April 23, 2011
Today we take the dietary leap further into SUPER FIBER
Phebes has been eating beet pulp since her evil foal-hood. After reading several articles on the othe super fibers and the benefit of weight gain, and fluid storage in the hindgut we are checking into obtaining soybean hulls in the form of non-dusty pelleted feed to be added to her evening wet mash. I like my girl to be a chunky monkey so hope this will help her keep the weight issue stable. The soybean pellets are about $5.50 per 50/lb bag so as horse feeds go that isn't too bad of a price. Beet pulp is going for about $11.00 per 40/lb bag. Her Cool Command is $11.40 per 50/lb, and timothy pellets are $8.00 per 40/lb. These are all feeds that I can give her as much as I want without fear of insulin problems, founder issues, or associated "hot crazy mare syndrome." I try to get the extra calories in her by putting her up overnight with a pan of feed on the floor in her stall. Usually by morning she has eaten it all. Phebes is a horse that is a nibbler and it is difficult to get enough chow in her at one or two feedings, so the all night buffet seems to be working out. The only time she gets a high carbohydrate feed is right after a hard workout, or long training ride. Then she gets Hubbard's performance texturized feed which she loves, but is laced with molasses (hence she loves it). So we are diving in deep, to the world of super fiber. ~E.G.
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See, part of the reason that I'm not too stressed about the mushy food / BP thing is that Dixie's a great eater who keeps her weight up very nicely. She doesn't eat hay like it's the last flake on earth - she (and the goat) consistently eats a little less than 4 flakes a day.
ReplyDeleteShe did lose about one point on the body score at the ride. I had her pleasantly plump going in to it and she came out looking perfect. I know the extra weight might've slowed her down a bit but I'd rather she had reserves to burn up, you know?
You can't put easy keeper and "Phebes" into the same sentence. In the winter she gets all most a bale of hay per day, plus concentrate, plus wet mash, fats plus vitamins....she looks good all winter because of the low work load. Torque her up come spring and the weight battle begins. We can dump 30 pounds on a LSD training ride. On a multi-day....probably close to 50 I'd bet. So she gets a full ten days off post ride to build back up.
ReplyDeleteHow much down time you givie Dixie?
Well I was going to give her six or seven days, but it's been raining since Friday morning! My horse is wet and sandy and nasty and it's 42 and drizzling. Maybe tomorrow I'll sneak in a little ride. Not going to start really training again til next week, but I'd love to do a little easy 5 mile loop.
ReplyDeleteMy bales are quite a bit bigger - it's 18 bales/ton for this particular type of hay.