Keeping horses on complete feed occupied during stall time

[LovieBird]

Background: Horse is on pasture board getting TCS gold 4 lbs. Pasture isn’t the greatest quality and he came out of winter a little thin last year. I want to add a lunch for him, which current barn doesn’t accommodate. For this and other reasons, I will be moving him to a facility that is better able to meet his changing needs.

The thing is- he can’t chew hay well/at all, so no hay for him. He’s also had colic surgery for an impaction, so it’s especially important. Not a huge deal, but at new barn he will be in the stall during the day. He’ll get three meals so the senior feed is fed as a complete feed. At night he’ll be turned out on good pasture. He can chew grass just fine for now.

I’m worried he’ll gobble up his senior mash and sit around in the stall with nothing to do. He ignores stall toys.

What are some things that might keep him occupied and from getting angry at me for putting him on stall board?

[scislandsprite]

How is he with soaked hay cubes/pellets? Could maybe soak a bunch of hay cubes and then put it on a big slow feeder bowl thing that dogs use. Chopped hay is also an option but a bit harder to chew than the soaked cubes/pellets and it tends to be a bit pricer too IME.

[LCDR]

Will he be in his stall alone, with no other nearby stalled horses to see and hear?

My first thought was actually to get him a television. That sent me down the google rabbit hole for a while. I learned quite a bit about dog and cat critical flicker fusion and how these animals do not see a continuous television picture as the frame rate is too slow for them. They evidently see a series of still pictures with a dark screen in between. Interesting, but not helpful to your guy.

[Heinz_57]

Soaked cubes if your barn will do that, would be my first choice.

As far as cubes go, I have learned that they don’t go bad nearly as fast in the heat if you strain out all the leftover water from soaking. I actually have a colander basket just for this purpose (and because my toothless horse detests extra water in his food).

Otherwise, if they can’t accommodate soaking cubes, you could try a small tub of chopped forage for him to pick at?

[Freebird]

You can give him hay pellets, hay cubes, chopped hay, ChaffHay, soaked Beet pulp… Lots of options. The TCS Gd needs to be fed at a minimum of 5-6 lbs per day. Are you keeping him on that, or moving to a different feed?

[LovieBird]

He’ll be in a barn full of horses and will be able to see across from him.

[LovieBird]

Thanks for the tip about straining. It’s hot and humid here. Yeah my guy gets insulted if there’s too much water. How much soakedcubes would you feed at once?

[LovieBird]

We’re keeping him on the TCS gold for now. He gets 8 lbs daily, and will start getting a lunch (added slowly) so he is up to the minimum 12 lbs daily they reccomend if feeding as a complete feed.

[Heinz_57]

@LovieBird

How much soakedcubes would you feed at once?

That will depend on how fast or slow he eats it before it goes bad, and also how his weight does with the new complete diet. He may be full enough from the 4lb of senior that he doesn’t gobble the soaked cubes. I’d probably work up to 2lb at a time - that soaks up to be around half a bucket full, and go from there. If he’s a slow eater when it comes to the cubes, you could probably skip doing cubes at dinner if he’s turned out pretty soon after he eats his grain.

Mine gets no more than 3lb at a time, because that’s all he will eat (if I’m lucky) before it gets funky this time of year.

[JB]

@LovieBird

Pasture isn’t the greatest quality

@LovieBird

but at new barn he will be in the stall during the day. He’ll get three meals so the senior feed is fed as a complete feed. At night he’ll be turned out on good pasture. He can chew grass just fine for now.

Is there a reason he can’t be out full time, and come in for 2 meals a day of 4-5lb of the TCSG?

I feel your pain, I have a 33yo who can do grass, but not hay (well) and have been in a situation where he’s had to be in a stall for several hours a time, and trying to keep food he likes in front of him, that doesn’t sit and become a fly magnet (losing battle right now) has been a struggle.

Can he eat chopped hay products? Mine can’t, but some can

Soaking hay cubes and draining the water is an option, that takes a bit of time to eat, but if they aren’t eating it fast enough it can start getting grody

[LovieBird]

At the current barn he’s out 24/7 and gets 4 lbs am and 4 lbs pm, both soaked. When I come out I bring him soaked orchardgrass/alfalfa pellets also, but that’s only 3-4 times a week and he can only eat so much in one sitting. Under this routine, he’s still a tad ribby, even though though the grass is at its best (relatively speaking- there’s also alot of weeds and the pasture isn’t really maintained properly). He also came out of last winter thin despite blanketing and giving him his soaked hay pellet snacks.

I tried him on SafeStarch chopped hay and Chaffhaye. Neither of those tickled his fancy. I do think he prefers soaked pellets over cubes. I don’t think he would let it sit long enough to get gross.

I haven’t tried beet pulp (as someone mentioned earlier) in awhile. Maybe some combination of soaked pellets and beet pulp???

[LovieBird]

I’d like to also thank everyone who’s responded! This is new territory for me and I want to do everything I can to best meet my horse’s changing needs.

[JB]

@LovieBird

At the current barn he’s out 24/7

Right, but I get the impression the new place has better grass - yes? I would much rather have him out 20 hours a day on better grass, and getting 4-5lb of the TCSG twice a day, than have him in a stall 10-12 hours a day trying to figure out how to keep a stomach reasonably full without being able to feed hay

[LovieBird]

I agree. Yes new place has much better grass. Unfortunately they stopped offering pasture board but I did request that he stay out as much as possible. They seemed amenable to that idea, so I’m hoping it will happen.

[DMK]

Pasture board is different than full board with nearly full time turn it. With pasture board you can’t rest your pasture during drought or other stressors that might make you want to have less time with horses on it (and do those things that keep actually grass in the pasture!), all for less money. So it might be perfectly reasonable for your horse to be out mostly full time while not actually on pasture board.

It’s it possible to feed him some high end alfalfa in a nibble net/hay pillow? Something tasty enough to keep his attention after he’s finished his food, but in small bites?

Otherwise, for weight, you can work up to adding a cup of canola or other oil high in Omega 3s for added calories. In winter when I’m trying to add calories (we do CDEs, so a lot of fitness work = greatly increased energy demands), I feed ration balancer plus beet pulp in the PM, and in the AM it’s a huge bucket of soaked alfalfa cubes with a cup of oil added and more beet pulp. It’s really is about the alfalfa though, beet pulp is not low calorie, but it expands so much when wet, my feeling is they fill up on less calories than something more dense, so I’m not using that beet pulp for calories, but it is really useful to soak up the oil and add to the cubes (then add hot water).

[clanter]

feeding hay in hay balls seems to help some as well as adding toys to the stall, favorite for the young horses is the squawking chicken toy hanging in their stall that they use to request room service

[Arzny]

We have a 42 year old pony on our property. She comes in at night due to the potential for predator attacks.

We do about 3 lbs of slightly damp alfalfa pellets, and a big handful or two of chopped alfalfa. It keeps her busy enough. She doesn’t always eat the chopped alfalfa, but another horse is always happy to clean it up in the AM.

[FjordBCRF]

I have an easy keeper that is out on a dry lot with hay for 6-8 in a grazing muzzle. He is usually done with his dinner hay (in an extreme slow feed net) by about 9PM.

I bought one of these suckers and it’s been great. I set the auto feeder to dispense a few handfuls of hay pellets each hour overnight so he’s not on a totally empty stomach. You can set it to dispense as much or as little as you want as frequently as every 30 mins.

You can use any type of feed with these and many people use them to dispense the feed concentrates over the full day so they aren’t eating pounds and pounds at a time.

Feed The Way Nature Intended

[DMK]

If you want to soak cubes or shreds and worry about leaving them overnight, they can soak really fast with hot water. A hot water kettle is super useful. And if you are straining off the water, it’s easy to cool it down by adding a lot of cold water. Here my handy set up for Morning Mush

Both buckets are from tractor supply. The colander style one is incredibly useful

Draining off alfalfa tea (the retiree loves it, so he gets that part as well)

#sadstarvinghorses

#happyatlast. I used to get them their mush separately, but I put this hay divider between the stalls when I got the hay hut. It’s perfect for shared mush and I’ll toss hay in the rack when it’s really bad weather.

Another thing to try might be to add chaff to the soaked food. Occasionally I’ll mix up their dinner (fed separately) of balancer and beet pulp soaked, add some extra water, put the chaff on top of that and then dump it in the floor pans. Soaked chaff on the bottom, yummy stuff starts out on top, but rapidly gets mixed together. It might be a way to get some extra munch time and calories into an old horse. My experience with the old finicky horse is a lot of trial and error…

[LovieBird]

Wow, thanks for the helpful info! Love the pictures, esp of the sad, starving horses . The hay feeder between the two stalls is an ingenious idea.