Diet and Barefoot

[SueC]

Been working hard on rehabbing an ex racehorse's feet.  They'd be coming along lovely, then bam, for no apparent reason he'd get an event line, flare and be footy.  Then back to coming along again, before, bam footy again.  It was very frustrating.  Today I discovered that one of the other liveries has been giving him the odd handful of carrots, which on a full grilling of said livery owner, more than likely coincided with each event. 

Don't feed other people's horses!   

It's a bit of a relief really, as at least now we know what's been causing it.  Notices will now be going up.  I know he can't cope with carrots, I gave him some myself last winter.  Carrots are evil. 

[whisper's mum]

  Whisper can't have them either.

[nix]

People don't realise just how much sugar is in them ... but then I've seen horses that are meant to be avoiding sugar being given Lik-its to munch on too 

[SueC]

Erm.  Yes.  You know the little one that is stabled next to Aria, belonging to the other little one?  Likit in the stable.     I keep telling her, but she won't listen to me. 

[ParisDiamond]

I know, its a nightmare to get others to understand your situation when they've never encountered any problems with feeding carrots themselves.   

[thecatsmother]

I know, its a nightmare to get others to understand your situation when they've never encountered any problems with feeding carrots themselves.   

Oh they have encountered problems (hooves like tree stumps with rings aka event lines all the way down) - they just don't realise they've had/contributed to problems ...

[CremeBrulee]

Been working hard on rehabbing an ex racehorse's feet.  They'd be coming along lovely, then bam, for no apparent reason he'd get an event line, flare and be footy.  Then back to coming along again, before, bam footy again.  It was very frustrating.  Today I discovered that one of the other liveries has been giving him the odd handful of carrots, which on a full grilling of said livery owner, more than likely coincided with each event. 

Don't feed other people's horses!   

It's a bit of a relief really, as at least now we know what's been causing it.  Notices will now be going up.  I know he can't cope with carrots, I gave him some myself last winter.  Carrots are evil. 

Oooh I feel for you - my fieldmates give theirs an apple everytime they finish up and go, found out at the weekend mines been getting one too  She gets a 1/3 of a cup of micronised linseed to carry her magnesium and a small handful of just grass and thats it aside from 1 hay bale between 3 over night and shes still not losing weight living out unrugged 

[catkin]

I thought apples were better for them than carrots? and they would be more 'natural' for them to eat as they are top fruit and would be found foraging?

My Welsh Princess refuses carrots, but she does like an apple now and again.

[cirocco]

Yes same here, people who feed other folks horses need bashing up.

We could never understand why our little lamanitic restricted pony was always coming down with bouts, when we were all so careful. Then one day we found a chewed carrot outside his enclosure.  It did for him, then we found out that a kid from a neighbouring house was going into the field at night when we had gone giving the ponies carrots, apples and bread!..

We posted letters through all the doors saying you might have noticed that the little pony who lived in the field has gone.. It has had to be put to sleep, due to having been fed treats when it had been on a strict diet, due to a serious and life threatening illness.

it was enough for parents to be horrified. no more visits by kids to the field.

[rvialls]

That's such a sad story

I've had a few cases where a horse has been having mysterious bouts of laminitis and it's been traced to a stranger feeding the horse. Sometimes it's other people on the same yard (who obviously should know better), but sometimes it's random strangers.

The two worst examples I've seen were: a case where the horse was being given a Mars bar by an elderly gent who went for a walk past the field every day (a Mars a day does NOT help horses work rest and play!!!); and a case where a neighbouring farmer thought the horse looked underweight (it wasn't!) and chucked a bag of sheep feed over the fence - resulting in pedal bones hanging out of both front feet! Both horses eventually recovered.

I always raise the possibility of unauthorised feeding with the owner if there's any suspicion that the horse is doing less well than expected. I also sometimes wonder if it would be good to prosecute a few people for this under the Animal Welfare Act - maybe the sort of thing that would catch the imagination of the media and raise the profile of the problem?

[spottygiraffe]

I thought apples were better than carrots too -they contain less sugar I think. I've always given mine apples but maybe I should be more cautious.

I'm surprised a horse owner would feed someone else's horse anything without checking first. I've had a few issues with kids feeding mine leftover baguettes  over the fence and bread seems a bit of a weird, processed thing to feed to horses, but maybe it's better than a load of carrots.

I read a really interesting blog about diet and barefoot recently; I'll have to find the link and post it. It was basically saying that diet is just as important as correct trimming, which doesn't sound like rocket science but there were some good points.

[Claire]

feeding mine leftover baguettes  over the fence and bread seems a bit of a weird,

one of the members here feeds hers left over (stale) baguettes occasionally, and there's nothing wrong with her horses...

[Casey76]

We constantly have donations of stale bread for the horses at the riding school.  It wasn't until I arrived here that I even though about giving a horse bread.

Although many people on the yard do, I prefer not to. Pinto doesn't get any carrots or apples - his supplements go into reconstituted hay cobs his only "processed" treat is a couple of mint thingumys, which have no added sugar.

Thankfully, Pinto is polite enough not to shout or kick the door if others are being fed treats, and I've (hopefully) stopped all and sundry from giving him treats at all.

I certainly wouldn't even dream of giving another persons horse a treat without asking prior permission - though the school horses know I'm a bit of a soft touch and know I always have a treat or two in my pocket!

[spottygiraffe]

one of the members here feeds hers left over (stale) baguettes occasionally, and there's nothing wrong with her horses...

No, sure, it seems that mine have been eating them without my knowledge for years But stale bread would not be top of my list as a natural food to give to horses.

[lacey]

I thought Baileys No 1 Meal was made from recycled leftover bread (might of dreamt it though )