"omnomnomnom, belly deep grass"
I really appreciate your input. Thanks! Please feel free to comment I would love to hear how you feed your horses.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
How do you feed your horse? Please help me out.
Just a survey of sorts to help with another blog post. I would be very grateful if you guys could vote on the poll. If your answers are not up there I would LOVE comments!!
I really appreciate your input. Thanks! Please feel free to comment I would love to hear how you feed your horses.
I really appreciate your input. Thanks! Please feel free to comment I would love to hear how you feed your horses.
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8 comments:
Daisy doesn't quite have free choice hay. . . she gets a flake of hay, thinly spread over her pasture so she's sort of grazing, every hour and a half to two hours during the day. If for some reason I can't be home, I stick flakes in her slow feeding hay net.
I could click several of the feeding fear options: moldy/bad hay and dehydration for example. I chose colic since that may be the end result of the other two, although I would hope to prevent it by paying close attention to hydration and food quality.
I board my horse, so I am not in control of his feeding schedule. I wish (x1000) that he had free choice hay or at least more than two feedings a day. Unfortunately, feeding times vary as well, especially when "guest feeders" enter the picture. At least SmartPak has made feeding supplements much more consistent. Oh and we tried a slow-feeder hay net, but it was a fail for my horse due to his overbite. I was really bummed about that one.
Looking forward to your post.
I voted "other" for the hay feeding question, b/c my boy is on 100% grass pasture in the summer time. ZERO hay fed. He does get a vit/min supplement as well as free-choice salt (with added mineral), but beyond that, he wanders around and munches on grass. Love it SOO much more than feeding hay. Makes me happiest when he can move for the summer where he can roam about!
I marked, "Other" for frequency of feeding hay. In the first part of spring and early summer I limit the amount of time my horses are on grass. When they don't get out on grass I try to feed hay three times a day. Later in the summer, and in the winter, they get hay twice a day and have more time on pasture during the day.
I feel really lucky that my horse is on irrigated grass pasture 24/7 and gets supplemented with a flake of alfalfa once a day in winter. I know all the people who feed, and we're all looking out for everyone, so we try not to let any moldy feed get to any of the horses.
I supplement a few things vit/minerals in a small ration of beet pulp and rice bran in the summer, and a larger portion in the winter.
I commented through the voting submission. Let me know Syd, if I need to commwnt here too!
KK
Before we built anything on our new farm, we had the soil tilled and sprigged with tifton 44 bermuda. With a beautiful stand of grass, our horses get pasture only as long as it's green and small hay bales when it's not. Then when we bought horses and soon hired a trainer who teaches Clinton Anderson, he had two rules: no grain! and no bits! Those were the two best things we did for our horses. They are so much easier to deal with. The C.A. training helped too.
Glad to find your blog. Happy to have you around the red farmhouse!
I don't feed your typical horses - Bonnie is a solid Paint older (19) and IR (insulin resistant). While she gets unlimited hay she does NOT get much grass grazing. Maybe an hour late after noon. She is feed a 14% protein low sugar low starch low nsc pellet.
Rosie is a draft. Drafts are know to develop EPSM. Studies show that feeding the EPSM diet will help prevent the symptoms showing up. EPSM diet is a lot like an IR diet. I need more energy calories I add fat in oils like flax or vegetable not sugars.
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