My 5 (Edible) Things

4/11/2013

Not things I eat, but the five things my horses eat every day ... Click images for captions and to enlarge.

1. Both boys get alfalfa hay as the bulk of their roughage diet. Our alfalfa is bright green with an even mixture of stems and leaves. Speedy gets alfalfa/oat cubes at night to help eliminate waste. I think he actually prefers the cubes to loose hay.

2. As a supplementary roughage, both boys also get approximately 1½ pounds of soaked beet pulp each day. I like beet pulp for several reasons: it adds calories without amping them up. I soak mine with a lot of water which is great in the summer time, and just as helpful in the winter when water consumption tends to go down. I can also "hide" electrolytes in the beet pulp during the summer when needed.

Shredded Beet Pulp

3. Once the beet pulp has soaked, I add another pound or so of rice bran to each boy's ration as an added fat source. Sydney seems to need the extra fat more than Speedy does, but since Speedy's weight is just right, the pound or so he gets must be helpful. At the very least, it's not causing any harm.

Stabilized and Pelleted Rice Bran

4. Both boys also have access to salt 24/7. I know Speedy eats his every single day, but Sydney doesn't seem to have much of a taste for it. Speedy starts his beet pulp/rice bran mash, and within 2 minutes, I know because I've timed it, he begins to alternate eating his mash with licking the salt rock. He only licks the salt when he's eating his mash. I think he really likes his food salty. Sydney just pushes the block around. He also had a Himalayan Salt Rock, but he showed no interest in it.

5. The last thing my boys eat are a few treats each day while I am grooming and saddling. Most of the time they get the Manna Pro Bite Size Nuggets, but lately they've been hooked on Purina's Horse Treats. I gave these a try myself. They were pretty tasty and have a distinct carrot flavor. They also have an airy crunch much like Cheetos do.

And that's it. That's the whole gamut of what my boys get. Sydney no longer gets a daily calmer; he's actually better now than when he was on it. Go figure. Neither of them require any kind of joint maintenance or other health-related supplement, thankfully. I hope we can keep it that way.

Stephanie link

4/11/2013 12:34:37 am

My horses LOVE the Purina apple flavored treats. Pyxar has upped him calorie intake lately (he's growing like a bad weed, I've literally taped him at growing a whole INCH this past month, eek!!!). We've added soaked beet pulp and alfalfa pellets to his ration of grain and free-access hay.

Karen

4/11/2013 10:35:21 am

An INCH???? Holy cow! :0)

My guys liked the apple, too, but they got tired of them after a while. They really dig these carrot ones!

Sarah link

4/11/2013 01:58:28 am

My Bohemian gets pretty much the same. AM feeding: 1 flake alfalfa + 1 flake 3-way oat hay (oat, wheat, barley). PM feeding: 1 flake 3-way oat hay + 1 flake grass. Most days a week: beet pulp + rice bran. And many a treat. My pony also likes the Manna Pro cookies (which I find baffling - he prefers them to all other treats!).

4/11/2013 10:36:59 am

Those Manna Pro cookies look funky, but my guys love them, too! I wish we had access to other hay types, but it's pretty much mostly alfalfa here in the valley. You can get other hay, but it's pricey and not as easy to get.

Lauren link

4/11/2013 04:47:01 am

Love beet pulp. It's one of my favorite foods for ponies :)

4/11/2013 10:38:17 am

Me, too! I call it miracle food. :0)

We started it feeding it to our endurance horses more than 15 years ago to our endurance horses. Most people hadn't seen it in those years and wondered what the heck it was!

Kelly link

4/11/2013 04:52:33 am

I love that you tried the treats yourself!

4/11/2013 10:38:42 am

Well, in my defense, they looked and smelled pretty good! :0)

lytha

4/11/2013 04:58:44 am

whoa, you feed alfalfa. i guess i would too for baasha if i could have - there is no alfalfa in germany outside of the plastic packages in feed stores. they do not even grow alfalfa here, i was told. it seems to be a "fancy" ingredient in some of the mixed grains (muslis) around here.

i love the salt thing - he sure loves his food salty!! so do i. i prefer popcorn to chocolate anyday, and chips to sweets. my husband eats chocolate every day of his life. i eat a bite of chocolate weekly and bring him the rest of the bar: ) but i can eat so much popcorn it's scary. (but i always feel great the next day, isn't that odd.)

thanks for sharing the images and text of your boys' daily rations. i find it interesting that you feed beet pulp and rice bran. it took me forever to find a company that sells rice bran in germany, and it was very expensive. i believe that when balanced with beet pulp it's a great supplement. i still worry a great deal about the sugar content in the beet pulp i buy. i probably need to rinse it, ugh.

i need a horse to feed.

4/11/2013 10:41:31 am

I've read your posts about the hay search. You need to write more about feed stuffs in Germany. I know it must be quite different. Rather than feed what you would normally feed here, have you searched out or tried just feeding what would be typical there? What do they feed their endurance horses? I would love to see a blog post about how the Germans feed their endurance horses.

I SO hope you find a horse soon, Lytha. The last few you looked at were really nice ...

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Not-So-Speedy Dressage