My 7-year-old dry-lotted gelding gets only two feedings/day. I can’t free-feed him 24/7 because then he gets fat.
One thing I do to try to help keep his tummy happy is soak some of his hay and put it in a hay net that is inside two other hay nets-- to slow him down and make the feed and entertainment last as long as possible. But if it’s a particularly tasty batch he really tears into it and it doesn’t last long.
There’s no staff that can give a late-evening meal, I can’t do it, and other boarders are pretty variable in their visitation. Any other local stable that I know of, that have staff for a night feed, is outside of my price range and/or you have to be in training.
What do you all think of putting soaked wheat straw in the tripled hay net for a boredom buster instead? Hoping it would last longer because not as tasty.
Anyone know of any precautions against feeding soaked straw, or can you point me towards any relevant info about the nutrition in soaked wheat straw? He’s not IR AFIK but he’s an Andy and I’ve heard they are prone so I want to be careful about carbs.
(The boarding stable feeds him west coast grass hay morning and in late afternoon/early evening. I give sometimes teff hay and sometimes alfalfa for his pre-ride snack, depending, to keep his body condition score at 5. He also gets Platinum Performance, Platinum Hoof, additional ground flax, 4,000 IU Mad Barn natural Vitamin E (without additional selenium), Uckele Tri-Amino, and kosher salt. Oh and a handful of soaked beet so all that flax doesn’t just stick everywhere. He’s barefoot and I ride him daily though he’d benefit from harder work than I can always manage.
Scoping for ulcers is a future plan just because his whole short life he’s been on two meals/day and because of how hangry he acts after the long night without feed. And because he can be sticky behind my leg. But I’d like to solve the long-night problem first so that if I do treat for ulcers they don’t just recur. FWIW I tried a round of Nexium as suggested here on COTH and saw no difference.)
Thank You for reading!
