I make all my horses picky.

[Rockabilly]

In the beginning of my life with horses I didn't think about it, but I realize now I make all my horses picky. I notice this most of all with Leo because when he came here he would eat anything. He certainly was not picky and now after a few years with me it's like this. I have some very nice hay orchard grass/alfalfa left over from last year. I got new exquisite orchard grass/alfalfa hay this year. He will only eat the new hay. He turns his nose up at everything else. And I have made him this way just like I did with all my other horses.

[PaulaO]

Don't we all if we have the chance?????? Yesterday I hand fed Ariel.

[kande50]

And I have made him this way just like I did with all my other horses.

Fortunately, most of mine are fat, because the ones that aren't get whatever they want as often as they want. They seem to like variety, so wander around eating a little of this and a little of that, including the stemmy diet hay.

The chubbies though, only get the stemmy hay, and they can eat it or not, as they wish, because they could stand to lose some weight, anyway.

Course, after a day or two of picking through it they adjust and then start cleaning it up, which is why they're chubby. That, and I'm feeding from round bales and forking the hay out to them, and I just can't seem to stop giving them an extra forkful, just so they don't run out and develop ulcers.

[boots-aregard]

Don't we all if we have the chance?????? Yesterday I hand fed Ariel.

Your comment got me thinking. No. We don't all. I used to get very mean to the picky horses, and gave them gobs of the food they didn't like. And they had to suck it up. It gave me far greater pleasure to give the GOOD tasting hay to the low-man-on-the-totem-pole horse who was always grateful for even scraps the others left behind.

I loved the grateful horses.

[Chisamba]

I use the old hay before switching to the new, that way it never sufferes by comparison. I also feed good but stemmier hay so that they can have free choice all day. I think it prevents ulcers and vices.

I do think websomewhat create our horse preferences , rockabilly,

[Flight]

LOL, I'm a bit mean too, if they don't eat it they go hungry
Saying that, I do try and find nice hay etc.

[Tuffytown]

Meanie here too. I also feed out the older hay and the fatties get the less rich hay while the oldsters who need more calories get the better stuff. I'd rather have them eating more of the less rich hay for extended time that snarfing down the candy. Most of them are out on grass all day long so they get plenty.

[Threeponies]

Me too Rockabilly. I give him more hay than he should eat twice a day. And if there is any left I clean it all up so the fresh hay doesn't mix with the stale hay from 12 hours before If it's not up to standard he won't even look at it.

[kande50]

Me too Rockabilly. I give him more hay than he should eat twice a day. And if there is any left I clean it all up so the fresh hay doesn't mix with the stale hay from 12 hours before If it's not up to standard he won't even look at it.

That's what I do with the hard keepers. I give them more hay than they can eat so they can pick out the best of it, and then I fork what's left over in to the fatties. I feed a native mixed grass hay though, so there's clover and alfalfa mixed in with the grasses, so if they have enough of it they can leave the coarser, stemmier hay.

[Threeponies]

He's not a hard keeper though. He's a fatty.

[kande50]

He's not a hard keeper though. He's a fatty.

Tsk, tsk, we should be helping the fatties with their diets, not enabling them.

It's taken me all summer with an almost total ban on pasture to get some of the weight off my mule, and now he's looking better just in time to get his winter coat so that I can't tell what's going on under there.

[PaulaO]

Bob's barn manager would feed according to need and um... "girth." There was hard keeper hay, average joe hay, and hay for the big guys and gals, also known as munchy or outdoor hay.

[Tuffytown]

Bob's barn manager would feed according to need and um... "girth." There was hard keeper hay, average joe hay, and hay for the big guys and gals, also known as munchy or outdoor hay.

That's my strategy. I call it busy hay, fatty hay or old man (or woman) hay. I always have 3 grades.

[redsoxluvr]

I think that you have to feed your horses the best hay you can give them - whatever type of hay the horse needs. If it means lower calories or whatever, then that is the best hay for that horse. One thing I refuse to do is feed poor quality hay to any horse. (That's what cows are for.)

If me being choosy about what I give them means the horse is choosier and won't eat hay that's not good quality, so be it. We are the horses' steward in life and it is our obligation to make sure they get appropriate nutrition.

It is not good horsemanship to throw crappy hay at a horse and expect them to eat it OR to overfeed a fat one.

[mld02004]

I do the same thing as rockabilly, sigh. I had one that would eat an empty grain bag if I let her, now she is picking through the stemmy first cut I'm trying to use up after having some very nice stuff earlier in the year.