Gah! He doesn't want curry for breakfast and supper...barefoot Q

HeresHoping

HeresHoping

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My boy is on a 6 month holiday. This holiday is his only (very,very small) chance of recovery from a 'crushed' (as Dr Sue Dyson put it) lumbosacral joint and a lacerated left hind suspensory. Having lost my previous horse in March last year, I wanted to at least try. Whilst his injuries sound horrific, they aren't making him miserable just yet. He is out as much as feasibly possible to encourage movement (not great for the suspensory, but absolutely necessary for the SI issue if it is to stand a chance); still coming in at night until I can find somewhere for 24/7 turnout.

Why the pre-amble? Well I am also trying him on turmeric (no skepticism please, when you're desperate you will explore all avenues - and I am a scientist so do understand the science). He is absolutely, snortingly, lip-curlingly disgusted by the idea, however. And he has only had a teaspoon in his feed night and morning.

His shoes are off in the hope that he can grow some feet that he feels are of benefit (yard is covered in concrete, and we have to walk down a gravel track of 800 yards to get to the field - hopefully, that angle is covered). Night and morning he's having 1/2 scoop A&P cool & collected (tried FF and variations thereof and he turned his nose up at that, too), 1 mug micronised linseed, seasoned with black pepper for the turmeric, and a scoop of Dengie Hi-Fi Molasses Free. He also has 25ml Brewers Yeast and a teaspoon of MgO.

What can I disguise the turmeric flavour in that is suitable for barefoot? He doesn't need feeding up, I just need him to take the supplements. Fibrebeet was looked at with disdain...he'd rather eat his bed, he said. Is unmolassed sugarbeet ok? Sorry for being ignorant. And for some reason, I can't get the search function to work today, so I apologise for appearing lazy, too.

Thank you so much.
 
Hey, im trying the turmeric at the moment- and at a week in I def think my girly is moving better already. Fenugreek is great for getting them to eat up, even my fussy madam will eat it.
 
Its really strong so you need to drop the dosage until you find he eats it and then up it reaaaalllllllly slowly. My girl is a fuss pot so I literally started with a pinch in her feed. When she was eating that without any fuss, then I went to a quart of a teaspoon and then half etc. Shes now on about 4-six teaspoons a day and loving it and this is a horse who would rather starve than eat anything that she considers tastes bad. I have to say Ive started it for myself and if I put a tiny bit too much in then it really is just horrible so slowly slowly:)
 
Thanks, dianchi. The Dengie Hi Fi Molasses Free reeks of fenugreek - and I see it is one of the ingredients. Problem is, the fussy whatsit isn't overly keen on that by itself, either. He'll happily munch it mixed in with the C&C, but when I have used it as bribery to catch him in the past he has taken one sniff and bogged off again. Gah! again. He polished off a very small feed of C&C and chaff without the turmeric (I wanted to make sure he wasn't off his food completely) just to prove that he thoroughly disapproves of being fed curry for breakfast and supper.

ETA, thanks Claribella. Will drop the dosage even further, then.
 
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Try Copra, low sugar, high fibre and smells good. Great for weight gain and disguises the turmeric to a degree. I use it with linseed and ride and relax as my boy likes a bit of texture.
 
powdered mint, cider vinegar. Fast fibre is another feed option (lower calorie than say copra) but tbh my fussy lad wouldn't eat molasses free chaff/sugar beet or fastfibre with relish when I started adding things to it! Pony nuts always helped ;) and most barefooters do seem to get on with them, particularly spillers I think!
 
All spices smell really strong and a teaspoon of turmeric would be like a slap in the face to a horse. If you really want to feed it, then you are going to have to start with a miniscule amount and build it up very slowly from there.
 
The other thing that comes to mind after re-reading your post is that black pepper, brewers yeast and turmeric all in the same feed sounds yuck.

Is brewers yeast there the same as here - smells like marmite (Bovrill)?

Maybe spread the supplements out a bit so his feed tastes nice - it's sounding a bit like a curry at the moment.
 
ester said:
Yes and Frank won't touch brewers yeast! Yeasacc ok but not BY!
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I feel your pain - I have another Brewer's Yeast-phobe! I'd like to try turmeric but will have to think carefully how to introduce and will definitely have to be outside main feeds. After nearly a year I have just found that I can get more than a smidgen of micronised linseed down her - but must be fed hot. I spend more time in her 'kitchen' than in mine!!

I'm going to try to make some of those turmeric slabs, see how she goes with one or two of those...
 
On Saturday I started mine on turmeric and (rather optimistically) put a large scoop in each horses feed. My two eat ANYTHING and on Sunday morning they still hadn't eaten their teas! So will reduce it and build it up gradually.
 
Ah. Thank you to all who replied. It has been a case of softly, softly catch-y monkey. The (minuscule amount, really, couple of tablespoons at most) unmolassed sugar beet has worked. I'm getting a teaspoon of turmeric and requisite pinch of pepper (and he has a mug of micronised linseed anyway) down him. Will try a teaspoon and a half and a slightly larger pinch of pepper this evening.

Oddly, he likes the smell of the Brewer's Yeast. So do I, actually. Reminds me of the malt combs we used to feed our horses in Kenya. Thinking about it, no wonder our horses were chilled, not so prone to tummy issues, and absolute rock crunchers: BY on tap, along with a whole host of other B vits.

I do find it odd that my total utter fuss pot of a mare that wont eat powdered drugs will scoff turmeric!
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I encountered a mare like this this morning. I had decided it was easier to pre-mix the turmeric and pepper in an empty Sarc-Ex bucket. Had given it a jolly good mix around with bare hand (spoon AWOL - now have yellow fingers resembling a serious nicotine habit). The Section D, who is normally a complete fuss pot about everything from hay type to the age of her FF, practically mobbed me. I let her lick for a while and when I walked away she was pretty sure she should follow.

Funny things.
 
Found this recipe, earlier, to make horse treats with turmeric in. Worth a try and you can always leave out the sugar. They're made into small patties and baked at 180oC for 25 min or until firm. Haven't tried them, yet.

2 cup oats
2 cup flour
2 cup coconut oil
2 cups turmeric
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups apple juice
2 heaped tablespoons of cracked black pepper

Oh and as a fellow scientist, I wholeheartedly agree with the science behind the use of turmeric. One of mine stuck his head in the bag, the other day. Had to avoid him after that, as it was all up his muzzle!!
 
I have never had to feed my girls turmeric but one of them is very fussy if I try and add anything nasty to her feed. I have found that by mixing her feed up with apple juice as opposed to water makes the nasty bits a little more tasty and she is more than happy to eat them.
As it would be a relatively cheap experiment perhaps this might be worth a try :)
 
My lad has had turmeric on and off for the last few years. He seems to like the taste, but he does generally eat everything and anything.

He was a bit stiff just before Christmas so after a chat with vet, we decided to restart the turmeric for a while but taking into account the new guidelines on adding black pepper. He already has micronized linseed, so I guessed that would account for the oil, and just chucked some turmeric and black pepper into his feed and mixed. Half way through the bucket, he stopped eating, and started sniffing. He sniffed the bucket, he sniffed the ground, he sniffed the grass, he sniffed some leaves, tarmac, the fence... A bit of black pepper had gone up his nose! Poor lad, he was none the worse and still finished off the bucket once his nose had recovered.

After that, I started mixing the turmeric and pepper with oil, to make a good paste, and then added that to the feed. He's much happier with this approach! Is it possible yours is objecting to the loose pepper? If so, try to incorporate the whole thing into a paste - I am using about a teaspoon of oil to make the paste.
 
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