My horse loves watermelon. He eats it rind and all.
I stop at roadside stands and buy their "blemished" melons at a discount.
We just throw it on top of his regular feed and he chomps it down. At
rides, where they have watermelon at the meals, I go around and scrounge the
left overs from people plates.
As for the feed benefits, it just seems that it is
a decent source of fliuds, and he likes it..
As with any horse feed, you don't want to give
him too much at first. I don't give
him the equivilant of more than 1/4 of a melon over a one day
period. Maybe somebody with more feed knowledge can give us a more
scientific basis for feeding it We do try to keep it cool or refrigerated.
Afraid if it got too warm the melon juices may start to ferment.
Watermelon wine and an endurance horse may not be a good mix. I do
wonder though about the seeds passing through his system? Are we seeding the
trails with watermelons as we ride? Since I have yet to pass
melon patches in the National forest trails We ride, hopefully this is a
non-issue.
