How Do You Know What To Feed Your Horse?

Today was another hot day and my mom brought me a piece of watered melon. I love watered melon, especially when it's hot. It's such a nice, juicy treat. And it made me think about one of my favorite subjects - food!

Horses need to eat a lot of food because we're big, but we can't eat just anything because that would make us sick. One time some people came walking by with their kids and my mom let them pet me which was nice and the man saw the sign on my stall that says "Double Grass Only."

He thought it meant that I only ate grass like the grass that us horses graze on but my mom explained that it meant grass hay and that some horses get alfalfa but I don't. So the man asked, "How do you know what to feed your horse?"

Well, I thought that was a really good question and my mom explained a little bit to him. My mom says there's no such thing as a dumb question but I'm not sure she's right because I ask Sparky dumb questions all the time. He doesn't say so but I usually know they're kind of dumb. I ask anyway though because Sparky is smart and almost always knows the answer.

Anyway, I'll tell you my experience about being a horse and eating food, and some of what I know about other horses, and you'll see that feeding a horse is something you have to really think about.

When my mom brought me home, she had the guys feed me the same kind of hay that everyone else was getting. Here at our place, most of the horses get grass hay in the morning and alfalfa at night so that's what I got. It was yummy and I liked it but there is a difference between the two. Alfalfa is a richer type of hay. It gives a horse more energy too. I loved eating my alfalfa - it had lots of little flowery things in it that I called blossoms and they were so sweet and tasty - but it did make me feel a lot more bouncy than the grass hay. After I got hurt and had to go on Stall Rest for a long time, my mom decided that I should just have grass hay because I was just too bouncy, but she also decided that I should get twice as much as some of the other horses because I'm a Big Girl. So now I get Double Grass hay.

I was mad at first. I really missed the alfalfa and I sulked and kicked my walls and made faces and stuff. But I got used to the grass hay and now I like it just fine. Every now and then, my mom lets me have a bite or two of alfalfa but not too much. She calls it Pony Crack and says it's not for me. I have to admit, I'm a lot less bouncy and anxious now.

That was an important choice. Horses have to have Forage. It's their main food and the most important one. Forage can be grazing like wild horses do, or it can be hay but we need to have it and the best thing is for us to have it all the time. We're made to be eating small amounts all the time instead of just having a big meal a couple of times a day. It's hard to people to feed us like that sometimes though, so that's another reason I get double feed. That way it lasts longer and my tummy isn't empty.

Another thing I was eating when my mom first brought me home was a pelleted food. It was yummy and I liked it and since I was used to it, she kept me on it but after a while, she switched me to another one because she thought I was getting too many "hot" calories from it. What that means is that it was another thing that was giving me lots more energy than I needed. I have a lot of energy without needing any help.

The second food was good too but then she switched me to Beet Pulp. Beet Pulp is actually considered kind of a forage type food because you can't really feed too much of it. Unlike those pelleted foods or other grains, horses don't get sick if they eat lots of beet pulp. My mom told me about one of her horses that she had a long time ago who got out of his pasture and ate a whole bunch of grain and got a bad Colic. She had to get the vet out to give him medicine and she had to stay with him and keep walking him for a long time. That's what too much grain can do.

Beet pulp isn't like that but when I first started eating it, I didn't like it much. It's kind of smooshy and wet, and it feels funny in your mouth, kind of like Bran Mash does. I've never really liked Bran Mash though lots of horses do. Sparky does. He likes beet pulp too and used to always eat a handful of it when he lived next door to me.

Beet pulp is mushy because it's mixed with water. When you let it sit in the water, it sort of foams up and makes a big bucket full. That's one thing I like. I get to eat a lot of food and now that I'm used to it, I like it. One thing my mom did that made it taste better was to add a scoop of grass pellets. It makes the texture nicer and it's lots like my grass hay. It doesn't add lots of hot calories or anything like that.

My mom decided she liked the way I did on the beet pulp so she kept me on it. She adds some different things to it. She always puts a little bran in it, and some salt. It's good to get salt in your diet and bran's good for you too. She also adds a Supplement that's good for my tummy and my coat. I have a really soft coat and it's because of the good care I get and the good food, including that Supplement. She gets it from Dooley's mom. When she noticed how soft Dooley was, she asked about it and decided it sounded like something that would be good for me. It's yummy too. Sparky gets some too and since he doesn't need lots of food like me, he'll eat it right out of his mom's hand.

My mom also feeds me a Supplement that's especially to keep my feet healthy. I had really bad feet when she brought me home. They were brittle and soft and I was always losing shoes. My mom worked with my Shoe Man to get them in better shape and she also started giving me this Supplement. It really seems to have helped. My feet are just fine now and I haven't thrown a shoe in ages.

As you can see, it's important to choose a horse's food based on what her needs are. I need food that doesn't raise my energy level too high, that helps keep my tummy and my feet healthy, and that keeps my nice and round. My mom has chosen what she feeds me in order to do all that.

Sparky is different. Sparky is what's called an Easy Keeper, which means he doesn't need a lot of extra stuff to stay nice and round. He eats the regular grass hay in the morning and alfalfa at night, and since he's in the pasture, he can graze when the grass is fresh. His mom feeds him a little bit of pellets in the winter when he needs more energy to keep warm, and sometimes if it's really cold, she makes him a Hot Dinner. That's when she puts hot water on some alfalfa cubes, which are just alfalfa packed into little, hard squares, adds some bran and his pellets, and his coat supplement and mixes it all up. He loves that and it really does help keep him cozy. But most of the time, he gets by just fine with hay and grazing.

Old horses need special food. My mom and SparkysMom used to help take care of an older mare who had trouble eating regular food. She got soaked pellets that were specially made for older horses. And horses that don't seem to get fat no matter what you feed them, like Healey, get lots of extra supplements to add weight.

I'm not as much of an Easy Keeper as Sparky is, but I don't get thin like Healy or Warren and I'm glad of it. I like getting lots of food but it would be dumb to be skinny. When my mom brings me my dinner, it's my favorite time of the day. She puts lots of carrots in it and my favorite thing to do is dump out all the beet pulp and nose around so I can find the carrots. Then I eat every scrap of the beet pulp.

All this talking about food is making me kind of hungry. Luckily I kept a little bit of my dinner hay so I could have a snack. I think I'm just about ready for it now.