Re: Re: Body fat and endurance

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

> I suspect that, insofar as feeding practices, Mr. Raswan was fairly
> accurate, but he also described (and photographed) horses that would
arouse
> the interest of the SPCA if found in these parts.
> In fact, a central theme in "Drinkers of the Wind" is that he failed to
> recognize the beauty of the Bedu horses when he saw them in the desert,
and
> it was not until he saw them a second time, fattened up after a rest in
> town, that he appreciated them.
> --CMNewell (history geek)


I read it a few years ago and that's right. It's still the case in Egypt
that there are some brilliant but underfed horses around, especially in the
Giza area. They are the source of income for these guys and especially in
the summer when the tourists are thinner and the forage is expensive, they
tend to get pretty ratty looking. After incidents and during the Gulf War,
it was awful, because there simply were no tourists around to ride and given
a choice between feeding his kids and feeding his horse, the horse often got
the short end of the stick. If you find a sound and sane one ( and there are
a few) to take home and feed, you can get some fairly marvelous animals.
Round here dates are a supplement, like carrots, but I suspect much
healthier.  In the early fall, the fresh crisp dates that the horses
especially go for are also cheaper than carrots.

Tom asked about hay for camels. My understanding of camels is that they are
constructed so as to be able to thrive on virtually any vegetable substance,
up to and including cotton t-shirts. They could have been feeding them
anything, but at least in Egypt the only forage that's grown as forage is
either sorghum or berseem, that sort of alfalfa-y stuff.  They do sometimes
dry the berseem for later.  There isn't enough water and/or space in this
part of the world for hay.  No one even knows what it is.  Might have been
rice stalks too, come to think of it. That's used as an animal feed as well,
sparingly for horses.




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