Feeding Tips for Boarders

Boarding your horse always makes controlling your horse’s diet harder but many have found ways to work beet pulp into the routine. See the Beet Pulp articles for more information about beet pulp. Follow the same general guidelines if using hay pellets instead of beet pulp.

• If you can get to the barn daily, soak the beet pulp at home or at work or during your drive (a small cooler can work well for soaking and transporting).
• You can soak your beet pulp once a week or so and keep it in baggies in your freezer, ready for a quick grab on your way out the door.
• If the barn has a refrigerator, you can soak/drain/rinse the beet pulp at home and pack in individual baggies to keep in the barn’s fridge. (For more than 3-4 days, it should be kept in the freezer.)
• While “soak/drain/rinse” is ideal to remove surface iron, dust and residual sugar, the draining/rinsing could be skipped if your beet pulp is unmolassed and relatively dust free and no refrigerator is available. In this case, make sure you have figured out how much water needs to be added and supply a cup that holds that much (or mark your bucket with a water line).
• If the barn owner is willing to help, make it easy for them. Pre-measure the beet pulp and your supplements into baggies, provide a large closed bucket or other container to keep your stuff neat and together. If needed, provide the bucket for soaking/feeding, a colander for draining (this can be skipped), a large cup for measuring water (like a plastic soda cup) and a metal sweat scraper for stirring. And be willing to offer paying a bit extra for this service - especially if the BO will drain and rinse your beet pulp.

Another detail - many barns in my area employ workers who do not speak English well. A clear way to show how to mix the supplement would be to pack a large "baggie" with the beet pulp and/or hay pellets, put your supplement in a smaller baggie - then put the smaller bag inside the larger bag. Put this into your mixing/feeding bucket along with the "stirrer" (metal sweat scraper or a large stirring spoon) and water measure cup. They will get the "picture" and the supplements won't get left sitting on the side. You can mark each large bag with the day of the week in the workers' base language. A table of days of the week in many languages can be found in Wikipedia. If you split feedings, make sure the bags are also marked morning/night - and you might add a sun/moon. Don't expect the barn owner or workers to measure or scoop.

There's no reason not to dump beet pulp shreds and/or hay pellets and supplement together into the mixing/feeding bucket, pour the water on top (from your measure cup or to a wave-like line on the bucket marked "water" or "agua" or "H2O"), stir and feed. (This could also be done with beet pulp pellets if enough time is given to soak - but would be better if the supplement were stirred in after soaking.)

Do check that your horse is eating his feed; if the barn staff cleans feeders regularly you might not see left over feed, likewise if another horse has access to the feeder. If you find feed left over, try using more/less water or add herbs or other "taste tempters". See Witcheylady Potions for flavor ideas.

Beet pulp is not “necessary” but is a low sugar/low starch alternative to bagged feeds and grain or can be used as a substitute for some of the hay ration (especially if you need to replace some high sugar/starch hay) and is well accepted by most horses. It doesn’t take long to get into a routine and the benefits usually outweigh any inconvenience. If beet pulp is not available, you can use plain hay pellets (I like the Mountain Sunrise Timothy or Bermuda pellets, or Timothy/Alfalfa pellets for hard keepers) as a carrier for your supplements.

Smokin' Deal! - with strings

Ad on Craig's list -

Well bred Peruvian mare FREE

Donitilla is a beautiful well bred mare she has been used for a broodmare only.She is a daughter of RDS Me LLamo Peru++ Double HNS Domingo She is bred as good as it gets. She is due to foal next month . I am giving her away provided i get the foal back and get one more foal back next spring. She must go to a good home only.

Let's see - I want you to pay the foaling costs, support this mare during lactation, put up with her being rebred, have all the care, cost and worry of taking her through another pregnancy and give me that baby too. For all this, I will give you a lovely pasture ornament. Who has only been used as a broodmare - and that's because...? maybe no one had time to train her but they'll have time for two babies? And she's being given away because...? Is broodmare a euphemism for something else?

Smokin' deal!

My Horse has DSLD-ESPA

This blogsite has great information on this devastating systemic connective tissue disease that affects every breed - not just Paso's. My Horse has DSLD-ESPA

The original DSLD/ESPA INFORMATION site is continually updated with the latest research developments and ongoing support is provided by members of the DSLD-equine DSLD/ESPA Information and Management group.

Another Silver Bullet - the reply I didn't post

In early May, I was introduced by a Veterinarian to Steadfast, by Arenus. He offered me a 30 day money back guarantee to try it on my horse's DSLD. It costs about $2. per day.

My horse started Steadfast on May 25. I was told, if there is no improvement within 25 days, I could notify the company for a full refund. I thought it was worth a try since I don't think my horse is a responder to the AAKG/J protocol (although I am using it on him) since it can't hurt.

When I saw this on the DSLD group, my immediate reaction was "another magic supplement". I don't get to that group often enough and don't want Bunny and Terry to kick me off so I felt I should take my response off-list.

I am so tempted at times to create and sell a silver bullet supplement - I'll mix a little poly copper and poly zinc with some selenium yeast, dry and grind up some eggshells, add a little flax and yeast as a base. Maybe I'll include some "natural" herbs.

Some innovative packaging - I like the idea of single serving cups with peel off tops. I'll write and publish a few supporting articles on how copper contributes to soft tissue repair and zinc and

methionine support hoof integrity and at least one on joint health. Of course, I'll mention the importance of Omega-3 and use lots of relevant citations. Frequent references to "organic" and "natural", pictures of shiny well-bred working and free-roaming horses, and I'm in business. I won't have to reveal the active ingredients as they are "proprietary" - after I think of a catchy trademark name. Testimonials from a few horse owners - it should be easy to find a few copper-starved horses that will bloom when given this magical stuff.

When I reviewed the website for the mentioned product, it seemed to me like an expensive form of chelated minerals and known (even if they do come from a novel source) joint supporting nutrients in a pretty "this will save your horse" package.

Did this veterinarian state what the "improvements" would be? The only actual claims made on the website for Telafirm® and NEM® are reduction in arthritis-related pain - the rest is standard boilerplate related to the effects of certain minerals and nutrients in the body. Nothing is said about the amount of minerals and which ones are in the product though the implication is there that it can make up for circumstances where minerals are deficient. I even considered the possibility of Telafirm® simply being a relabeled combination of Zin-Pro minerals and selenium yeast.

You can take a look at the Arenus site and decide for yourself.

If you really have that kind of money to spend on silver bullets, why not try a mineral balanced diet based on hay analysis for a third of the cost and send the rest to your favorite equine research or rescue.