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[RC] XP 2001/2004 LONG - Jonni JewellWe also went with Purina products. Had no problem finding them all along the route. We used Strategy, and their small alfalfa pellets, and bought hay along the route. Yes, the horses often changed from one type to another over night. We did not gradually introduce any hay. Most that we bought were grass types. Never had trouble finding any, and never ran out. The horses preferred the cheap, yucky looking stuff, and did not like the super expensive Timothy we got in North Platte. Go figure. We also fed beet pulp, and oats. The biggest problem with hay, was that it seemed when ever anyone got some new hay, got it loaded up on their trailers, if they did not get it covered, it RAINED!!! It became a joke. We would see someone with uncovered hay, and we would laugh and say "well, it's gonna rain soon". My hay rack has a solid floor. I found, even putting tarps under the hay, and wrapping real well, water would creep under the hay, and get it wet. If I did a lot of hay storage on the rack again, I would either drill holes in my rack, or get some of the rubber floor mats like in restaurants, with the holes in them,and put them under the hay. Because we could find hay fairly often, I tried to not have to get into it to feed, until we had fed all the hay that we kept in the empty stall in the trailer. If we got new hay, and had not used any up top, we would put it down in the empty stall. I tried to keep the stuff up top for "emergencies", if we had no other hay to feed. It is a pain to get up on the rack, undo the tarps, tie downs etc., drop hay, then rewrap the hay and tie it down to keep it protected from the weather. We also found that the horses seemed to like a choice of hay types. Their eating habits were of such that they liked one type one day, and another hay the next. So a change and variety seemed to work well for us. If they did not want to eat, often giving them something different triggered them to eat well. We had no problem finding water. We carried a 55 gallon plastic barrel in the trailer, and about 4-6 "Aquatainers", which are square 5 (or 6) gallon water cans. We never paid for water, but would offer if we felt that the location might not have an abundance of water. Usually gas stations, fairgrounds and campgrounds had easy to access water, and allowed us to fill up. Just some more thoughts, which many I believe can be applied to cross country travel, and not just a ride like the XP2001 / 2004. Jonni =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.endurance.net/ads/seabiscuit.html 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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