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Post by Lynne on Feb 27, 2003 16:50:23 GMT -5
You guys, I'm starving my horses! THey are eating the bark of the trees now, stripping them (or certain ones). You've seen pictures of them (the horses!) and they ahve mineral/salt blocks.....WHY are they driving me nuts?
Not enough forage? Darn the alfalfa....it doesn't take much to feed them and they pudge up but I think they aren't getting enough grazing/nibbling since the snow/ice cover. UG again.
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Post by bindi on Feb 27, 2003 16:59:35 GMT -5
oh boy, my girl does that too. She has soooo much feed in her paddock at the moment, a salt block etc etc and she still plays with the tree trunks. Her favourite is old dead tree trunks, she munches on them all the time. Another thing she is doing is mouthing the gravel on the driveway, almost like scratching her lips but when she gets to the dirt she licks it... :loon: go figure... I can't work that one out.
We are getting tough today, she has got too much feed and is getting very skittery. So I bought an electric tape today and she starts break feeding. I know she has been in a tape paddock so she should be fine with it. I also got some light feed mix and a herbal relaxing mix to go in it so she will start appreciating me when I come down with a bit of feed... that's the plan anyway...
Have a good one, Bindi.
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Post by chrisnstar on Feb 27, 2003 18:41:40 GMT -5
Lynne, Horses need lots of food all day long for optimal gut motility.. you might find they will leave the trees alone if you give them a lower quality hay free choice.. horses don't need the high protein levels that alfalfa has, but they do need a constant source of forage. This link will tell you a lot about how horses do and don't utilize alfalfa in their digestive systems: shady-acres.com/susan/alfalfa.shtml |
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Post by Lynne on Feb 27, 2003 18:57:53 GMT -5
Thanks Chris. I know what you're sayin'  THat's why I was so upset when all I could find was alfalfa  It was such a bad drought year during the hay season here that hay was impossible to find and prices shot way up! I found a mixed grass hay (what I normaly feed, I've never fed alfalfa before) for seven dollars a bale and fed that for a while before I had to do something else....it was just way too expensive. I think I have a lead on some grass hay but the weather and timing hasn't cooperated for me to pick it up! Ug ug ug.... |
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Post by chrisnstar on Feb 27, 2003 20:25:28 GMT -5
I know what you mean Lynne.. just be very very careful with the alfalfa. The amount of alfalfa they need to satisfy their need to chew and forage would be an amount that could do them harm. I went through a similar year in Wisconsin when we couldn't get hay... I fed alfalfa and both my horses foundered during that winter! chris
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Post by Linda on Feb 28, 2003 1:15:53 GMT -5
Lynne, If you can find some nice, clean straw, you can mix it in with the alfalfa. It will give them more to chew on and slow them down. They will have to root through the straw to find the alfalfa leaves. It keeps them busy and out of trouble for at least a little while. I don't know what salt/mineral blocks you have. Sometimes they seem to prefer one kind over another. You might add another block of a different kind. Maybe it is kind of like a card game where you win if you have one of each kind ;D I have two blocks--one plain TM and the other TM with selenium. Sometimes they work on one of them for weeks--suddenly they shift and head for the other one.
Spring is going to show up one of these days--I know that a lot of you just can't wait after such a miserable winter.
Linda
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Post by Lynne on Feb 28, 2003 7:02:59 GMT -5
Good ideas! I'll try all of them. TODAY! ;D
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Post by radarslove on Feb 28, 2003 7:09:48 GMT -5
chrisnstar, your from WI? Me too! knock on wood, I have been able to feed my own hay and if we have a bad year, then I have a farmer friend that I can get hay from if I need it. But I know what you mean about bad years. We have 15 acres of hay and I only feed 3 horses! Last 2 years we got in just enough to make it till the first cutting, and that was all fed before 2 cutting came down. As I was feeding the hay I was thinking to myself, what am I going to do this winter if I have to feed all my hay now as it is coming down? But we did luck out, filled the hay barn with small squares, and more then enough round bales to feed in the pasture. My hay fields are a mix of timothy, pasture grass, and alfalfa hay. The stuff we round bale we let get a little mature so that the protein levels drops abit, and the horses can saffly munch it to thier hearts content without getting to fat, The small squares I feed in the barn so I can regulate how much of that they get and that is better quality, so I know they are getting all the good stuff they need. Knock on wood, I have been feeding this way for years and no colics, or founders from it, and so far they are leaving the bark alone! Now as for trees in general, well they have a small woods in the pasture and love to play fetch with the dead wood! On more then one occasion I have gone out to find a horse or 2 walking around with a large branch in its mouth or trying to pull out a dead tree! And if it ever warms up around here and if the horses ever start shedding, they love rubbing on the trees to relieve the itchy shedding coats! Pasturing the horses in a wooded area has it advantages and disadvantages, good thing is in the winter it helps break the wind, and in the summer its always cooler under the green canopy, but disadvange is that when they want to run and play they have to duck under some branches, its wild to watch them playing, running at a full gallop around the pasture and then turning and diving into the trees full speed! Makes your heart stop, but they seem to know where the low branches are! Well coffee cup is empty :coffee: and the kids need to get up for school, so I have to fly, have a great day!
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Post by CC on Feb 28, 2003 8:14:51 GMT -5
Mine eat trees, fences, honeysuckle vines, multiflora roses...I am constantly pulling thorns out of ears  And mine have plenty of grass hay in their fields all day. They are as tired of this weather as the rest of us! |
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Post by ZenRider on Feb 28, 2003 9:28:31 GMT -5
Hmmm, will have to get pictures of what the busy thousand pound beavers have done to the sections of wood fence that they put off putting the electric on before winter.  Now that the ground is frozen, not much can be done except through in more nails and hope it holds until spring. |
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Post by chrisnstar on Feb 28, 2003 9:37:54 GMT -5
Radarslove... I USED to live in Wisconsin. MOved away from there in 1989 back to Kansas where I grew up. I lived near Cornell, Wi with my second husband. We were there for 15 years. There's lots I miss about it, but I don't miss winter and don't miss the mosquitoes and biting flies!
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THat's why I was so upset when all I could find was alfalfa 
It was such a bad drought year during the hay season here that hay was impossible to find and prices shot way up! I found a mixed grass hay (what I normaly feed, I've never fed alfalfa before) for seven dollars a bale and fed that for a while before I had to do something else....it was just way too expensive. I think I have a lead on some grass hay but the weather and timing hasn't cooperated for me to pick it up! Ug ug ug....
Now that the ground is frozen, not much can be done except through in more nails and hope it holds until spring. 