feed the Horse in Front of You gives you the feed program record, the "why is it in the bucket" worksheet and a tracker for changes, built from our conversations with Derek.

To add: Derek's own example, in his words, of a horse whose feed he changed and what he watched for.