Ok, I'll ask a question ... I haven't taken the
time to research it, but I give my horses Purina Equine Senior as a top dressing
to their beet pulp soup. My reasoning was that if my 35-year-old guy lived on
that stuff for 5 years with hardly any hay, it couldn't be like giving them
grain as it's a complete pre-processed feed. But like I said I haven't asked or
researched it. Just my thought. Any comments?
On feeding super web slurries, my thought on that
is, I offer my horse water first and if she won't drink the water, at least
she's getting water in her soup because she'll ALWAYS eat the soup. And there's
usually a half a gallon of water in there minimum. It's better than
nothing?
I have heard the rule of thumb is no large grain meals within 8
hours of a ride. This comes out of KER research and was presented at the AERC
convention in Lexingtion some number of years ago. Of course with the premixed
high fat, high fiber commerical feeds available today, you are probably okay
with a couple hours. I think it really gets back to the horse and learning
what is best for your horse. We may be making this too difficult. I try to lay
out grass hay, alfalfa hay, and my feed which is a commerical high fat/high
fiber mix and let them eat what they want. If there is fresh grass around I
will tell you they won't touch any of the stuff I brought and will stick their
nose in the grass - but of course grass is the perfect food for a horse.
The mare I used to ride would eat her way through a 100 on alfalfa and
grass - but she really perfered the alfalfa on ride day - hay, grass if
there was any around and cracked corn and rolled oats and never got a grade of
less than B+ on gut sounds the whole time I rode her.
I'm not a big
fan of realy super wet slurries, sloppy mashes or whatever you want to call
them. It sounds good in theory but I'm not so sure in practice. The amount of
water you can get in a horse this way is about as much as they would get by
sticking their nose in a water bucket for 10 seconds. I'd rather have them
drink then eat then drink ... than try to give it to them all in one step. Let
the horse choose when to eat and when to drink. At least for me
the jury is still out on this one.
I need some input as to whether or not
you feed grain while at rides. I know some who feed no grain, even on
hundreds. I know others who feed grain darnnear free
choice. Each horse I have campaigned, has been
slightly different, particularly in how they each processed the enviromental
stimulation at ridecamps, which can affect certain horses' drinking and
eating habits. Normally, I don't grain, i.e., soaked
beet pulp, whole oats, 3way, strategy, the night before the start of a fifty
or a hundred. I had a vet tell me that that ration
would not process well the next morning, and could actually affect gut
motility negatively. So, anyway, I's wonderin' if
everyone grains the night before, or if it might be better to give them
their gruel, their slurry, their slop, whatever at the first vet
check? Thanks for the
feedback,
Frank
