It’s hard work, you know! Trying to graze, attacking weeds, bucking, chasing birds. Very important foal stuff.
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Hazel looks like he might be interested in playing, but Roslyn might be a bit too much!
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How do you get any work done? I would be doing nothing but watch them.
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They really are captivating!! But, right now, they’re only out in pasture 3 hrs/day. from 2ish-5pm I watch them for the first two, then go clean their bedrooms, then go and run them in (with the gator and my dog).
And at 5pm… well i just have to take a few minutes to be amazed by their shine for a while. Something about the glow from inside, plus the low sun just makes them radiate health and happiness!!
fyi: zero grooming/no ‘products’. In fact, Rizada, the mustang, has never had a brush on her her entire life. lol. And Brenna hasn’t had a bath ever.
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Up north where we don’t get that for most of the year it’s known as Vitamin G. (grass).
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These two mares have only been on grass for three days. I pulled them off pasture Halloween Day because pregnant mares and fescue don’t work together. After delivering their foals i allowed them onto a turnout area that did have grass but it had been totally grazed down by sheep, and i did that before this pasture in order to naturalize their guts to grass again…but it wasn’t truly grazing. So, it’s not grass. My guess is hormones plus a lot lot lot of alfalfa. And free feed orchard grass. And sheep grain. a little over a pound, twice per day.
What’s really funny to me are all the women on the other thread who poo-poo how i’ve fed them. I mean, not actually funny, just…peculiar.
about the sheep feed again… Nothing about that feed is ‘wrong’ or bad for horses. The main question would be ionophores, and the granary i use will not mix them in their custom cattle feeds. So i’ve felt OK using the grain on my Assisted Living sheep all these years. (assisted living sheep are the elderly ones who are blind or toothless, or both and can no longer be out in pasture)
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If I recall correctly you were concerned about OCDs, and people were addressing those concerns. A mature horse isn’t in danger of those. Foals are, so a balanced diet is suggested.
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OCD and the foals… I thought maybe the foals were thin, That was what i was questioning to the breeding group of people. Because I have been seeing many ‘fluffy’ foals and mine are stringy in comparison. I was trying to make a point that i wouldn’t be very inclined to feed the foals because one time i over-nourished and felt guilty, felt that i was responsible for giving that filly OCD. My fears were assuaged when breeders said they were not skinny, that they were in good shape.
and then, someone was interested in the mares diets. and when i said what i was feeding, they got kinda forceful about how my feeding practice was not good. Sheep feed and all that was in it was not good for horses (oats, cracked corn, soybean meal) And many people LIKED that comment (that i was doing a disservice to my mares.).
And like i said on there, i contacted an animal science college professor i know personally who teaches at college level, equine nutrition and she was FINE with what i was feeding. She knows the granary, and she knows my farm. i think she has a 360 degree view of my lactating mares’ keeping. And she is an expert.
so, take a look at these mares and tell me again how they could possibly be poorly nourished?
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The only thing I would question is that sheep don’t get copper and horses do. And they need it, especially for their hooves. ?? beyond that, I’d wonder about selenium. That is all.
I am all for the rule of KISS…
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I think a lot of the horse nutrition world has moved beyond oats and sweet feed for all but horses in the hardest work, like racehorses.
With my easy keeping Morgans, ration balancers have been a godsend. These are not “balanced to the individual hay load”; they are commercial products meant mostly to make up for nutrients that might be missing in forage, especially protein in grass hay in areas where alfalfa isn’t widely used. But they aren’t for every horse in every situation. Some easy keeping broodmares and youngsters do fine on them, though typically at a higher feed rate of 2 pounds per day rather than 1.
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Our breed, Icelandic sheep, actually require copper. With it they are better able to combat the dreaded barberpole worm. Selenium is actually added into my sheep mix. Plus, free-choice trace mineral granulated salt is in a pan in their barn.
My mares were on 600g twice per day. So that’s actually a bit more than 2 pounds. Now that they are on pasture, and as of today it will be a full day, not just 3 hours/day, i’ll reduce them.
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They aren’t malnourished. If their diet wasn’t up to par you would see it in their foals and in them. I see healthy , active foals in good weight. I see well fleshed , shiny mares with plenty of milk attending to their foals.
The trend has somehow gone away from feeding whole grains ( as we used to) to feeding the by products ( middlings, hulls etc) . There is nothing wrong with feeding whole grains IME. Never has been.
ETA: The colt has really come up on his pasterns since birth. I bet the back ones will eventually be fine. He does have long pasterns which generally have more slope.
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Slo-mo video. He’s got a four-beat canter…lol. Hope that changes…
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i took a little rest with Hazel…until Brenna heard something, snorted him up and off they went to see lol.
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I am enjoying the videos. Thank you so much for posting them.
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Looks like he swaps behind when he gets jammed up behind her and then comes out in cross canter too, but he’s still figuring out what to do with those legs.
Once someone on here told me about using YouTube it made things really easy. Not just for here but to email and text to friends. I’m into it!
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Somebody’s got an itch, and Bunny (one of the guardian llamas) looks on disapprovingly. Llamas are such dour creatures…
(Half horse/half cat. Their motto: “Don’t like it. Never did and Never will.”)
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