Susan, thank you for your quick response. The pasture that my mare
lives in is approximately 9 acres for six horses and probably 3/4 of
it is vegetation (the rest is just bare ground). The pasture is
green, but what I consider a pale green compared to the lushness of
the grass in Iowa. It is not irrigated, however there is a creek that
bisects it, and the horses eat whatever grows. The grass is mostly
down to nubs, also.
The grain she is fed is primarily rolled oats, with corn as the next
largest ingredient. Alfalfa pellets comprise the smallest percentage
of the feed, and I cannot say with certainty that they are all
alfalfa. The horses are given a flake of coastal hay with each meal.
If you are not familiar with coastal hay, I understand it's primary
purpose is to provide something to chew on as it does not provide much
nutrition. My mare is not very interested in it, but does eat her
flake. (As a side note, I just began to put all this together last
night and the barn owner is out of town until next week, but I want to
gather the information and make some changes as soon as she returns
and get my horse back up to speed.) A "scoop" of grain by my
estimation is approximately 1.5 to 2 pounds. The horses also get a
dose of Strongid C 2X every morning. They are not fed in stalls,
however I have observed feeding time and they are a pretty respectful
bunch and nobody really gets run off their bucket until almost the
very end, so I am confident that she is getting a close to a full
ration (she is not the lowest herd member and moves on to another
bucket when someone moves into hers).
She was delivered to me almost exactly a month ago and has lost
approximately 30 pounds in that time (by the measure of a weight
tape). She was approximately 1033 pounds when I left Iowa and
yesterday she weighed approximately 1003 pounds. I tend to believe
the problem is somehow food-related because she shows absolutely no
signs of illness. I also do not believe it to be internal parasites
because she has been on Strongid since March and that has been
supplemented with bi-monthly doses of ivermectin.
Thank you very much for your insight and assistance.
Kathy and Bala Fire
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