feeding after ride

[lena2206]

hi everyone,
just wanted to check everyone’s opinions on this as i’m a bit of worrier haha-
after riding today my horse was a bit sweaty however i walked him off so his breathing etc was normal. i then fed him his feed a few minutes after riding while i untacked (he has a bit of chaff and some grass nuts)
once he had finished eating i also turned him out immediately,
so i’m just wondering if this is alright to do and he won’t colic or anything like that..
thanks everyone

 

[Winters100]

So many factors here, intensity or workout / size of feed etc.

When you say sweaty was it because you did hard training, or just because the weather is warm and he is maybe not so fit? Full sweat?

If I have done a proper session I like to wait about 90 minutes before feeding. If the session was fairly gentle I would not be worried about a small feed of fibre such as chaff and grass nuts fairly shortly after, but I would probably soak the grass nuts to increase water intake. It is also a case of getting to know the horse.

Mine always have hay available, but rarely eat it immediately after training.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

hi everyone,
just wanted to check everyone’s opinions on this as i’m a bit of worrier haha-
after riding today my horse was a bit sweaty however i walked him off so his breathing etc was normal. i then fed him his feed a few minutes after riding while i untacked (he has a bit of chaff and some grass nuts)
once he had finished eating i also turned him out immediately,
so i’m just wondering if this is alright to do and he won’t colic or anything like that..
thanks everyone

The rule i was trained with is feed one hr after exercise.

My mare is governed by the food. If lunging 20 mins, I untack her and let her eat as she is not sweaty and puffing
Same with hacking as we walk back along the road 1/2 mile so again the same. If however I have a lesson and she is hot and sweaty or been charging about the field prior to coming in, then i take the feed out till cooled down, or take it out if going to lunge her close to coming in.

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

If you’re only feeding him a fibre based feed I wouldn’t worry. Most feeding rules were because of feeding large grain based feeds which few people do these days.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

I’d normally wait at least 30mins. That would include untacking, wash down time, tidying up and letting the feed soak before feeding. I feed a fibre based feed but stil think that 30mins from getting off is minimum ?

 

[bouncing_ball]

I tend to walk until fully cool not sweating and breathing normally and feed immediately. Fibre feed. I work after fibre feed too. My horses are pretty fit so very rare to be sweating / not breathing normally on getting back to yard.

 

[Ali27]

I’ve always fed mine after work! But she has usually cooled off (walking last 10 mins of hack/ schooling)! However she just has Speedi beet, performance balancer and chaff so no different than eating hay/ grass!

 

[Sossigpoker]

You should feed chaff or hay immediately before riding to make sure the stomach has some bulk to stop stomach acid splashing around. Similarly, feeding a fibre feed after riding is fine. If you've worked the horse hard and he's blowing then obviously walk until the breathing settles.
The not feeding before or after ride is a bit old school now as we don't tend to feed huge amounts of straights and also we know about the stomach acid splashing around.

 

[windand rain]

Always try to feed mine 10 to 20 minutes before being ridden and if needed then feed once they have stopped puffing if working hard. I only feed soaked grassnuts and grass chaff or equivalent. Rowan has 250 grms of soaked fast fibre before and after work with a single handful of straw chaff in the after feed

 

[celeste-izzy]

Yes it's fibre based so should be fine. We've all seen our horses hoon around the field, get incredibly sweat then start munching on grass and be absolutely fine