It has been a proper Scottish week — windy and cloudy, showers rolling in off the west, gales towards the north-west, and only the odd bright interlude to dry the fields between them. If you keep horses you will have felt the change before you read any forecast: the grass has stopped doing what it did in June, the gateway is soft again, and the rugs you folded away in May are suddenly worth digging out. Early September is when horse feed in Scotland quietly needs rethinking, and getting ahead of it now is far easier than chasing condition in November.
What's Actually Changing Out There
Two things happen at once at this time of year, and they pull in opposite directions. Grass keeps growing for a while yet, but its feed value falls away — protein and energy drop, and by late September a field can look perfectly green while doing very little for your horse. At the same time the weather turns wet and windy, so horses burn more energy simply keeping warm, and start spending longer standing about in mud.
The result is horses that quietly lose topline through October while their owners are still feeding the summer ration. It is one of the most common questions we get in autumn, and the answer is nearly always the same: change earlier, and change more slowly, than you think you need to.
Changing Your Horse's Feed for Autumn
Start with forage. Hay or haylage should be doing the heavy lifting before you reach for a bag of anything. If grazing is going backwards, get forage in front of them earlier in the day rather than reaching for hard feed first. Then look at what the horse in front of you actually needs.
- Good-doers and natives holding condition well are usually better on a balancer than a bucket feed. Redmills Gro Care Balancer or Redmills 30% Performa Care Balancer supply the vitamins, minerals and quality protein without piling on calories.
- Horses in light or moderate work do well on a straightforward everyday cube — Redmills HorseCare 14 Cubes, or HorseCare 10 Cubes for those in light work or resting.
- Poor doers needing topline before winter are where a conditioning feed earns its keep. Redmills Conditioning 14 Mix builds weight, while Define & Shine is a good way to add muscle tone and coat condition on top of an existing ration rather than changing it wholesale.
- Laminitis-prone or starch-sensitive horses — Redmills Ultra Cubes are cereal-grain-free and ultra-low starch, a much safer route to condition.
- Older horses, or anyone off their feed after a wet spell, often do well on Redmills HorseCare Mash fed warm on a cold night. It is palatable, easy to digest and helps with hydration too.
Whatever you choose, make the change over ten to fourteen days. The hindgut needs time to adjust, and a sudden switch is a quick route to loose droppings or worse. If a horse is losing condition despite plenty of feed, that is a teeth, worming or vet conversation rather than a bigger scoop — our AMTRA-qualified SQPs can talk you through autumn worming and faecal egg counts, and they would far rather you asked before you bought. You will find the wormers and horse supplements alongside the feed.
For horses out at grass, a Horslyx lick is an economical way to top up vitamins and minerals and keep them occupied on a rough day. The Original and Mobility blocks are the two we shift most of at this time of year.
Mud Season Starts Now
The other thing this week's rain signals is the start of mud fever season, and prevention is far easier than treatment. Try not to hose legs off every single day — repeatedly wetting and scrubbing softens the skin, which is precisely how the bacteria get in. Let the mud dry and brush it off instead, and check heels and pasterns daily for scabs, heat or swelling. Catching it early is the difference between a fortnight's nuisance and a month off work.
For horses turned out on wet ground, a barrier helps. Pro Equine Mud Bug Buster with Neem is a protective gel made for exactly this, and Carr & Day & Martin Protection Plus is a long-standing yard favourite for waterproofing vulnerable areas. Keep a tub of Pro Equine Wunder Gel in the tack room too — it earns its place on rug rubs and small scrapes.
Find It at McCaskie — In-Store or Online
All four of our country stores carry the equestrian range, and there is usually someone behind the counter who keeps horses themselves. Pop into McCaskie Ayr, Kinross, Lanark or Stirling and we will happily talk through what your horse is doing, what it is getting, and whether anything needs to change. Whether it is equestrian supplies in Kinross, horse feed in Lanark, or rural supplies in Stirling and Ayr, we are stocked up for the autumn.
Our AMTRA-qualified SQPs are on hand in every store for animal health questions, from worming programmes to mineral supplementation.
The full Red Mills and horse feed range is also on mccaskie.store, with delivery across Scotland if a trip to the store is not on the cards this week.
Pop into your nearest McCaskie Country Store in Ayr, Kinross, Lanark or Stirling — our team loves to help. Or browse and shop anytime at mccaskie.store.