horse not eating

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lizstuguinness

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I've owned two mares since they were both foals. Now five yrs old i had to sell one who went three weeks ago.

The mare That is left is now not eating. she has had a new friend for about a week now but is not eating. She does seem to love her new friend. She was on haylege so I've also tried hay. She won't eat her hard feed and just picks at it.

At 16hh it is a bit worrying that she has taken a week to eat I bale.of hay! She is out for about 5hrs during the day.

She is in work which I've dropped to 3/4x week but is due to start be next month but obviously won't have the energy to compete. She is fine in herself and is still enjoying her work.
Any ideas?
 
Has she actually lost any weight? I only ask as I was speaking to some horsey friends in various parts of the country and it seems that in some places their are some buds & shoots appearing in the fields. I just wonder if she is having a nice forage in the field and doesn't feel the need to eat as much hay.

If she is dropping weight it may be worth trying a soakable hay replacer such as Fast Fibre. They are really palatable and should get her interested in eating again.
 
If she's not dropping weight and seems happy in herself I'd personally not be worrying too much yet.

Just make sure she always has plenty available and offer as much variety as possible to try tempt her.
 
I would suggest checking her weight. My Gelding is 15.3 and at this time of year will sometimes go days without eating hay, I tend not to worry aslong as I know he has it on offer. I often leave hay out in the field and he wont touch it, he would much rather forage. If you have grass on offer they will always pick that over hay or haylage I have found.

does she usually go mad for the hard feed? I would know my gelding was off colour if he stopped eating that because he goes mad for it, she could be feeling down, have you tried her on any other feed? Perhaps putting some molasses in her feed might encourage her to be a bit more interested?

Also you mentioned that you have introduced a new friend? She may like her, but perhaps the friend is being a bit boisterous and that's put her off.

My boy is on individual, but before that he was in a field with other geldings and I used to leave him some haylage out as he was always the first out, but as soon as one gelding came in he would chase him away from his hay and eat my boys haylage himself!
 
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