Another New Horse - It's Bo!

[Heinz_57]

Bo hangin’ out on his preferred side of the shelter… I am going to order a shade cloth to fit the one solid wall on ‘his’ side since I am finishing the cross-fencing today. I want him on the east side because it has full shade in the hottest afternoon/evening hours, and because I need to be able to hang his buckets - can’t do that with shade cloth covering the walls in this west stall. We’ve tried feed tubs and pans on the ground, but he dumps them over and shoves his food out in the dirt.

Boop.

I feels a nap comin’ on…

[starsandsun]

Even still, the goodest of good boys.

[findeight]

Had great luck with beer. Old timers swear by Guiness but I found any “Whole” beer effective and not about to get the spendy designer stuff. Lite versions don’t seem to have any effect and some wont drink them.

See if Bo will lick some off your hand- it is grain based.

[JBCool]

@Heinz_57

Boop.

Return boop!

[Noelle]

Just wanted to say that I have been catching up on reading this thread, and have enjoyed it so much. Bless all of you who take these older, or fallen-on-hard-times, horses and give them another chance. It’s hard to believe that Bo is the same horse!

[MunchingonHay]

is that a slinky on top of your gate?

[Jenerationx]

I still just can’t believe his over-eye dents. It looks like you could stick an entire finger length in there.

[JBCool]

Hot wire spring gate. It is actually several inches off the metal gate

[MunchingonHay]

At a quick glance I saw a slinky. I use them to try to keep the squirrels from raiding my bird feeders up the sheppard’s hooks.

[Heinz_57]

@findeight

Had great luck with beer. Old timers swear by Guiness but I found any “Whole” beer effective and not about to get the spendy designer stuff. Lite versions don’t seem to have any effect and some wont drink them.

See if Bo will lick some off your hand- it is grain based.

So I didn’t have any dark beer on hand, but I did find a couple cans of something else in the back of the fridge - Shiner Weiss n’ Easy. It’s an unfiltered, “full flavored” wheat beer. Trouble is, it has a hint of berry flavor to it. I added it to his bucket of grain, and he seemed mildly offended but not so much so that he didn’t eat it. Definitely wasn’t going crazy for it, but there’s a reason those two cans were shoved to the back of the fridge.

@Jenerationx

I still just can’t believe his over-eye dents. It looks like you could stick an entire finger length in there.

If I had three hands, I could totally do a demonstration. They aren’t quite that deep, I’d say they go in a little over an inch these days, but he lacks much fat over his entire head - the whole thing is just bony. If I were to age him based solely on the appearance of his head and face, I would guess him to be positively ancient.

And, in today’s Bo news:
As I anticipated would happen, after one day of separated meals, Bo is revolting over the soaked cubes and demanding we go back to a complete feed based diet. He only ate half his cube ration over night, which he usually cleans up, and is positively crazy about the ProElite Senior we’ve been sampling. While I really would prefer he stayed on a forage-heavy diet, I’m also not going to twist myself into knots trying to force him to eat it. We know he does pretty well on complete feeds, and I’m going to try to keep some forage in there - but I may have to reduce it and give the king what he wants, which is MORE PROELITE SENIOR!

Good thing I just bought another 100lbs of cubes. And TSC only had a couple bags of ProElite, guess I better go buy them. It’s only Wednesday and I’ve been to TSC twice already this week, what’s a third trip?

[starsandsun]

My old horse from Europe LOVED beer.

[findeight]

Heinz, you cant go wrong with Sheiner Bock (sp?). Or a Lone Star longneck.

[MunchingonHay]

With Bo’s history of being a picky eater, you might as well get the top shelf Belgiun beer made by monks.

[BatCoach]

He’s trying to tell you that he is an ELITE horse who can only eat ELITE foods. what a stinker!

[Jarpur]

My old gelding loves his Guinness Extra Dark Stout on these blistering hot days. Of course, he’d probably love one anytime. I know he’d recommend it to Bo.

I might try giving him a Shiner Bock sometime, possibly more affordable. ETA: Six packs of the two are the exact same price at Walmart, but the Shiner Bock comes in a 12 pack (Guinness doesn’t, at least here) at a better price per bottle than the six pack.

[Heinz_57]

@MunchingonHay

With Bo’s history of being a picky eater, you might as well get the top shelf Belgiun beer made by monks.

You’re probably right.

@BatCoach

He’s trying to tell you that he is an ELITE horse who can only eat ELITE foods. what a stinker!

I can’t blame him, it does look/smell good, and it’s super soft! But I’m concerned about supply issues, since it’s a product that TSC just started carrying and they only seem to be keeping a small amount of stock (4 bags per store) at this point. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, the novelty of new food tends to wear off with Bo after about 10-14 days, so I’m going to pick up a couple more bags this week and then see how it goes.

@Jarpur if I hit the grocery store today I might pick up some Guinness, just to try. It certainly won’t hurt him. But he better not start expecting it at every meal! LOL

[Jarpur]

Guinness is magic here. Just started my guy on the Platinum Performance Refresh (in place of One AC) yesterday, and he was unenthusiastic until I top-dressed it with half of a bottle of Stout (saved the second half in the fridge for the second dose of Refresh he got later).

The Refresh is a bigger serving than the tiny One AC one.

[jvanrens]

Well, in the world of “supplements” it would be relatively cheap and easy to find. If he really likes it and it perks up his appetite, that would be a win-win for you.

[Janet]

@Heinz_57

But I’m concerned about supply issues, since it’s a product that TSC just started carrying and they only seem to be keeping a small amount of stock (4 bags per store) at this point.

Are there any Southern States near you? That is where I get my ProElite, and I believe it is made by/for them.

[FromTheGalaxy]

Pro tip for items at TSC that they don’t seem to keep in stock in store: you can order from their in-store computer, and can get up to 3 bags shipped to your home for free. This only works if you order at their self service computer in the store. I have to do this all the time since my local stores are terrible about keeping ProForce in stock. 3 is the max you can go up to in order to have the shipping fee waived, but I have placed countless 3 bag orders and have never been charged shipping.