Feeding and watering horses and riding??

Ladyknight

Ladyknight

New Member
May 6, 2007
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Queensland, Australia
I think I may have gotten my wires crossed somewhere as I keep seeing different things in relation to feeding and giving a horse water after/before exercise.

What are the rules for this? E.g No long drinks (of water:p) straight after exercise? Just a short drink and then more later? Can you feed them straight after exercise? How long after feeding them do you have to wait to ride?

Thanks:)
 
the general rule is don't feed before you work them and wait till they are cooled down properly to feed them after work.... also = don't allow them too big a drink before, during or straight after hard work...

However - as with every rule you'll get examples of how peeps do it differently with no detremental affect to the horses - ie - the polo yard i used to work at was managed by argentines - they fed first (high oat/high energy feed) then exersised them straight after ever morning - none of the horses were any the worse for it - but i suspect that's because it was their routine :)
 
mine is out at grass 24/7 so always eating, when i go down he thinks its feed time and is grumpy if he gets nothing so to pacify him, i give hima bit of chaff.

He drinks when he likes as to be honest its never a lot.

My thought was, feeding up to half an hour before or after exercise.
 
I don't give hard feed for an hour before riding or about 40 minutes after riding ...

I allow access to water before & after as long as the water has been standing in the bucket (i.e. I don't like to give freshly pulled water as I find it too cold) ... Libby is a classic case of getting colicy if she drinks freshly pulled water after exercise but she's fine if the water was already standing for a an hour or so ,,, :rolleyes:
 
Soot said:
I don't give hard feed for an hour before riding or about 40 minutes after riding ...

I allow access to water before & after as long as the water has been standing in the bucket (i.e. I don't like to give freshly pulled water as I find it too cold) ... Libby is a classic case of getting colicy if she drinks freshly pulled water after exercise but she's fine if the water was already standing for a an hour or so ,,, :rolleyes:
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I let Lou drink as much as she likes after excercise as well, though I tend to try and stop her having gallons under half an hour before we go out. Tbh, I reckon that unless the water is ice cold or your horse hasn't cooled down properly then they should be fine drinking right after excercise. As an instructor pointed out to me, if I went for a hill walk or something, I'd be drinking as much as I wanted along the way and afterwards.
 
HashRouge said:
I let Lou drink as much as she likes after excercise as well, though I tend to try and stop her having gallons under half an hour before we go out. Tbh, I reckon that unless the water is ice cold or your horse hasn't cooled down properly then they should be fine drinking right after excercise. As an instructor pointed out to me, if I went for a hill walk or something, I'd be drinking as much as I wanted along the way and afterwards.
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When we hack out, we often stop at troughs and let them have a drink, so that's During exercise. Never had a problem.
Rambo used to drink out of the river too ;)
 
But don't throw up your arms in horror when you see endurance riders giving buckets of sloppy food to the horse at every check point or vet stop...... and lots of water too.
 
I try and give our horses an hour to digest a hard feed before riding, the main reason for me being that if we ride too soon after a feed the horses are always a bit fired up and full of beans. Some of the ladies who have livery with us will ride straight after feeding, with no ill effects. As for drinking, mine are allowed to drink as much as they like, whenever they like, and that includes from icy cold mountain streams as we go through them, and again we don't get any problems.
 
feeding.

your horse shouldn't have food within an hour before work and an hour after work, otherwise it can cause colic. As for water i would make sure the horse is hydrated before work and leave 15 - 20 minutes before giving water after work, once again it causes colic if you give them it too early.

hope that helps.
 
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