Supplement Etiquette in a Boarding Barn

[fivestrideline]

Came here to say this. Supps or feed outside the stall would be a No Go at every barn I’ve ever been at. There’s barely room for blankets and fly spray!

I’m sure some places go down the aisle dumping supps like that, but everywhere I’ve been kept ALL feedstuffs away from the horses in the feed room. Often just one person sets all the feed ahead of time, and feeders just go down the aisle dumping buckets.

This is why it’s best to just talk to the people who run the place, preferably the actual feeders. I prefer cups or baggies and zero liquid supplements, but I’ve been the person doing feed for large barns enough to have an idea of what is easy and what is just a pain. It may “only” take you a few minutes and some brain power for your one horse, but multiply that by 40 and you can see why someone might have preferences!

[Bogey2]

some good advice here…as a side note I don’t feed a lot of supplements but do use Magnesium a lot for myself and some horses. Did you check with a vet about using it for a horse with the fecal syndrome? I know what it does to me so I thought I would ask. LOL

[wanderlust]

Great catch - a lot of mag is a great way to get raging diarrhea, both human and equine.

[findeight]

The best barns I was in (since 1970ish) had whoever closed the night before set up the feed cart for the next morning. Have to say that feed cart has gotten a great deal more complicated as the years passed, gone are the days of, maybe, 3 different bags or tubs of bulk feeds in the cart scooped out to each feeder. Now days that cart looks like a supermarket cart with name labeled individual containers for every horse and a big list on the feed room wall of who gets what. Try that with 45+ horses

Anyway, the night person usually had more time and less distraction to set that cart before lights out and locking up. Unless they were also sitting with a sickie…PITA and almost an art form these days to feed.

[MsM]

I guess job one is to figure out the supplement routine in your barn. So what you do needs to fit easily into their routine. Some barns love baggies or smartpaks, others may want something different. BTW I do know one barn that has small boxes attached to the front of stalls. The owner can put supplements in baggies and the feeder empties on into the morning feed (They only do supplements once a day except for special arrangements)

At my barn they will feed one supplement or one baggie or smartpak strip once a day. I like doing the baggies as my horse is on a couple of supplements plus one seasonally.

[hj.eq.xc]

ohh that sounds really good! Definitely looking into that, thank you so much!