Re: bizarre practices

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

 to me. Sunflowers  seem to be very woody
> and stiff in the stalk to be feeding to horses. Does anyone know if they
are
> OK for horses to eat?<
>
> Amanda, I'm not an expert in nutrition by any stretch, so take this as
> simply "anecdotal evidence".
>
> My horses are bedded on a mix of sunflower husks and shavings.  As a
result,
> I have heaps of sunflowers growing on my manure heap - I think I have the
> prettiest manure heap in town.  My horses regularly go down and snarf up
the
> sunflowers growing there.  They don't always eat the storks, but they like
> the petals, leaves and, of course, the seeds.

The rest of the sunflower is fine for horses to eat, but I would have some
concerns about very woody stalks as well.  Fairly young plants shouldn't be
a problem.


> My farrier has just suggested that I add a handful of sunflower seeds to
> their feed at night.  He said that one of the yards he shoes for (which is

I never cease to be amazed at some of the nutrition advice you'll hear
shoers blithely handing out, especially when most of the same shoers would
throw a fit if I ever suggested shoeing advice to them.<g>  If adding a
handful of sunflower seeds to the horse's ration is causing a marked
improvement in the horse's feet, then there's something seriously wrong with
the basic ration.  You can add sunflower seeds as a treat, but they're not
adding anything worthwhile as a component of the daily diet, assuming the
daily diet is something better than paint chips and lawn clippings.

Susan G