Marriage's Broad Bran – High Fibre Horse & Pony Feed 15kg

Marriage's Broad Bran – 15kg

Broad bran is the coarse outer layer of the wheat grain, and Marriage's take theirs as a co-product of their own Essex flour mill, which runs Canadian and British wheat. It is the traditional bran mash ingredient, and the traditional way of getting extra water into a horse in the cold.

Marriage's describe it plainly as a high fibre traditional feed to maintain condition in horses, and that is the extent of what they publish. They give no composition breakdown and no typical analysis for it, so nothing is quoted below that they have not stated themselves.

Performance & Benefits

• Coarse wheat bran, a co-product of Marriage's own flour milling.
• A high fibre traditional feed, in Marriage's own description.
• Bulky and palatable, so it carries other feed and medication well.
• Takes up water readily to make a mash.
• Milled in Essex from Canadian and British wheat.

Suitable For

• Horses and ponies fed a traditional bran mash.
• Getting extra water into a horse in cold weather.
• Disguising a supplement or powder a horse has started refusing.
• Adding bulk to a small hard feed.
• Not a balanced feed on its own — a fortified feed or a balancer is still needed to cover vitamins and minerals.

Feeding

• Feed damp rather than dry: add warm water and let it stand until it has taken it up.
• Feed as part of a ration alongside forage, not as the ration.
• Introduce gradually and keep the daily amount modest.
• Make mashes up fresh at each feed.
• Fresh, clean water available at all times.

Composition & Analysis

• Composition: wheat bran, a co-product of Marriage's flour mill.
• Marriage's publish no typical analysis for their bran — no protein, fibre, oil or ash figure — so none is stated here. Their own note asks customers to contact them if further nutritional analysis is required.
• Earlier copy on this page gave crude fibre 12–15%, crude protein 14%, oil and fat 3–5% and ash 6–8%. None of those figures is published by Marriage's and all have been removed.
• Bag size 15kg. Marriage's own listing shows their bran in a 20kg sack; both pack sizes are in circulation and this is the 15kg.

Care & Caution

• Bran is high in phosphorus relative to calcium. Fed in quantity over time it unbalances a ration, and a horse on regular bran needs the calcium balance checked.
• Feed it damp. Dry bran given to a greedy horse is a choke risk.
• A bran mash is a change of diet, not a treat. A sudden large mash can upset a gut used to something else.