Yet another Horsie Q... Grain opinions?

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
really depends on the vet. I think the training they get in school is not that detailed, but some take an interest and are very knowlegable. I've worked with both. my sis is a small animal vet and she's super dillegent about these sorts of things. many may not be. I've had large animal vets that knew alot when I started with them, and a couple that new a lot more after I kept pestering them with questions

if you're looking for an on-line reference for horse nutrition, look up Dr. Beth Valentine on RuralHeritage.com - she's got an on-line forum and answers questions. she's one of the leading vets in draft horses, and one of the very most knowlegeable about EPSM. interestingly, even though EPSM was thought to be a draft-only issue, they're starting to discover it's pretty common - and widely misdiagnosed - in high performance horses of all breeds. nutrition and diet are huge factors in managing EPSM so she's got a lot of knowledge in nutrition in horses in general.

might not be the ultimate resource for pasos, but there's a lot about general horse nutrition you can learn from perusing her forums.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Okay, so I "think" I've read all the posts, so I'd like to make mention of a few things. But first my "credentials" so to speak: I am a Florida Cracker by birth and have been keeping quarter horses all of my adult life. I've kept them primarily in Florida (Sarasota County), but also in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and California. I've always had performance horses (cutting and reining).

Some things I've learned over the years--and these are my OWN personal opinions/observations and not just something I read somewhere. Keeping horses in Florida is not really like keeping them anywhere else, so that a lot of stuff that's good horsekeeping for northern horses just doesn't work for Florida-raised horses. Take hay for instance. T&A is a terrific hay, especially for our northern neighbors whose horses often need it's heat for warmth in those cooler climates. Florida, however, is mostly semitropical and I feel my horses get too heated on it. It's the alfalfa, I think. So especially in summer I avoid anything with alfalfa. What this means is that my pastures are planted in bermudagrass and bahia and I feed bermudagrass hay free-choice year-round. My horses seem on average to consume 3 bales apiece (per week) from their stall hay racks plus I have large hay racks in each pasture that I refill daily. Come the winter months here I overseed the pastures with annual ryegrass, something I didn't need to do in Florida, but bermudagrass goes dormant when the nighttime temps are below 50 degrees, something that happens for months at a time here.

I do use sweetfeed, specifically Omolene 200, BUT my working stallion gets only half a scoop twice a day. I'm in Alabama now and we do get colder winters than I got in Florida, so come the cold weather (and in breeding season) I do up that to a full scoop, something that would likely not be necessary in Florida. My stallion is 15.2 hands and over a thousand pounds. He worked cattle all summer in the 100+ degree weather here. Yes, at times he got sweaty, but so did I. My rule of thumb is that if I am sweating, my horse should be sweating too. Sweating is not a bad thing--it is how a horse cools himself. Lack of sweat (anhydrosis) is far more dangerous to a horse's well-being. BUT it takes a year or so for a northern horse to fully acclimate himself to the unique Florida weather with its high humidity, so you have to allow for that.

Omolene 200 is a complete feed, so I don't add anything. I do offer powdered minerals free-choice. I don't add oil to the feed. I only use electrolytes during competitions because they really sweat hard then. The rest of the time, my horses don't seem to need them. But I don't push anybody hard when we are working around the place. There is rarely any need to. We get the work done but we do it as easy as possible in the heat.

Florida has very sandy soil, so I branned a couple of times a week there. Here I do it once or twice a month. Sand colic is THE most common form of colic in Florida (especially in the winter months) and a planned sand-control program is a must there.

And finally, all my personal experience is with quarterhorses. I think each breed has its own specific needs to meet. What works for a Thoroughbred is not necessarily the right way to keep an Arabian. What is right for that Arabian is not necessarily right for a Paso, etc.

Hopefully something in here will be helpful for you. (Oh, and I too have never found the local vets to be very helpful with nutrition).

Good luck with your gelding. And many happy trails!


Rusty

edited to add a shot of the REAL Rusty I took this morning as he munched his hay:

 

[Peaches Lee]

Quote:
How does the added joint supplement do for your horses?

I've been looking into this feed for awhile but hadn't decided yet.

I like Blue Seal products though--that's what the chickies get!

 

[frostbite]

Rusty is spot on, I think.

Even here in Alaska, we stay away from alfalfa, even in the winter time. If the nutrient ratios are bad for summer, they're bad for winter too. We just make sure they have more hay (ours get mostly brome and timothy) and plenty of water and they can graze on it as much as they need to. We do need to supplement, because they don't get pasture, so the fat soluble vitamins in particular are tougher to get, they get a vitamin supplement and free choice minerals.

My 8 year old quarter horse mare has developed a heart murmur, not symptomatic at this point, so our vet recommended vitamin E supplementation for her, on the assumption that particularly in Alaska where the grazing season is short, lots of horses end up with borderline vitamin E deficiency, and one of the ways it manifests can be heart issues.

One of the disadvantages of living where we do is the absence of an equine surgical/diagnostic facility, without having to trailer the horse for 8 hours to get there, so the vet practices the old fashioned way, using best guess analysis when possible, rather than more pricey diagnostics. She does have an ultrasound machine, and a portable x-ray device, and a lot of pure hands-on ears-on diagnostic skill, but if my horses ever needed surgery for colic or for a fracture, we wouldn't be able to save them. It's one of the risks of living in a more remote area. So far so good though.

It does point out though the regional differences in what horses need, depending on the specific nutrients that are naturally present and available in different parts of the country.

 

[lockedhearts]

I was born and raised in Florida. I also was totally against pellets when I moved to GA. However, Florida is not like Ga, so things change. A great feed down there, if you can find it is OBS (Ocala Breeders Supply) I fed that and all mine did great on it. I was picky about hay, we had A LOT of sand and I prefered a coarser hay, usually timothy or T/A most of what we got had more t than a in it.
Personally, I have never liked Purina, found it to be not consistent in quality , the exception is Equine Junior. But that is a personal opinion. Another good feed, if you can find it is Patriot, they make a 12/10 (12 protein 10 fat) My stallion is on that and eats very little, even during breeding season. My halter gelding also eats it, he stays up 90% of the time and is not "out of control" . I know nothing of Paso Finos, so not sure how they are "wired" so I can only give you my opinion on what has worked for me.