I have a 15.2hand Tb 8 years old and is about 1,100lbs.
He’s getting 1 scoop of 12% sweet feed, 1 scoop of pellets, 1/2 scoop of dehydtared alfalfa (we went down from 1 scoop) 2x a day. He also gets NU-Image Guardian and Select II as a supplement. Well He ate the heck out of that during the winter becuase I noticed that he was losing weight. Now he’s recently stopped finishing all his alfalfa. The barn Manager told me that he eats all his sweet feed and pellets and supplements(he picks it out of the alfalfa), but he stops halfway on the alfalfa and just doen’t eat it.
Should I stop giving him the alfalfa? The grass is growing in and that field had 2 HUGE round bales for the horses to munch on. What do you think?
I think he may not be as hungry as you think.
So when you’re near me darling can’t you hear me SOS
I gave them 1/2 of a large coffee can of the dehydrated stuff with each meal (I had been giving them a handful of alfalfa cubes but our feed store had a buy one get one free deal on the dehydrated bales)
I am so glad that stuff is gone!
If you moisten it just a titch (thank you, Duffy) it will stick to their feed and get scarfed up better but your best bet, if you need to feed alfalfa, is to get the cubes or supplement their grass hay with a flake or two of nice alfalfa hay.
“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.” Winston Churchill
This almost sounds like the horses where I work. They got spoiled on the old timer food that was for the older horses. The younger horses would get some just for extra vitamins. They would get half a scoop of the good stuff and 1 scoop of their regular stuff, which is cobb. After a while they would stop eating the cobb and pick out the good old timer food. Now they are off the old timer food and just on their cobb now they eat it again, but some are still really picky, lol.
Carpe Diem (seize the day)
My horse was started on beet pulp last week. He picks through it and eats his grain but won’t finish the beet pulp. If you leave it in the bucket he will pick on it through out the day - is this normal? One person at my barn said that if he doesn’t eat it now he’ll never eat it. He’s an extremely hard keeper and this is really my last resort. If he eats it through out the day but not at once. Will it still work?
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by To Remain Anonymous:
My horse was started on beet pulp last week. He picks through it and eats his grain but won’t finish the beet pulp. If you leave it in the bucket he will pick on it through out the day - is this normal? One person at my barn said that if he doesn’t eat it now he’ll never eat it. He’s an extremely hard keeper and this is really my last resort. If he eats it through out the day but not at once. Will it still work?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Be careful leaving soaked beet pulp around to be eaten “later”. As the weather warms up it will sour and then you will have a real mess on your hands…colic anyone? Have you tried “sweetening” it with molasses? Maybe just a small portion until your horse aquires a taste.
“The older I get, the better I used to be, but who the heck cares!”
It takes a few days but they will end up eating it just fine. I was concerned when I went through “the change” as Maddie was a bit miffed.
“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.” Winston Churchill
Right now it hasn’t been too warm yet, but I would be wary leaving it out during summer heat. My horse also picks through it and eats the grain, I will give the barn some molasses to add to it also. I believe it is the molasses shredded type but maybe it’s just not enough. When we switched barns a few months ago, it took him a few days to eat his grain - hopefully it’s just a pattern with him and new feed and he will begin to like it. Thanks!
It might be the type of alfalfa that the horse is having a problem with or a poor batch. My mare will only eat Sucate cubes, not the other kinds. They even look different to me, so it could just be the horses tast in the type.
I have a 15.2hand Tb 8 years old and is about 1,100lbs.
He’s getting 1 scoop of 12% sweet feed, 1 scoop of pellets, 1/2 scoop of dehydtared alfalfa (we went down from 1 scoop) 2x a day. He also gets NU-Image Guardian and Select II as a supplement. Well He ate the heck out of that during the winter becuase I noticed that he was losing weight. Now he’s recently stopped finishing all his alfalfa. The barn Manager told me that he eats all his sweet feed and pellets and supplements(he picks it out of the alfalfa), but he stops halfway on the alfalfa and just doen’t eat it.
Should I stop giving him the alfalfa? The grass is growing in and that field had 2 HUGE round bales for the horses to munch on. What do you think?
