horse licking gravel/dirt

[heidi sowards <ribbitttreefrog@yahoo.com>]

Ok, rode last night. Not hard (his buddy wasn't there
competing with him.) Rode about 7 miles total, first 5 is
almost all uphill. Cantered easy for most of it. Let him
catch his breath, eat grass and drink water whenever he
wanted to. The last 2 miles is all downhill, pretty steep.
These are gravel Weyerhauser roads behind my house. A
section is freshly graveled and Weyerhauser has their own
gravel pits where they crush the rock to put on the road to
keep the logging trucks from sinking. I got off and walked
him the last 2 miles downhill. When he got to the freshly
gravelled section he was like a pony in a grassy field.
Kept wanting to bend down and lick the gravel. What could
he be missing mineral-wise? Anyone know?

(He gets VitE/Sel. daily, MSM, Horse Guard Vitamins, Beet
pulp, small amt. of rice bran, 8-10 oz. of cracked corn,
same amt. of rolled oats, grass/alfalfa mix and oat hay. No
pasture to speak of.) He has only done this once before.

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