| Archive for It's About The Horse The Free Forum for those Doing Parelli - and a whole lot More! "Anything forced and misunderstood can never be beautiful." Xenophon (430-355 B.C.), |
| bit |
How much do you feed your horse?I was just reading this advertisment for a trail horse feed, and it said that you can only feed 2 to 4 pounds of this feed, instead of the usual 6 to 10 pounds of regular feed. 6 -10 pounds? Is that what I'm supposed to be feeding Shaun? He gets about 2 pounds of alfalfa pellets a day. He free feeds on pasture all day and night, looks good and seems to have good energy. I don't feed dinner. Here's a picture of him. Jeeze, am I starving my horses? lol, ok, not Eclipse. They only get a pound a day, and Eclipse only gets a couple of small cups of soaked timothy hay pellets. They blow up pretty good, but still...
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| PasoBaby_CarolU |
That volume seems to ignore the horse's need for fiber - as well as, what is the horse supposed to do with his stomach acids once that tiny amount is gone?
A horse needs 1.5-2% of their body weight a day in food. A hard keeper like Shaun would need 2.5%. This means 15-25 lbs a day. In your case, it's harder to figure because he gets so much from forage. It's harder to figure when feeding complete feeds - follow the directions on the bag. I have the opposite problem, easy keepers. I feed my IR mare 5 lbs hay and 1 lb Low Starch twice a day. My others get 6 lbs of twice a day plus pasture nibble, and my Senior Citizens get all they can eat including 1 lb Senior twice a day. I have a scale and weigh everything. |
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| bit |
Carol, my feed is made here in my town, so I get it right from the mill. No directions on the bag, just contents of feed. I'm always trying to figure out how much for everyone. I have Eclipse on Evatex, because she gets fat on air, in addition to timothy hay pellets. None of my horses are thin, except for maybe Shaun. He's gaining weight every day, too. They eat 24 hours a day, not counting nap time. Everyone else is only one quart of alfalfa pellets a day, plus supplements. I use one of those big, square scoops to measure feed. I keep thinking I"m feeding one pound, but it's one qt for everyone but Shaun, who gets two.
Found this on google... As a general rule, a horse needs 2 to 2.2 pounds of feed for every 100 pounds of body weight. (You can buy a weight tape to measure how much your horse weighs.) For example, an average 1000 lb horse would need 20 to 25 pounds of feed a day. Most of that should be hay. A typical diet for a horse being ridden for one hour five days a week would be 2 to 5 pounds of grain and 15 to 20 pounds of hay a day, split into at least two separate meals. Their tummies are never empty, and they always have free access to pasture, as well as a couple of round bales. Forage is not an issue, but alfalfa pellets may be. I know a lot of people that only feed hay, or just let their horses pasture. I'm finding as I go along, how much I don't know about it. Kelsey got me on a good supplement program with them, so it's just the pellets that confuse me. I didn't want Shaun to gain too much weight too fast. They do not only get fed twice a day. Breakfast is in addition to the all you can eat buffet. They are not twice a day horses. A lot of people are clueless about what to feed, when to feed and how much. My friend in Ca thinks it's great to feed these horse smoothies that contain lots of sugar. I don't think her horse gets any grain, and is on twice a day hay feedings. Lives in a little corral and gets turned out three days a week. He's lame all the time. I used to feed twice a day, but I left a ton of grass hay in with Bit so she could graze all day. I was one of the only people at the barn that fed grass hay. Everyone fed alfalfa. I also fed Bit grain, but had no idea that supplements existed. I baked her fresh horse cookies (like winneys cookies) too. We all do the best we can with what we know. I sure would like to know a lot more. Now that I have some time, I'll see what I can find out. Also will talk to folks at mill to see what they say. K state really likes their feed. I mean, if you could feed your horse ANY feed, what would it be? I know, senior gets something different. Some feeds say they are complete, so no supplement needed. You can o.d. your horse on stuff like copper, or zinc or iron. It can be so overwhelming! |
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| Mandy'sMarty |
Deb, from my perspective, you're asking the wrong question.
I believe it's more a matter of what your horse needs to eat in order to receive the nutrition, as well as fiber, it needs to be healthy. I have no personal experience with TB's, but what I have read is that they require a lot of feed. I wonder if that is because they are traditionally fed a lot of feed that is acidic (high pH), which diminishes the amount of good gut flora required for proper digestion. I am usually more concerned in where the deficits are in my specific horse's mineral balance. Like Carol, I have an easy keeper so I am generally not concerned about maintaining weight. I sometimes attempt to help a horse owner whose horse is definitely not thriving. I have seen a case where the horse was starving because it's body was not able to properly digest the nutrition that was in its diet. It's diet was not great but it was sufficient and yet the horse was very malnourished. That horse did not have the proper amount of good gut flora. It had been decimated by antibiotics. The owner insisted I was wrong because the horse was being fed probiotics. I checked the label and saw that the product she was using had perhaps 3 strains of bacteria. To be most effective, I believe a probiotic should include 10 or more beneficial strains and at least 20 million bacteria per serving. All probiotics are not created equal. Another issue of confusion is the delivery of minerals in the horse's diet. I believe that a significant amount of minerals in the feed supplement be bio-available (chelated). A lot of owners are paying for expensive feed supplements that contain minerals that the horse's body is not able to absorb because it is not in a bio-available form. It makes very expensive horse pee. Shaun may simply need a good probiotic. I'm assuming he is getting the proper diet now and the proper amount of that diet. If he were mine, I would first feed him a good probiotic and watch his body's response for a couple of weeks. |
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| Julie |
Go by eye - he looks to me like he could put on a little weight, not too bad, just a bit lean. No idea what you feed though a svery different from UK | ||||
| carefreegirl |
When it comes to feeding I'm no expert and still working out what works best for Bently in our new environment, but in general follow what Paso said; Feed Forage First--Hay or Pasture, the horse will eat what they need if you provide an adequate amount (unless of course they have teeth problems then you have to do something other then hay/pasture), then make sure they are getting vitamins and minerals by providing supplements/mineral/salt blocks etc. If the horse still seems to need more to keep a good weight then add some sort of higher calorie feed such as alfalfa, or oil, or flax, etc. There are many commercial weight builder supplements/feeds as well, probiotics can also help with weight gain. most commercial feeds have some sort of directions on them for feeding, call the company if you have questions. Where you got shaun and he was under weight and has been gaining weight with his current feed that you are giving him then I would say he is getting enough, unless of course he has come to a plateau and still needs to gain some more weight, then he might need something more. |
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| PasoBaby_CarolU |
It is easy enough to weigh your scoop full of food. Just use a kitchen scale. I'd bet those big scoops hold 3 lbs of pellets. Both good timothy and alfalfa are very high in sugar, often 10-14%. Horses that aren't being used require less then 10% sugar, and they are probably getting more then that from the pasture alone.
I don't feed ANY horse anything extra unless they need it. I learned my lesson the hard and painful way. You can answer all these questions yourself by sending samples of your pellets and pasture to DairyOne for analysis. It costs $35 for the information you want, and I'd do the pasture too...so three samples. Just call them and they'll send you an envelope with return envelopes and sample bags free. You pay when you send in the samples. Then you know. I think you will pay the cost of analysis by not feeding anyone anything extra except Shaun. Also, if you are low in something - our area is very high in Potassium and low in sodium and copper, you can add those to a HANDFUL of pellets and cut your feed costs 90%. My horses would look like balloons with 6 lbs of pellets on top of a lush pasture. It would literally kill them. At 12 lbs a day, I am feeding roughly 1.5% body weight (and it should be IDEAL body weight, not necessarily what is read on the tape. If they are overweight, you need to reduce it!!) They are still (too) fat and shinny. Only Bien and Baby here are 'skinny' and both for health reasons. |
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| bit |
I'll do the sample thang, and let ya'll know what they say. I think I can do the same thing here at K state. I was just asking Tony about it. I was only feeding timothy hay pellets before, and just to feed supplements with. See? Bet there are people reading this thinking, OH! We buy horse food because of commercials or ads promising to do great things for our equines. Or some ad in a magazine, or CA says to. A lot of folks base their feed choice on what someone else says rather than finding out what their horse needs. Every horse is different. Just like training, every horse needs something different to make it work and give the best deal for the horse. | ||||
| jackspark |
I just alter the amount according to how they are looking. I have one that's eating 6 pounds of pellets, cup of ration balancer, scoop of beet pulp and a splash of oil. The fattest is eating 3 pounds of pellets. The other two are in the middle. They all have a turnout for about 3 hours a day of a sparse pasture. It's hard to do but this has worked for me and they all are hanging right around the middle of the weight spectrum now.
I like them to be on the fluffy side heading into winter..... can be so tough on them, esp the older two. |
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| bit |
This is Shaun about a month ago. I don't want to put weight on him too fast. He's looking a lot better, and he's more animated. He was so lethargic when he got here. He just wanted to hang out in the shelter. Now he rips around with the horses, and has a friend. Gunner, of course. Both lbi's and both bottom of the herd. He was pretty boney when he got here, and that's after a month in Washington putting on weight. When I looked at him when he first got here, it was alarming how thin he was. He looks thin, but I'm not afraid of someone reporting me to the humane society! I was, before. I think he'd been here 3 weeks when I took this? Still think he's too thin. I'm want to add to the calories, but good calories. What he needs, and not have it come out the other end without helping him. |
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| PasoBaby_CarolU |
You are so right Deb. I think everyone should go read on the Equine Cushings group. Read all the heartache from killing a horse with these feeds, all because we LOVE them. Save your horse, save your money, send it to a rescue and feed some horses that need it. Seriously. |
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| Blue Flame |
Pete Ramey tells a poignant story about diet on one of his laminitis DVDs. It is embellished a bit to get his point across . . .
So Pete turns up to help this horse with his feet and when he gets there, you can see the horse's spine from one end to the other even though they are spending a fortune in feed. Pete tells the owner that in order to fix the feet, they need to put all that flash feed aside and give the horse hay, water and a ration balancer to compliment the hay. The owner reacts by saying that if he stops feeding all that costly stuff his horse will shrivel up and blow away in the breeze. So Pete tells the owner, "Well . . . then you might as well put him down, he's going to die anyway" and starts to leave. Just about the time Pete has one foot in the truck, the owner comes running out yelling, "Now hang on a minute . . . " His point is that is what he has to do sometimes to get an owner to listen . . . |
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| PasoBaby_CarolU |
Thank you Sandy...
This is so true all over. I held a friend while she cried last winter. She just put her horse down after she had foundered with 16 degrees rotation. All they were feeding her (a niece of my Zar's) was "one can" of grain and hay a day. That can was 3 pounds of sweet feed a day. They killed their horse. It is bad enough to loose a horse, much worse to know that you were the one who killed it. Horses, most horses, don't need 90% of the crap we feed them. They only need hay or good pasture. PERIOD. If they are young, nursing, growing, or when they are older, THEN they need nutritional help. Or if they have a medical condition that requires it. Horses weren't made for all this...and even then most could handle it IF we really WORKED them hard. But how few of us do? It really is tough love. Love your horse enough to feed it only what it needs. Thank you Dr. Kellon for teaching me this lesson. |
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| Mandy'sMarty |
I wish it was that easy. It took me a whole year to find a boarding arrangement where my mare could be fed quality hay and live on a pasture that was not too carbohydrate rich. Twelve months! The good news is that Mandy is now living in the best situation she has had in a long time. She gets excellent hay 3 times every 24 hours and lives on a sparse pasture with relatively safe vegetation for her to eat. She now receives no mineral supplementation. It is a remarkable change from what she was enduring last year with poor hay and constant supplements added to her diet. Mandy, like other Morgans as well as Arabs, Tennessee Walkers, Paso Finos, mustangs, ponies---is one of the 'easy keeper' breeds, and is more sensitive to a diet too rich in sugars and starches. Many of these horses should be living on a dry lot that mimics the terrain and sparse vegetation they were bred to live on. My year long search taught me that almost no one in my region--basically a moist temperate rain forest--offers a dry lot board. I even had one respected elder member of the equine enthusiast community tell me that dry lot was "cruel" for a horse. It seems that very few horse people in this region even know what dry lot means. All local boarding facilities boast about their lush pastures. Almost all horse pastures around here are growing lush grass genetically designed to fatten cattle quickly. This same rich grass then eventually becomes hay that is often too rich in carb's. Mandy was found 17 months ago lying down in her pasture, unwilling to stand because of the intense pain in her feet. She was brought down by a naturally occuring fungus in the fescue grass growing in her pasture. It was toxic for Mandy and caused extreme vasoconstriction in her feet rather than the inflammation typical of laminitis. The metabolic crisis caused the internal laminae connection between hoof wall and P3 to fail so that her front feet began 'sinking' relative to their hoof capsules. Actually, her hoof capsules began slipping up over the internal structures of her feet. It was acute founder. I've had to learn a lot about safe diet and board for my mare in a relatively short period of time. Her life during the last 17 months has literally depended on it. It has been a full time effort for me. Mandy's crisis was not caused by too much sweet feed. It was caused by too much healthy fescue grass that had been allowed to go to seed. Meanwhile, there continues to be a lot of confusion and misinformation regarding what is the best diet for one's horse. I agree with Carol in that the simple solution is good hay and safe pasture. The catch is that it is not easy for the horse owner who has not done the homework. And even after doing the homework, it may be hard to find. |
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| Copious_Amour |
The healthiest horses I've ever had thus far, have been horses who were fed a really high quality Timothy hay or pasture, loose minerals, salt block and unlimited fresh, clean water. They had the shiniest coats and thickest hooves. They never got sick.
I've had my fair share of frighteningly skinny Thoroughbreds. We worked them slowly, very slowly, up to a bucket of rolled oats a day, added cool calories, rice bran and weight gain with unlimited grass hay. 8 years later I am not sure that it was the right thing to do, but it sure put weight on good and quick (not too quick since we upped the amounts slowly) and we were able to feed a simple rice bran after they gained weight to help maintain weight. The fatties I went to see today? They get 12 lbs of Alfalfa/Oat cubes a day. That's for the yearling colt. No wonder he is so fat. All of the horses are shiny and dappled, but they are also out of shape and cresty. I've fed hard keepers all of my life. It always seems like they need more, more, more to keep it on. Now I'll be bringing home two drafts and need to learn all about IR and feeding a heavy weight horse appropriately. Both very easy keepers. Bodie and Buddy split six flakes of hay a day. 3 red oat, 3 Timothy grass. It isn't weighed. Bodie's weight is perfect, Buddy is a little under. I don't have any answers. I just know that it seems to me, rice bran is a safe way to add weight and help keep colic at bay and the horses sure appreciate a warm mash in the dead of winter. Never have weighed the hay. I just feed what I think they need. More or less depending on how they look. I should probably start weighing my hay. I look forward to hearing what the analysis reveals. |
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| bit |
Yeah, me too. I do know that the person that brought Shaun over from nz did a blood panel on him because he could eat and eat and never gain weight. Just think what happens when he doesn't get einough? His blood work came back fine. He just eats a lot. A lot. Like Sea Bisquit and Secretariate. They ate huge. I'm just wondering, ok, so how much? Of what? For this horse. Not only analyze the hay, but do blood work on him as well?
This is home, right now. After reading Marty's post, I feel so badly! 
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| Blue Flame |
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| Chablis |
I like more weight on my TBs but if Shaun's weight is increasing nicely on the feed is on/you are meeting his dietary requirements, I don't see the point in changing anything? | ||||
| merle |
Re: How much do you feed your horse?
I do almost the same thing. Mine get 1 - 2 pounds of alfalfa pellets with 1 pound of a ration balancer. Mine free feed on pasture all night and stay in a dry lot during the day. If they free feed day and night, they would be obese. I'll try and post pics later. |
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| PasoBaby_CarolU |
I didn't know that but it doesn't surprise me. I am sure he deals with a lot of founder, almost all of which is preventable. A horse doesn't have to be 'obese' to have metabolic problems. Horses that are "easy keepers" can be in danger at 5 on the body weight index. If they have adipose tissue (fat pockets) over their ribs, near their withers or at the tail dock, they are in danger of founder. |
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| Clarissa |
Bit many people here in Aust have TB’s. They are our staple breed mostly.
Half the OTTB stock will become reasonable doers with age after being OTT for a few years. The rest continue to need bulk feeding all their lives. Once OTT it takes a good year for the organs to get back to normal after being fed all sorts of crap like arsenic. Some are never able to put on a pound of weight ever. Generally they have a greater muscle mass ratio than other horses except Qh’s. They are a manmade breed that needs a LOT of quality energy feed just to maintain a reasonable coverage. On the whole, people here feed TB’s whatever will fit down their throats volume wise! 4.5% of body weight is not uncommon. It needs to be the highest energy value feed available. You can feed oils, corn, oats, lucerne till the cows come home & not upset the weight on a TB. However I’m not talking about feeding crappy sugar filled sweetfeeds, I’m talking about grain based energy feed. A good way to know if a TB needs more energy feed is if you can see the backbone or if the hamstrings look thin & drawn as Shaun’s do. If he is bounding around now due to feeling better, he is burning a heap more energy which needs replacing for him to continue to put on a little weight. If he was my TB, I would double his current feed & spread it across 4 feeds daily with adlib lucerne + hay or pasture until he got really full of himself + showed good weight gain even when running amuck. Then back it off slowly until he showed a small weight loss & slight decline in energy, then up the feed volume or energy nutrient level a little & play with it there depending on weather, season, hay nutrient value, body condition, emotional stability, etc. When I say double his current feed ration I am assuming what you feed does have a high ratio of energy fuels in it. Like lots of oils or corn based. A TB will get tucked up & drawn without high vol energy input or if they are eating a heap of hay with little energy value they will get a big belly but still be too lean. Remember they are manmade, not your usual genetic makeup that should get by on just forage & fibre. They are meant to run hot & burn a heap of energy. TB’s are notoriously hard to feed right. They’ll loose all their weight at the drop of a hat particularly if fretful or the season changes for the worse overnight. Their bodies (muscles) run at a slightly higher temp than most other horses & usually need a rug at night even when the ambient temp is still not that cool. Rugging saves the need for the extra feed to keep TB’s warmer. Then when the temp does get cold they need 3 rugs or those doona rugs nose to toe. Their fur doesn’t hold any warmth at all & seems to be less water repellent than other breeds. As the years go by he may start to hold a bit of weight at which point you can downsize both the volume & quality of energy & the number of rugs until he gets to late teenage at which point he will most likely again become a hard doer. Most TB’s seem to respond favourably to the comfort of an enclosed stable that they can retreat to whenever the mood takes them. |
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| Hertha |
PasoCarol mentioned roughage first. Jackspark mentioned noticing and adjusting accordingly.
I just want to add, requirements vary all the time based on seasonal change in pasture, hay quality, temperature, energy output of the horse (ie amount of work), other stress factors, age of horse, health of horse. That's why Nancy's comment resounded with me. it's also why you can't depend on stated amounts very well. I strip graze my horses so they always have some fresh roughage and can chew out the grass behind them. I top up with differing amounts of hay depending on the weather. I feed double handful each of soaked beet pulp with apple cider vinegar and tsp of sea kelp and an apple and carrot each, plus a very small amount of prepared rice-based horse pellet. Most of these they get as treats during training sessions. In spring/autumn grass flushes they are shut off much of the paddocks so their grazing is limited and I up the amount of hay to keep up the roughage with low calorie/sugar forage. Otherwise they would blow themselves up on new grass. I've heard that the rougher the pasture the better. Having a caecum, horses can deal with pretty coarse material. My main aim is to keep the roughage train going all the time, which you are doing by having them out grazing. Also, horses naturally have had to deal with winter and dry summer feed restriction during their whole evolution. A bit too thin is always better than a bit too fat (like my guys tend to be). Shaun is certainly looking a lot different. You mention that his energy levels are up and he's part of the herd. Energy levels are a pretty good indicator. Gypsy, my TB, certainly needed more tucker than Boots to keep up a similar condition. |
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| Malcolm |
I have just had one of my mares examined for inexplicable condition loss. There were no clinical symptoms except poor colour and the other I spotted blood in the urine. The vet who came to do the examination said he would look for stones but asked what her diet was. I said hay and ration in playing season and just pasture and lick in summer. He said that we should not have any problems with stones and kidneys etc since it is the overfed horses that have an unnatural diet that succumb to these sorts of problems. He reckoned that horses are best kept as close to natural as possible. Mine have unregulated access to hay in winter, but it is natural unfertilized wild grass with a wide variety of species.
I await now the lab results and look forward to spring the grass which has just sprung since once it is up enough I can stop buying feed. Am going to need the money to pay the vet bills. Malcolm |
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| bit |
Will be feeding native grass (prairie grass) this winter. No fertilizer, good forage, and they can eat as much as they want. I'm thinking about decreasing the alfalfa pellets on everyone. Shaun has no more ribs showing, but he's new to barefoot and a bit ouchy. Treating his feet with hoof hardener. His walls were so thin the farrier didn't want to put shoes on him. Back feet are great, so we are hoping we can get the fronts in good shape by winter, too. Going to feed a lot less, as they are getting plenty of grazing. Shaun is looking good, but does not need to add more wieght with his feet so tender. He's perfect right now. | ||||
| Chablis |
Hey Clarissa, just curious what your above info is based on? Did you work on a TB stud? Thanks. Emma |
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| Copious_Amour |
I second this. |
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| Clarissa |
Emma I haven’t worked on an actual TB breeding stud, but pretty much every cattle or sheep station I worked on had mostly TBs & every horse person I know has at least 1 TB in the back paddock. I worked on other studs (QH, Pally, Paint, ASH) where TB or TB derivitive mares constituted a fair proportion of the broodmare stock. Also in my younger years I worked as a jillaroo on many cattle & sheep stations where TBs were biggest part of the work horses before ASH ever came into being. I also worked in a few racing stables & spelling farms in my younger days too. I have been asked many times to help/instruct/teach riders/owners who have TBs that aren’t performing correctly, either too ‘up’ or too ‘down’ usually due to incorrect feeding for that particular situation. Several TBs have passed through my hands at various times & during the time I was raising & training foals, many of their dams were TBs or crosses.
Many people I know have at least 1 TB in their back paddock & many people who have rehomed & retrained TBs to sell on or for their own use struggle with the feed requirements. I just need to note here that station horses usually don't get any supplementry feed even in mustering season but they can't be ridden as often as other crossbreds because it takes them a few weeks to regain their condition after a days work. Luckily for them most station horse paddocks are many 100's of acres so never over grazed. In the upper half of Australia TBs don’t generally do well without a reasonable quantity of supplementary feed unless the property has improved pastures designed for horses. That’s not a common thing. In the southern parts of Australia TBs do better due to the different soil & grass types growing naturally. Stud farms are a different proposition because they usually improve their pastures specially for their horses. Spelling farms don’t usually bother with improved pasture because the owner pays for hand feeding anyway. So with all that hands-on knowledge behind me & from being friends with so many people with TBs who struggle to keep a bit of weight on their horses, I have learned a thing or 2 about feeding TBs particularly in the northern half of Australia. OTTBs are the worst affected until their systems relearn to digest grass & get off the drugs, hard grain & crazy supplements they’ve been on for so long. Just like cattle in feedlots where their systems become very acid to digest the crap they are fed, so too TBs have very acid systems whilst in race training. With cattle it is a one way stream unfortunately because their systems apparently can’t reverse if for some reason they are removed from the feedlot & not sent to slaughter. They just get painfully thin & fade away over time. However over time a horse’s system will readjust although the arsenic takes it’s toll. I don’t care what anyone says I know for sure horses are routinely drugged for racing with all sorts of crap. Then when an OTTB gets to it’s new home things often go downhill because people don’t realize the vast quantities they need to feed the horse to keep the condition on it. In the end it is sold or ends up in the back paddock or if it played up it was sold or whatever. Many TBs are sold out of the TB breeding industry long before they ever hit a trainer’s stable & they are often the lucky ones because their systems are less compromised so they grow a bit slower, get a better type of natural feed (mostly), & generally have healthier lives with more paddock time. Those horses are more likely to hold weight or be reasonable doers. It’s rare to find a TB that holds it’s condition all year without any supplementary feeding, unlike many other horses Australia wide which never get any extra feed. From my personal experience of caring for TBs they use a lot more energy just for the purposes of living, & if they are tense or excited, they use a whole heap more than all other breeds. That energy can only be fueled by high energy rations whatever form they take because otherwise the horse has to spend every waking moment eating vast quantities of low energy roughage in a vain attempt to fuel itself. If there isn’t enough to eat or enough hours in their day or not enough nutritional value they loose weight, as many do. Generally when a horse is down in condition or nutrition it is important to get the horse back up as fast as possible, within reason. The easiest way to know the horse has recovered nutritionally with enough energy spare for feeling good is seeing it cavorting around & ‘blooming’. Getting it to that point as quickly as possible is usually in the horse’s best interests. Then tailoring the feed value to suit the situation & environment the horse is living in to keep it feeling good is what it’s all about. A TB probably will use a lot more energy (nutritional value) feeling good than say a QHx. Many people don’t realize that so I’ve found. It is common for a TB owner to comment that their TB needs to eat twice as much as their other horses at feed time. |
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| Chablis |
Our experiences of TBs is quite different I think. Thank you for your reply. |
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| Malcolm |
The TB mare that I have trouble keeping condition has had a urine and blood analysis. The results show that she has an irrevocably damaged liver from eating toxic plants. This could have happened way back before I got her. She is a sweet and affectionate darling but does seem to munch at anything that comes her way.
So now I must find her a home that would like to coddle her and maybe do the odd light hack and some dressage. Failing that she will have to go the route planned at her last stable which is into the ground to push up pasture. I cannot afford to retire and feed her. I gave her a happy home and taught her a job for the last couple of years but do not owe her a pension. My view anyway is that we do not get pension on full pay but if a horse cannot maintain condition on a normal ration then they are needing a pay hike on pension which only occurs amongst the wealthy leisured and it is to them who like to coddle horses that I must look for a home so they have their place. Malcolm |
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| Chablis |
Not to be the bearer of bad news but I'm assuming from what you have said that the liver damage is quite severe? If it were me, and I was not in a situation to keep her as well as a riding horse, I would give animal rescue type organisations a call to see if they can help or I'd strongly consider having her euthanized as liver damage is very, very nasty. 
Whilst we were still in drought and following a really bad bushfire, a nasty weed called Pattersons Curse (also known as Salvation Jane) grew in massive amounts and was eaten by a lot of horses. It causes severe liver damage and was a horrible death for the horses. |
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| Malcolm |
No its not so bad as to exclude her from light work, it just means she has limited capacity for demanding work. She is not in bad shape and will keep feeding her into better shape but she will never be an easy keeper again. With the right owner she will be rewarding as she is perfectly schooled and a very affectionate. She being a OTTB who does not know what to do with a carrot or an apple.
Some Parelli people in my club gave me a home bred brat to sort out for them for a fee and have now given him back to me for good since they have lost their nerve with him. Iwill return the fee. He is an easy keeper but am not sure if he'll have her legs. I found her turbo button this season and she loves to fly. So am going to miss her in many ways. Malcolm |
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| Chablis |
No problem. I hope you find a lovely home. 
Re carrot or apple, my mare was the same but after she rejected it the first time, I thought I might as well feed it to the horse nearby so, of course, she then wanted the apple and ate it. 
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| Malcolm |
An update on my mare Silk for Chablis. I was worried that she might be homed to someone who would sell her as a 10yo perfectly schooled horse and turn a profit on her. I was talkign about this to Jim and Vicky up the road when taking the kid up to work on the tractor.
It turns out that Vick (60+) has a horse that is getting on (20+) and Jim (70) has a recently backed Fresiand they have people hacking often and could use her once a week and want to try different feeds and supplements on her. So am running her up this weekend. Now Vicky fundraises for our horse welfare organisation and asks me to do demonstrations at their events. I thought that getting the old Englishman together with my old English tractor was luck, throwing in the 10 yo boy (who loves mechanics and gets bored when i play polo), a stroke of genius, but this was even better. I have just been given a delinquent colt by neighbours who has done some Parelli but lost their nerve with this problem child of thier own making, so horses and people matching all around. Malcolm |
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| bit |
wow, this thread went some interesting places. Update on my horses, they are no longer on alfalfa. They are on soaked timothy hay pellets, great supplement, and filtered water. Yep, figured that one out. Did you know that they sell filters for your garden hose? Yep, it's for misting systems. I have two tanks in the pasture and one automatic waterer. My horses drink out of the filtered water tank, only. It's their choice. Coats, manes and tales are looking great. Hawk is actually getting a tail and mane, now. Shaun feels like velvet and there is a brand new top mane growing and covering his old one. Eclipse has lost a significant amount of weight and is in a much better mood. I think it's partly because of the Evatex she's on. Everyone is healthy, sound and enjoying a huge pasture of native grass. I also have round bales out, and they nibble on those as well. Shaun has good weight on him, and is no longer finishing dinner. I may go to a once a day feeding for him and see how he does.
I rode Eclipse in the pasture last night. Where the lead mare goes, so goes the herd. Hawk and Shaun raced each other across the pasture, tails flying. Bit got some good trotting in, too. Great way to exercise four horses in 1/4 of the time! Had a blast! Picked hedge apples from Ecipse's back and horses loved that. Eclipse got to practice leaving the herd caaaaaallllmly. The herd got to practice hide and go seek! All in all, I think for now the eating program is good, and horses are doing well. Thanks everyone for your suggestions! |
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| Chablis |
Good to hear, Bit.
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| Clarissa |
Great to hear that Bit. Did you read my post where I gave ideas on how to clear iron from water using precipitation seeded with simple minerals?
I can just imagine the scene of your horses racing each other across the paddock. Beats trotting circles any day.
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