feeding

[Rick]

Can someone explain to me the difference in the type of feed. When we bought our 1/4 horse he was out to pasture most of the day and was allowed to come in and out of the barn when he wanted. He ate mostly on the grass with about 1 pound of grain twice daily.Once in the morning and again in the evening. His attitude when we bought him was very laid back, this was in August of theis year.

Now that we have him, we board him with other horses and he only gets turned out for a few hours each day. I talked with the previous owners and they said that they kept him at 10% protien. The feed that he is getting now is at about 20% protien. The hay is also very rich. He does not get to graze much right now.

My question is are we feeding him to much protien ? He is very spirited at this time. He was quite in his stall. But now he is always pacing in circles and snorting and shaking his head up and down alot. Seems very aggitated at times. When I do feed him he bolts at his hay and also at his grain, then tosses his grain on then floor with a side jerking of his nose.

Are we feeding him correctly ? I've been told that we are feeding to good of hay and grain. And that it also might be that the weather has been alot cooler for him. That horses seem to get full of energy when the weather cools off.

I've also been told NOT TO WORRY about it, to lunge him b4 I ride and he will be fine.
His eyes and his attitude says different
ps. we only get to ride him about once a week and its only for pleasure, no contesting.
Need a little advise please.

[This message has been edited by Rick (edited 29 October 1999).]

[CLAUDIA]

Warning: I'm not an expert. :)

Okay, protein is probably not the problem. Animals such as horses, utilize what they need of protein, and excrete most of the rest. Energy, on the other hand, is either used or stored in the body. If your horse is getting too much energy in his daily ration, then he will start to store it as fat.

Too much concentrated feed can be hard on a horse for a number of reasons; it's a very high energy feed. Horses need to eat more often and much less at each meal, so that it's more like grazing. A horse's digestive system is suited to grazing.

A good quality hay/pasture is probably all your horse needs if it's only exercised about once a week; no oats (actually oats is a bit confusing because it has its own built in roughage source), no corn, no concentrated feed. If it were a performance horse, then it would need the concentrated feed, forages, and/or roughages to maintain itself plus all the work it would have to do. Does this make any sense?

:)

[This message has been edited by CLAUDIA (edited 29 October 1999).]

[Rick]

Yes, this makes perfect sense Claudia. I have been told this before (that they don't need the grain if they were not working). Its that the friend that is boarding my horse has almost a life time of having horses and showing. His horses range from just a trail horse to very high dollar show horses. He insists that horses need the grain. Now you are saying what others have said about the feed. Not sure that my friend is right at this time, but don't want to under mind his experience with my novice reading. But on this account I think he may be wrong.

Thanks again

p.s. What should a sweet feed include( the mixture)? The % of what ?this for a beginner rider with riding once a week .

[Sarah]

Hi Rick

It sounds to me like your horse is going over the top. If you have to lunge him before you ride him now and you didn't have to in the summer it sounds like he is getting too much energy in his food. Also, if you do that, he will associate being lunged with getting to whizz around to burn off some steam so will not work properly on the lunge in the future if you aren't careful.

I am no feed expert, particularly when it comes to feeding neat grain to horses. In the UK we tend to feed specilaist feeds, all of which have help lines you can call to get advice on what to feed your horse. It might be worht calling one of these up to get some advice as equine nutrition is a very complex issue.

Good luck

[This message has been edited by Sarah (edited 01 November 1999).]

[CLAUDIA]

Hhmmm...I don't know the answer to what sweet feed should contain. Have you had your horse checked out by a veterinarian? You should probably do that, and maybe try to arrange for him to have more turn-out time. All the horses at our barn are working hunters, and they all get grain once per day (different amount for each).

It may not be the feed at all that is causing your horse to behave this way. Is he in any sort of pain that you know of?

If I find out any more information on feed I'll let you know! :)

[Rick]

I went riding this past weekend (trail) and Sherman seemed fine. He acted very well. We cut his grain back ( with I found out was 70% oats and 30%corn along with other stuff) to about 3 pounds a day and made sure that he had more time out in the pasture. That seemed to work. I will watch him more and see how he does.

As far as I know he is in no pain. I had his teeth checked and filed flat. I do believe that he was getting to much energy from his food and no time to burn it off.