Awareness of the outside world. Whatever: 20 Years of “Being Poor”, September 3, 2025. Whatever: “Being Poor,” Ten Years On, September 3, 2015. Whatever: Being Poor, September 3, 2005.
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Has feed changed?
We can’t seem to get the feed right. Seems we are always fiddling. In the past, we bought a bag & fed it to our horses. Maybe Cosequin for the ex-racehorse, but mostly easy peasy. These days, we have been having problems settling on the right feed, and when we do, we have to add all kinds of adjustments & supplements.
Everything in the English world is tuned to Warmblood these days.
I know this.
I have objected to this in the past.
Driving. A 16.3 hand Thoroughbred has cob-sized tack because he does not have heffalump shoulders.
Saddles. Optimized for Warmbloods. We had to go old school and buy a 20+yo Stubben to fit Milton.
Horse clothing. “Bought Cob (bell boots) rather than Full size for my 17-hand horse, because the industry standard is no longer Thoroughbred. Grumble. Grumble.” [Tennessee Travels, Shopping]
Shows. “There used to be a place to show Thoroughbreds. It was called the hunter industry.” [Get Off My Lawn, And Take Your Warmblood With You]
Why shouldn’t this apply to feed? Therefore, we are having to retune our feed back to Thoroughbred.
Which used to be the norm. But I believe I have already mentioned this.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
Bummer about the warmblood bias. At least the “cob” stuff fits. Fashions come and go in horses as well as everything else. At least 14.1 Chief wore the same bridle and saddle as 13.2 hand Priney. I was asked more than once if someone could borrow my “pony” tack. Which I didn’t have. Good luck with the feed.
For the longest time I was confused by the growing popularity of feeding balancers. If a grain is ‘complete’ then why would it need to be ‘balanced’ with a balancer? Made no sense to me and it seemed like a gimmicky way to get people to spend more money on unnecessary things. There’s a lot of that going on in the horse industry today.
Fast forward to easy-keeping seniors who absolutely don’t need to consume the daily recommended ration of senior feed. They stay fat on air, but probably need certain nutrients that air can’t give them. Or so the theory goes. So now we feed a carefully weighed and measured ‘handful’ of senior feed (stupid small amounts) and we add a balancer to give them the nutrients they would be getting if they were actually eating the amount of senior feed the manufacturer recommends. T
That kind of makes sense. Sorta. However, bear in mind that one bag of balancer costs almost as much as two bags of senior.
Cue person off stage who hisses, “Gotcha!”
Gee whiz! “Let’s only sell to one type (breed?) of horse.” Horse feed marketers, and tack sellers, must have tunnel vision or live in secluded enclaves. Sorry to learn that correctly feeding your horses is a victim of a trend for warm bloods. MM
I think we work harder to feed the horses than the people. OTOH we can throw up an offending item and get on with our lives.