Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two draft cross mares. My six yr old is a bit over weight, and my three yr old is just right. I keep my horses on a friends property 45 minutes away from my house. My friend travels quite a bit so I go up to feed for her when she is out of town. Normally she feeds twice a day (alfalfa), but when I go up I only feed once. My older mare began getting sand colic. Probably due to over-grazed sandy pastures they are on and my feeding once a day here and there (I do use a feed bin, but they graze the sandy soil for what they can find when they are bored) I slowly switched to a good quality oat hay, and am wanting to fill their feed bin completely to allow them to free feed, cure boredom, not have to go 24 hours between feedings every six weeks, and not gain more weight. I have heard free feeding is not good. Does anyone have any comments/experience with the subject? I did go up today and feed twice the amount I usually do ( 4 oat flakes and one alfalfa flake) and they did not finish the oat hay (about two flakes left). They walked away after about an hour, dissappointed I assume,,,,,,any suggestions would be good thanks!

I personally have not had to experience this type of colic since I live up in the NE. I have heard that feeding phyllium in a bran mush once a week works great as a preventative. As long as you are throughly cleaning out the feed bin to prevent spoilage it shouldn't be a problem. It's going to be hard to stop them from grazing.

>>I have two draft cross mares. My six yr old is a bit over weight, and my three yr old is just right. I keep my horses on a friends property 45 minutes away from my house. My friend travels quite a bit so I go up to feed for her when she is out of town. Normally she feeds twice a day (alfalfa), but when I go up I only feed once. My older mare began getting sand colic. Probably due to over-grazed sandy pastures they are on and my feeding once a day here and there (I do use a feed bin, but they graze the sandy soil for what they can find when they are bored) I slowly switched to a good quality oat hay, and am wanting to fill their feed bin completely to allow them to free feed, cure boredom, not have to go 24 hours between feedings every six weeks, and not gain more weight. I have heard free feeding is not good. Does anyone have any comments/experience with the subject? I did go up today and feed twice the amount I usually do ( 4 oat flakes and one alfalfa flake) and they did not finish the oat hay (about two flakes left). They walked away after about an hour, dissappointed I assume,,,,,,any suggestions would be good thanks!
-----
PHFlea
HFlea@pethobbyist.com" target="_blank">PHFlea@pethobbyist.com

Free-choice forage is the best way to maintain a horse unless there are specific health concerns. It helps maintain normal digestive health by, among other things, helping to move sand through the GI tract as well or better than the "sand clear" products on the market. Other things to do would be to feed up off the ground to help limit the intake of sand.

So filling up their feeder with hay if you can only go out once a day is a good idea. If weight becomes an issue then soaking the hay for 30 minutes in cold water prior to feeding will cut the carb content and thus the digestible energy available in the hay. If you do soak your hay, you should provide a vitamin mineral supplement as soaking also leechs some of nutrients from the hay.

Cindy D.
Registered Veterinary Technician

A friend of mine had a horse founder due to too much alfalfa hay. If you can get bermuda hay, that would be good. It's not as rich as alfalfa, so they can eat all they want of it. I'd recommend getting Sandblast as well, add that to their grain one weekend a month and that will help clear out the sand. I live in Florida, so I know all about sand colic. Keep mineral oil handy as well, it's a good colic-preventative. On a very dry, dusty day, you can add a small cup of it to their grain and it helps keep them cleaned out.

I agree with watering down the hay, my horses tend to prefer it that way since it keeps the dust to a minimum.

-----
Holly

0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Lizzie Borden) (missing )
1.0 Florida Kingsnake possible mix (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Egyptian Arabian (Bagan)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)