Eating Mud

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BlackBoris

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Does anyone know what horses are lacking if they are eating mud? My 2 have just moved to new grazing - plenty of grass but they have both made holes and are now eating the mud. Both are very well in themselves - just wondering if I need to get them a supplement
 
My horse has just started doing the same and it's very odd. She has 2 feeds a day and hage and same as yours is in good health just seems to like mud and she makes pretty big holes!!
 
Mine is fed calm and condition nuts, chaff, mint, garlic, cortaflex and apple cider vinegar but still eats mud she will actually pull weeds and lumps of grass out of the ground to get better mud!! I dont think she is all there......
 
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Mine is fed calm and condition nuts, chaff, mint, garlic, cortaflex and apple cider vinegar but still eats mud she will actually pull weeds and lumps of grass out of the ground to get better mud!! I dont think she is all there......

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LOL! sounds like mine - she's on vits and mins, joint supp, 1/2 power and performance, 1/2 spillers slow release, safe n sound chaff, salt, apples and carrots...and she still eats mud!
 
My horse had a colic attack whilst at a show and whilst walking him around prior to the vet arriving he found some soil and was trying to gulp it down. The vet reckoned that in the wild they would eat soil in the same way we would take an antacid tablet, to try to releive the pain in their gut. It maybe that your horses have very low level discomfort in their gut and this is a way to try to relieve the dull ache that they have due to the change in grass. Can you put them on something like pink powder for a week and see how they get on? Loads of horses get colic, and an awful lot goes undiagnosed.
 
try a few different things but don't get too fixated on it - yes it CAN be a sign of the suggestions abouve - BUT my horse had the topspec nutritionalist scratching her head because she still ate mud on their comprehensive balancer.... even after all their suggests - balancer - tick (two bags worth so had time to work
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) salk lick - tick, ad lib course fibre - tick, good grazing - tick.... and she still did it - they eventually said it was just a habit/quirk of hers!

a year on and she still does it = and still licks metal too... and still forages for herbs/berries etc - she's just odd! (or maybe jsut a bit feral
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)
 
Mine licks metal as well as eating mud!! She also has a salt lick in her stable but was thinking of trying pink powder she just seems to have so much in her dinner! Vet is coming next week so will ask her as well.
 
It must be the time of year for mud eating my two mares are digging holes as well. They have no shortage of food and both look really well so not worried.
 
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