enteroliths

["Ann Blankenship" <annb@foothill.net>]

>Feed oat or grass hay. 98% of horses (seen at UC Davis) with enteroliths
had a diet of 50%
>alfalfa hay.

Yeah but...   what about the fact that UCD is in the heart of the Sacramento
Valley where (I'll bet) 95% of the horse owners feed alfalfa?  Not arguing,
just wondering if this finding has been replicated in areas where other hays
are fed, such as the Midwest where they feed Timothy and other grasses.

Personally, I do not feed alfalfa at all but I have a devil of a time
finding good grass and oat/wheat/barley hays.  By the way, this winter I've
been feeding something my hay supplier calls "forage mix".  Its a
combination of beardless wheat, beardless  barley and oat.  My horses are
doing very well on this stuff; it smells great, not dusty, lots of grain
heads.  I wish I  could get it all the time. Anyone ever heard of this?
Sounds like a cattle feed, doesn't it?  Forage Mix??  I will say that in
recent years, fewer and fewer horse owners are feeding straight alfalfa and
more of us are looking for alternative feeds.  Maybe it's the influence of
all the endurance riders here in the Sierra foothills.