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Horse Nutrition

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I went to a "Vigortone and Progressive Nutrition" horse nutrition meeting yesterday-- good grub (free :wink: ) and I was surprised by the number of horse products they offered... Will have to try some on my old trooper...

I was also pleased to hear the equine nutritionist and her beliefs on alfalfa for horses...She said that alfalfa is alright as a feed for horses and will not cause kidney problems- that that is an old wives tale--- altho it will make them drink more and urinate more often (not good for horse stalls maybe) but like she said what do doctors tell people -- to drink more water, its good for you....Anyway she said testing has shown that alfalfa may not be good for horses with a preexisting kidney problem- but that it has no negative effect on healthy horses...

I thought maybe I was the oddball- altho I try not to feed straight alfalfa I like an alfalfa/grass mix and have always fed my best second cutting to weanlings-- Have a friend that is a cutting horse breeder that always feeds his weanlings 2nd or 3rd cutting which is primarily alfalfa...
 
All I know about horses would pretty much fit on the head of a pin. My wife is the horse person around here.
She rations them on a good alfalfa/grass mixture and keeps a feeder full of native prairie hay full for them(free choice).
They do well on it to say the least. :-)
 
One thing I have learned from Progressive Nutrition is that horses need something in front of them to eat at all times. It is how their digestive system is set up. Soooo Tim H. give your wife an "Atta Girl" for how she is feeding her horses.

OT, I haven't had the pleasure of hearing the representative speak,
but it sounds like I have been plumb missing out. She is top notch, or
so I have heard. They have the meetings at 7 pm in Miles City and
I don't like the drive home afterwards.

The PN offers a Pro Advantage Grass Formula pellet and a Pro Advantage Alfalfa Formula. Both are so different they have designed a feed for each. No need to feed any oats, just 2# of the Pro Advantage. Then they have some with added fat, that works on the older horses.

Glad you enjoyed the meeting. Hope I get to go someday. :wink:
 
FH- Roger is going to bring over a bag of the feed for old horses when he hauls me another load of mineral-try it on my old gelding... Is also going to get me some info on headgates......

Another thing I found is that I have had bins full of the best, most efficient grain known for horse feed--flax.... But it is a pain in the butt to feed because it has to be ground before feeding- and ground flax does not keep long....She said that some that use it in special diets have a little coffee grinder that they grind it daily for their rations....

She definitely seems like she knows her stuff--an Iowa girl.....

Felt kind of bad after talking to Roger- found out I was bidding against him on those registered heifers the other day- altho I went higher than he was willing to- and a fellow from SD went higher than all of us.......
 
Who was the ol' boy in New Mexico who was so big into Quarter Horses? He raised Skipper W I believe. Any way, I read an interview with him quite a few years back and he said that the only time alfalfa hurt a horse was when he wasn't getting any of it. It must have made an impression as it stuck in my mind and I have a terrible memory.

The stud I got out of California last year, and all them high powered horses there, get alfalfa all the time, as that is what they have. They sure looked good to me and had grown out very well.

Good alfalfa should have about the same or a little less protien as green grass and green grass will sure make an ol' pony slick up fast.
 
Jinglebob said:
Who was the ol' boy in New Mexico who was so big into Quarter Horses? He raised Skipper W I believe. Any way, I read an interview with him quite a few years back and he said that the only time alfalfa hurt a horse was when he wasn't getting any of it. It must have made an impression as it stuck in my mind and I have a terrible memory.

The stud I got out of California last year, and all them high powered horses there, get alfalfa all the time, as that is what they have. They sure looked good to me and had grown out very well.

Good alfalfa should have about the same or a little less protien as green grass and green grass will sure make an ol' pony slick up fast.
Click to expand...


Skipper W,, Was that Hank Weiscamp?
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Jinglebob said:
Who was the ol' boy in New Mexico who was so big into Quarter Horses? He raised Skipper W I believe. Any way, I read an interview with him quite a few years back and he said that the only time alfalfa hurt a horse was when he wasn't getting any of it. It must have made an impression as it stuck in my mind and I have a terrible memory.

The stud I got out of California last year, and all them high powered horses there, get alfalfa all the time, as that is what they have. They sure looked good to me and had grown out very well.

Good alfalfa should have about the same or a little less protien as green grass and green grass will sure make an ol' pony slick up fast.
Click to expand...



Skipper W,, Was that Hank Weiscamp?
Click to expand...

Yup, that was the guy. He sure raised a lot of good horses, so he must have known somethng about them.
 
Lack of Alfalfa has killed more horses that eating it ever will. There's more overfed -underworked horses-than we sure need to have around.Whatever happened to some hay-a tobbacco can of oats if you were feeling prosperous and turning them out to paw in the winter. It's worked on ranches up in this country for a long long time. Now if you want somebody to teach you how to make horses run fast you hook up with a chuck wagon racer-I'll never forget our poor old Dutch vet when we had our rodeo his first year here. The wagon boys were stoppping in for their potions and concoctions. he asked me 'Are vey all #$^^&^& NUTS' lol.
 
Idea behind the flax seed is the oil. I use alfalfa pellets & cooking oil when I'm working my horses hard. Puts a shine on their coats & gives them digestable fats for energy.
Best part of feeding oil instead of grain is no sugar high. If I grew my own grain I would feed it. I still cut the grain for hay because I do not have a combine yet.
 
Faster horses said:
Depends on your opinion of Skipper W horses, if you thought
he knew anything or not...
Click to expand...

We have a gelding thats a grandson of skipper W my wifes horse he's lazy a bit clumsy but honest did I mention hes lazy.We have a son of him and he's lazy also.
 
Something that FH mentioned reminded me of something else...FH said that horses should have hay or forage available 24 hours a day...She told us that and that if fed good hay and/or a good ration they will not get hay belly or fat- only eat what is needed (she ain't never met ol Zip :roll: ) and that its the stemmy part of hay that makes hay belly- and that horses need to eat a little every 2-3 hours or so....One of the problems that come about because of a prolonged empty stomach is Ulcers- which I was unaware was that prevalent in horses- especially with show horses and horses always in new surroundings- caused by nerves....

But the main thing I remembered was the cost of the ulcers treatment and prevention additive- somewhere around $90 a month per horse....

Might be cheaper to get Jinglebob to sit out there and singing soothing lullaby's to calm them down.. :wink: :lol:
 
Oldtimer said:
Something that FH mentioned reminded me of something else...FH said that horses should have hay or forage available 24 hours a day...She told us that and that if fed good hay and/or a good ration they will not get hay belly or fat- only eat what is needed (she ain't never met ol Zip :roll: ) and that its the stemmy part of hay that makes hay belly- and that horses need to eat a little every 2-3 hours or so....One of the problems that come about because of a prolonged empty stomach is Ulcers- which I was unaware was that prevalent in horses- especially with show horses and horses always in new surroundings- caused by nerves....

But the main thing I remembered was the cost of the ulcers treatment and prevention additive- somewhere around $90 a month per horse....

Might be cheaper to get Jinglebob to sit out there and singing soothing lullaby's to calm them down.. :wink: :lol:
Click to expand...

Never heard of Ulcers in horses, but then I don't show mine and never had it in a rope horse. My horses get hay belly if they have hay 24/7, grass alfalfa hay with no mold. I lock my horses off green grass during the day in the summer and just let them graze at night to keep them from getting too fat to ride. Never have had a problem. Each to his own I guess.
 
Casey was here today talking about some of this stuff, OT. He said they took 5 horses that were basically not being used much to run a test on. They scoped the intestines and there were no ulcers in any of the horses. They took all 5 horses, hauled them somewhere different and used them for different things. Brought them back and scoped them again and they all had ulcers.

That was something I didn't know anything about.

Wonder how horses got along so long...nature must provide for them somehow; or perhaps more horses die from ulcers than we are/were aware of.

I've had a few horses give me ulcers, but I sure didn't know they got them. :wink:
 
I'm glad to see I ain't as dumb as I thought I was :???: :shock: --- I had never heard of ulcers either...Been around horses all my life and this was the first I'd heard of them- except most my horses haven't lived too pampered a life either and don't ever get scoped......
 
Oldtimer said:
I'm glad to see I ain't as dumb as I thought I was :???: :shock: --- I had never heard of ulcers either...Been around horses all my life and this was the first I'd heard of them- except most my horses haven't lived too pampered a life either and don't ever get scoped......
Click to expand...

Learn something new everyday I guess.

http://www.xcodesign.com/aaep/displayArticles.cfm?ID=255

Wonder if the stud horse has ulcers. He is lock up until he goes out with the mares, so this time of year that puts him in huge stress with anticipation of things to come. But his hair is all shed off, temper is good as long as he has no other saddle horses to chew on.
 
I've got a neighbor who's son had a colt and they had some problems with him. He ended up with ulcers and when the feller was talking to the vet about it, he mentioned the young horse he was riding was always kind of cranky. The vet checked him out and suspected him of having ulcers also. They put him on some fairly cheap medicine and the feller told me that inside of a week, it was like riding a new horse. Easy to get along with and lots more ambition.

Sooo, I had a young horse that Mrs. Jingles Jr was riding and I described what he was like to the vet and we started him on this stuff. Inside of a week he acted a lot better also. He is still kind of thin and looks a little wormy, but seems to have helped him. I don't know what this stuff is called, but it was about $25 for enough to last a long time.

I know if a young horse has his teeth worked on, lots of times they get a better aditude. And if they need wormed. This was the first I ever heard of ulcers in a horse.

And by the way Rancher, I ain't real cheap when it comes to singing soothing songs to horses. Unless you are real cute and female. :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Easy, but not cheap. :oops:
 
Its funny how some bad habits or quirks can be caused by something you never think of....

I had a 5 year old gelding- had the habit of swinging his head back and forth to match his gait- sold him a couple years ago to a neighbor who told me the other day that the horse kept it up like that until a few months ago he had finally stopped and moves out now with his head plumb straight....He said it was the new farrier he found :???: ... I had used a neighbor to shoe him- new owner uses a different shoer but still had problems- but one day when he couldn't get his normal shoer he called a new kid in the area-- kid said he was shaped up wrong- redid things and fit the shoes and the horse hasn't swung his head a bit since....

Said the kid did the same with another old gelding that usually went gimpy after about 1/2 a day- took off the old shoes- reshaped the hoof and put on new shoes and he hasn't had a gimp since.....

I'm thinking I need to try him out....
 
We have a nice horse that wasn't travelling quite right. Just kind of choppy, but not really lame. We weren't sure what was wrong, his feet looked okay, no shoes. Picked up his feet and they were terrible on the bottom. Long heels, way too long and one foot had a long heel on one side and no heel on the other of the same foot. I couldn't believe we let them get so bad. Our shoer came today that we have used for years and think highly of. He shod him with Digital Support Shoes, we happened to have a pair and this horse travels right out now with a nice reaching stride and is just happy to be going. His head has dropped and he just acts so relieved. It had gone on long enough that the pressure had driven the coronary band up higher on one side. Can be rectified of course, will be fine at the next shoeing.

We are friends with Gene Ovnicek the EDSS founder, and he has sure
taught a lot of farriers how to do things "the natural way." EDSS is Equine Digital Support System. Gene has designed special shoes that a lot of shoers use now.
 
I tend to think hay bellys have more to do with lack of conditioning<muscles> on other parts of the horse than the size of the belly.
I feed straight alfalfa< all they can eat all the time> plus oats and I have no troubles but my horses are getting rode everyday.
I dont know why there is so much anti alfalfa stuff on the net? Im thinking its from people who live in areas where they dont grow alfalfa for one reason or another?
 

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