Church Farm

When we took over our livery yard, all of the horses were fed on traditional straights, including bran and oats. We were confronted with horses and ponies with poor foot quality, dull coats with plenty of dry itchy skin problems and many were clearly acidic or suffering with ulcers. As farmers we take a great deal of pride in the hay, haylage and also lucerne that we produce, developing seed mixes that suit both the chalky downland soil we predominantly have, but also growing meadow mixes suitable for horses and ponies. 

As a yard we offer all inclusive packages that include ad lib hay or haylage, and what was termed “basic” feeds. It was clear that the traditional straights were really not complementing our carefully produced forage and so, after a phone call to Simple System, we compared our forage analysis with the ingredients in SimplyComplete. We discovered that with our own forage and the addition of SimplyComplete, we were offering our livery clients' horses a balanced and complete diet, free from cereals and their by-products, pulses, molasses, preservatives and additives.

The benefits were seen in every horse on the yard from retired older horses to fit competition horses. Now, some ten years on we are known locally for even the poorest looking horse looking better for being with us, often showing improvements in coat and foot quality and also often temperament with owners commenting on how “chilled” their horse has become.

We are absolutely convinced that the forage-based diet we offer, along with the SimplyComplete that all horses are given is the reason the horses all look so well.