feeding pasture horses at rides

[Onefarmgirl@aol.com]

Hi all

This is the first year that I've had the luxury of having my endurance horse 
on gorgeous pasture.    That's all well and good, but here's my problem.   I 
don't think that en route to a ride and/or at a ride is a good place to 
suddenly change the horses' feed.   Of course with the pastured horse this is 
not an option - by definition you have to change your feed practices.    Not 
only am I changing his feed, I'm changing him from fresh grass with a very 
high water content to dry old hay.  I do generally soak the alfalfa; if I try 
to soak the grass hay, he just won't eat it.  However, no reasonable amount 
of soaking approximates the fresh grass. 

Seems as if I am changing his feed at the worst possible moment, and changing 
it for the worse at that.   I've been toying with the idea of moving him to 
his paddock a week or so before a ride to change him to hay then.

So......... whadaya think?   Is this a non-issue?    For those of you who 
have been keeping your horse on pasture, do you just pull 'em off and load 
'em in the trailer with hay?    Susan?   Comments?

pat farmer