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Re: [RC] quarter horse neck - Maryanne Stroud GabbaniSand colic is a big problem here. My favourite mare had a problem with it and was described as having "more sand in her stomach than (the vet) had ever seen in a live horse"! Scary pronouncement. I have horses that I keep on sand and some on grass, but I just don't have enough grass paddock right now for all of them. Even so the grass isn't thick and it's sand underneath. I feed mine free choice rice hay 24/7 and so far, so good. They nibble on the hay all day and night and seem to leave the sand alone. One breeder near me has had to fit all his horses with muzzles to keep them from eating sand, but they are on sand paddocks without hay or anything else to nibble. A lot of horses here are in boxes with meal times and no free choice feed all day, so when they are turned out on sand they are fooling around in it to find things to eat. Instant problems.My herd get soaked barley, bran, a bit of corn and some chopped hay (moistened) mixed up twice a day and served in either a brick manger (I'm sure that there is a better term for it but all I can think of right now is the Arabic word for it..towalla) or on the ground in a very large shallow cast aluminum dish (like almost 1 meter in diameter but only about 20 cm deep). Since they only eat twice a day from the mangers and the rest of the day are nibbling grass, dry grass and hay from the ground, I'm not too worried about them getting sore necks from eating away from the ground. The towalla's are only about 120 cm off the ground anyway. As much as possible, I sort of like my horses to act like horses. Maryanne Stroud Gabbani Cairo, Egypt www.alsorat.com "The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for" Louis L'Amour On Monday, Sep 13, 2004, at 15:39 Africa/Cairo, Ag47xAu49@xxxxxxx wrote: In a message dated 9/13/2004 4:00:50 AM Mountain Daylight Time, heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
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