Jingleballs
Well-Known Member
Ok maybe that's a bit extreme - perhaps bombarded with unwanted advice is the best way to put it!
Was chatting to 2 of the other liveries at the yard to night who I'm quite good friends with and we got to discussing the new feed I've started giving C - Spillers instant energy mix.
I've spoken to the experts, researched various options and this is the one I've decided to try and so far it seems to be working - he's been on it for 5 days now and certainly for the last 2 days he's been more forward and energetic without any change in his character - he's still a dope on a rope.
Anyway, these girls starting telling me that I shouldn't feed my horse this stuff, i'm risking giving him laminitis, maybe he's just a lethargic horse and I need to just accept that etc, etc. Now I know I've only had C 10 months but I know my horse, he was much more forward previously and I'm thinking that this recent lethargy is down to a combination of the warmer weather, increased exercise and the fact that he's still being fed the exact same diet as he was when he was 100kg heaver so now that he's used up most of his fat reserves he's running out of energy - that to me, makes sense!
So I listened to their arguments - high sugar was one - yes it has 28% starch but he gets a miniscule handful and one of these girls feeds her horse a lot of fruit which is high in sugar - but apparently that's not the same ??? ??? ??? They would never feed there horse this, blah, blah, blah, he'll get laminitis - well one of their skinny horses got laminitis and although we know that high sugar intake can be a factor, it's not the only factor. I know horses that are massively overweight fed high sugar diets and don't get a sniff of it - but all I got was -"prevention is better than cure" - I wondered if she thought that way when she was pounding her horse along the roads for every day???
I then dared to suggest that I was thinking of taking C's back shoes off coming into winter and trying to see how he would cope barefoot as we don't do much road work in winter and any we do we'll use hoof boots - we'll you'd have thought I'd suggested torturing my horse - "oh no, I'd never do that - there's all those stones on the ground, horses need their shoes" - erm, no dear, not all horses need their shoes, some can cope perfectly well without which is what I'm hoping to establish this winter.
I just felt like an ambush from both of them - one of them is an experienced rider, the other not so much but it's like the inexperienced one always does as this other one tells her - I prefer to think for myself thanks.
Luckly, one of the other liveries and Y/O are on hand to offer helpful, constructive advice as and when asked.
Sorry for the rant, these girls are actually my friends and I do love them to bits but mind your own bloody business - it's not like I'm killing my horse!
Sorry - rant over!!!
Was chatting to 2 of the other liveries at the yard to night who I'm quite good friends with and we got to discussing the new feed I've started giving C - Spillers instant energy mix.
I've spoken to the experts, researched various options and this is the one I've decided to try and so far it seems to be working - he's been on it for 5 days now and certainly for the last 2 days he's been more forward and energetic without any change in his character - he's still a dope on a rope.
Anyway, these girls starting telling me that I shouldn't feed my horse this stuff, i'm risking giving him laminitis, maybe he's just a lethargic horse and I need to just accept that etc, etc. Now I know I've only had C 10 months but I know my horse, he was much more forward previously and I'm thinking that this recent lethargy is down to a combination of the warmer weather, increased exercise and the fact that he's still being fed the exact same diet as he was when he was 100kg heaver so now that he's used up most of his fat reserves he's running out of energy - that to me, makes sense!
So I listened to their arguments - high sugar was one - yes it has 28% starch but he gets a miniscule handful and one of these girls feeds her horse a lot of fruit which is high in sugar - but apparently that's not the same ??? ??? ??? They would never feed there horse this, blah, blah, blah, he'll get laminitis - well one of their skinny horses got laminitis and although we know that high sugar intake can be a factor, it's not the only factor. I know horses that are massively overweight fed high sugar diets and don't get a sniff of it - but all I got was -"prevention is better than cure" - I wondered if she thought that way when she was pounding her horse along the roads for every day???
I then dared to suggest that I was thinking of taking C's back shoes off coming into winter and trying to see how he would cope barefoot as we don't do much road work in winter and any we do we'll use hoof boots - we'll you'd have thought I'd suggested torturing my horse - "oh no, I'd never do that - there's all those stones on the ground, horses need their shoes" - erm, no dear, not all horses need their shoes, some can cope perfectly well without which is what I'm hoping to establish this winter.
I just felt like an ambush from both of them - one of them is an experienced rider, the other not so much but it's like the inexperienced one always does as this other one tells her - I prefer to think for myself thanks.
Luckly, one of the other liveries and Y/O are on hand to offer helpful, constructive advice as and when asked.
Sorry for the rant, these girls are actually my friends and I do love them to bits but mind your own bloody business - it's not like I'm killing my horse!
Sorry - rant over!!!
