Is Bo doing a Karen?
Good Help, so hard to find… 
Yay for your power!
I hope Back to Normal happens soon.
In the meantime 
3 Likes
Well, one looooong HOT weekend later and the stalls are moved and re-arranged. I am still (ugh) working on cross-fencing. Bo seems to like his new setup, although he prefers the stall I don’t want him in.
Here’s my super fancy not-to-scale-at-all (paddocks are much larger than they appear) paint diagram of the new setup:
Quick explanation:
shaded grey area between the stalls is a shade cloth “roof”
grey lines are shade cloth on panel walls (top of diagram is west)
dashed line on the outside of stalls is open - no panels
I am still working on further subdividing the two sides of the paddock - so right now, Bo has the left side all to himself and Cooper and Elmo are on the right. I intended for Bo to be in the lower left stall, the one with the door, but he insists on spending all his time hanging out in the upper left one 
with his high maintenance life and extreme messy eating, I need him to be in one of the stalls with a door. Because I only have two “door” panels on hand, the upper stalls are accessed by gates in the green fence (where the arrows are), so I would have to go in and around to feed him, retrieve buckets and clean up his messes, etc.
Speaking of eating, I’m noticing losses in his topline even though his weight is fine. He is still giving me fits when it comes to reliably finishing his meals, and he’s just as likely to toss the food all over the ground as he is to actually eat it. I need to change something, but I’m not sure what.
Maybe I need to add back the senior and see if I can get him interested in it again. Maybe I need to try something different. I want him to continue getting forage, but I’m getting tired of dumping out half eaten buckets of soaked cubes that have gone rancid in the sun. And I can’t just give him a bucket full of whatever, he makes a HUGE mess that attracts flies and buckets (and water) need to be changed out frequently. When I have time to get Cooper in to see the dentist, I think I’m going to schedule Bo for a checkup too just in case there is something going on in his mouth. It’s only been 5 months, but you never know.
I’m hot, I’m tired, I’m tired of fencing and you’re stressing me out, Bo! Ideas are welcome, although you all already know that new foods must appeal to his discerning palate and he’s previously rejected almost everything out there. 
He is pretty keen on the Tribute RB I’m trying out on the ponies, but obviously that isn’t going to match his calorie needs. I’m able to get him to eat around 10-12lb of cubes per day (most days…), so that opens the door for non-complete feeds (currently on Ultium). Not sure if we’re running into problems with volume or appetite.
Will be back with Bobo pics later. And I’ll make an updated list of foods we’ve tried already, that have been rejected.
8 Likes
Gotta get that REM sleep in 
The angle from which you can see why I’m not 100% satisfied with his condition, even though he’s not “thin”:
I know he’s “old”, but he WAS filling in through his topline previously, so I’m not willing to accept age as the reason for his weak topline now. He’s been in less work, so that’s a factor, but I think with some nutritional tweaks we can fill some of this back in. We can do better!
17 Likes
He still looks pretty amazing. Is the heat a potential factor? Even my ovrstuffed hippo is standing in any shade he can find and not eating nearly as much as he did a month ago.
4 Likes
Why did this make me tear up.
I wanna kiss Bo on the nose. you are doing such an amazing job with him. 
4 Likes
You might consider those pellets I PM’d about. They don’t need to be soaked and it might give him something to do. High NSC, but maybe as a supplement they might be worth considering.
1 Like
@Heinz_57
I would not switch anyone intentionally to a high NSC feed.
I would find a nutritionist or a knowledgeable feed rep to ask about feed changes.
Yes, when it turned super hot I had to cut out his lunch meal because he wasn’t even finishing his breakfast by then. It also worked out that that allows me to turn him out with the big boys on pasture for the day. I’ve been trying to make it up with slightly larger dinner and late night meals when he eats better, but that only goes so far. The losses I’m seeing now have been slow, and it’s mostly over his topline, so I feel like I’m just missing something, not necessarily straight up calories. Unfortunately, the heat isn’t letting up any time soon (current heat index at 3pm: 111). My other hippos are pigs that won’t turn down food no matter what but it probably helps that they have a complete set of teeth, and that my hay is beautiful neon green alfalfa from Arizona. It smells so good I want to eat it.
@MunchingonHay thank you 
I am just doing what I feel is right. He deserves more than just good enough!
@Sdel with all the storm cleanup work I totally spaced that PM! Sorry! I need to go do some research.
@trubandloki no worries, I don’t do anything without extensive research first (Bo has his own spreadsheet 
). It pained me to feed him nothing but Purina Senior in the first place since I usually subscribe to a forage-based, low NSC diet plan, but it was all he would eat at that point.
5 Likes
Wow. A spread sheet. I might have to subscribe to your organization plan.
I think we all know what wonderful care you have taken of this horse.
He is looking wonderful.
2 Likes
At the advice of a nutritionist I added an amino acid supplement to my guys diet. It has really helped him fill out. I keep him on it even when I don’t ride during tax season and I always get great comments about how fit he looks despite his time off.
The one I use is pelleted and is a pretty small portion when split between two meals. I feed it with his Purina Outlast supplement. Now he does not have a refined palette like our boy Bo…
1 Like
What is the pelleted one? I can’t go super wild adding supps right now (I was actually trying to simplify my feeding program and reduce cost ) but I’d like to look into it.
It’s the Purina SuperSport.
It looks like they have a “trial program” ($5 off): https://www.purinamills.com/horse-feed/campaign/30-day-trial?icid=horseHP_supp
When I contacted my Purina Rep THROUGH my local feed store, she hooked me up with 60 days free.
ETA: Ponysaurus is Elmo/Fern size…so that plays a role in the feeding amount 
1 Like
If he likes the Tribute rb, what about one of the high fat Tribute feeds? Ultra or Resolve are the only two that come to mind at the moment.v
I’ve used this one - it is very palatable.
My old guy has been slightly less enthusiastic about his dinner in this heat. Does Bo have a flavoring he really likes? Norman pooh loves peppermint. I’ve got sugar free peppermint syrup like for making fancy coffee and drizzling a bit of that on his dinner has made a big difference. Some horses like butterscotch.
2 Likes
Kept horses in South Texas years back, mine always dropped a bit of condition midsummer, in steady work or out, friends down here in Fl have also mentioned similar. Come to think of it I don’t seem to want to eat much either.
Don’t remember, is Bo getting electrolytes? Will he drink Gatorade, especially if presented as a treat not just dumped in the water bucket?
I have to order the RB from Chewy, so I could add something for him. But I’m not sure it would be cost effective with the price increase, given how much he usually eats.
@lenapesadie he likes molasses, but he’s no dummy and won’t be tempted to eat anything he doesn’t like that it didn’t directly touch
I snagged a bag of ProElite senior on a whim when I was at TSC yesterday, they just started carrying it. Despite the fact that it has beet shreds in it (which he usually detests), he gobbled it right up. I wonder if he might eat TC Senior now. I am doing a trial run of separating out the two elements of his meals - soaked cubes in one bucket, grain (dry, which is his preferred serving method) in a separate bucket. I feed him the grain portion when I feed everybody else, and then come back in 30 minutes or so to hang the cubes. Seems to be a hit so far. Good thing I have no life outside of this place. 
@findeight he gets straight salt in his cube mash, is not a fan of any electrolyte powder I’ve tried so far - I think it’s the fake ‘apple’ scent most of them have. The only other locally available e-lyte powder is the orange Stress-dex, which I haven’t tried.
I haven’t tried gatorade with him, although I do have some powder on hand (the ‘Frost’ flavor) as well as premixed red, orange, and blue bottles. One of my horses will drink half a bucket with a scoop of the Frost flavor if I toss a handful of grain in it Bo is above fishing for morsels, though. Too much water in his food and he flings the bucket.
5 Likes
perhaps using Lite Salt (sodium and potassium) for a little balance
1 Like
Have you tried adding a beer? It’s silly but one of my horses love a cold beer in his feed.
3 Likes
I have not, I don’t drink anymore but maybe DH could spare a beer to try. If Bo won’t drink it, previous owners claimed Cooper would. That could get spendy though, especially if he has microbrew tastes!
7 Likes
