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Re: [RC] Re: Beet Pulp...How much? - superpatHi Susan, (I am including this note to RC as I am certain your advice will touch more than a few inquiring minds). I have been re-reading much of your advice regarding beet pulp and this particular excerpt (Sept., 2001) was a bit of a "heads-up" for me. You can feed up to about half the hay ration---that is, if a horse normally eats 20 pounds of hay per day, you can slowly replace ten pounds of it with beet pulp dryweight. However, that's a bunch of beet pulp and assuming you're feeding it wet, you have to watch out it doesn't start to sour before the horse can eat it all. My old broodmare used to eat 12-14 pounds a day in three feedings (she basically lived in her bucket) and I thought she held the record til her piglet son Dakota broke her record at 15-16 pounds a day PLUS hay (I had casually told Karen he could have 'all he wants' and she took me at my word). Worth mentioning that of course you'd wanna take some time to introduce any new feed and work up to higher amounts---one nice lady said she was going to start feeding beet pulp, then emailed me back two weeks later and was wondering if it was normal for her horse to be farting like that. She was so enthusiastic about it (the beet pulp, not the farting), she'd put the horse right onto ten pounds a day and the horse was turning into a methane factory. But by golly, did he have great gut motility or WHAT. <g> Anyway, introduce it gradually like you would anything else. Most horses seem to do fine getting 5-8 pounds a day, depending on what your goals are, weight gain or whatever. I have been feeding my three horses less than a pound a day. I soak two cups pellets overnight which makes enough to feed each horse three to four cups soaked pulp (mixed with their supplements, oil & 1/2 to 1 cup rice bran for flavor) adding enough warm water to make it really soupy like heavy cream. This makes about a gallon or so of mixture. Wednesday before an endurance ride, I start feeding as much soaked beet pulp and free choice hay that my horse will eat. She doesn't show any interest in the beet pulp unless it is "sweetened" with bran or rice bran or Complete Advantage, so she isn't really consuming much. Sometimes once at the camp on Friday and Saturday morning, she may eat up to a quart of soaked beet pulp (which translates to less than a pound dry weight pellets) and then shows little interest at the holds or vet checks. I can hardly imagine trying to feed even one pound of pellets soaked (which would make a huge amount). Got any suggestions for encouraging her to eat a substantial amount? Perhaps I have not been patient enough in increasing the amounts slowly enough and have given up when she has left her feed in the bucket. Also, do you feed the soaked pulp "straight" without adding "sweeteners" to encourage eating? Pat (who has been feeding a pitifully small amount of beet pulp) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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