Re: can horses pick their ration?

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Morris <bobmorris@rmci.net>


>Some interesting things can be observed regarding "free choice" dietary
>trends.
>
>While many persons, including TI feel that horses do not knowledgeably make
>a choice I have observed some actions to the contrary.
>
>An example; our area is VERY deficient in selenium! How did we find out
that
>our horses were very deficient? They were eating the Astragalus (loco weed)
>that concentrates selenium in the leaves. We noticed that these plants,
>quite prominently visible in our pasture, all had the center leaves cropped
>off. Vet advised supplementing their diet and when we did the eating of the
>plant diminished and over time ceased.

Horses in selenium toxic areas are also known to eat loco weed. There are a
host of other possible explainations for that: seasonal, year to year
variations in crop factors, other management and environmental changes.

>Now, one observation that is not a dietary choice; we have a "free choice"
>salad bar close to our water supply (a spring) for the horses. I has , from
>left to right, a salt block, loose salt, mineral supplement and another
salt
>block all in a five foot line between two trees and chest high off the
>ground. Also a roof for weather protection. The loose salt and mineral
>supplement are consumed according to the work the horses get. NOW, the left
>hand salt block is consumed twice as fast as the right hand one. Both are
>the same but always the left hand one goes twice as fast as the right.
>WHY???

That proves the inadequecy of most poorly designed tests. The 2 identical
blocks are not consumed at the same rate. If that had been different, it
would have appeared to prove something when in fact it proved nothing other
than horses are creatures of habit. Try 4 piles of loose CaCl, NaCl, KCl,
P2Cl. Track the consumption and also track the mineral input from the normal
diet. Then change the diet substantially - say go from an alfalfa and beet
pulp diet to orchardgrass and rice bran. See if the horse makes the
appropriate transition in his mineral choice. Personally, it is not an
experiment I am going to try on my horses. But if indeed they eat what they
need, the risk to the horse would be zero.

>
>Third observation concerning diet. In the past year we have been host to
>four horses , not endurance horses, that on arrival were beavers. Any wood
>in sight, as long as it was dry, was consumed. (consider how my barn
corners
>now look) Even old power poles used for retaining walls were chewed upon.
>After these horses were put on free choice minerals and a diet including
>rabbit brush, cottonwood leaves and cheat grass (also various semi-desert
>foothills vegetation) they lost the webbed feet and flat tails and now
>behave like (well almost like) horses.
>
>No real scientific proof, but I do feel the horse does to an extent, make a
>dietary choice depending on needs other then nourishment.
>
>
>Bob Morris
>Morris Endurance Enterprises
>Boise, ID


That horses may do to lack of some nutrient eat odd things may (although I
am not convinced) have some validity. That they have any ability to actually
seek out the specific nutrient they are missing I find even less probable.

If you are convinced, you should be willing to feeding free choice
selenium - quite frankly I would do no such thing with my horses and would
consider doing so dangerous.

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net