Is this jucie ok to feed?

Rowenna said:
its because we have horses that we are poor! ;)
ALL our money goes on our horses and they want for nothing, BUT, i wont buy heating oil for the house yet because i 'cant afford it' because it all gone on the horses!!:p
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Pmsl, that is why I don't go to Waitrose and am on voice recognition with my vets surgery and feed merchants. Not sure how I got to be so rich - would like the money now please..........
 
BSJAShowjumper123 said:
ooh yes good ideaa thanks :)
ahh yes i guess so but correct me if im wrong but a tiny bit of squash every day isint going to harm her feet (:
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Just be careful on the sugar intake, that is all I'm saying. Any horse can get laminitis at any time of the year, it doesn't have to be spring grass. It is the sugars in grass (fructones??) that help cause lami. Someone I know's horse got lami in January - a poor doing TB, she just kept loading it to get it to put on weight and eventually it got lami - it was still skinny, and there wasn't any goodness in the grass.
 
BSJA - Just a thought, but when I had to give my mare medication I tried everything (juice, grated carrot & apple, molasses...etc) without success. Then I tried dried mint. Naff do a tub (but you might be able to find a cheaper supplier). It worked a treat, she loved it. I only needed to add less than half of one of those tiny supplement scoops, so it lasts for ages & added bonus, it doesn't go off & is really easy to add to feed without any faff.

I think a tub was less than a fiver (more than 89p I know, but it will last months not weeks), if it works for your girl it might be an idea as it's certainly more natural & less sugar content ;-)
 
Slightly OT but have you thought that maybe the squash you've been putting in her feed has been causing the control issues similar to the ones you had yesterday?

But I should think other than making her a bit loopy it won't harm her although I don't think their teeth are up to that much sugar so don't over do it. If you can find an alternative that might be better but if not stick with squash but it might be causing her to go loopy and watch her teeth :)
 
I would get a thing of molasses and just put a tablespoon in it if you're worried. But I give ours cordial (elderflower :D) in feed if they're fussy :rolleyes: They've all lived :D
 
I thought the issue here was that the mare was being fed huge quantities of food, and wasn't finishing it all in the morning as she wanted to go out? (and horses stomachs are quite small and not designed to consume large bucket-loads of feed). She was obviously finishing her dinner as she had all night in the stable to eat it?

If not then I am sure it would be fine in very small amounts, perhaps get the sugar free type though. If not then try molasses, Guinness, dried mint powder etc.

Also.....any type of horse can get lami.....
 
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i wouldnt really want to feed that squash as i stopped drinking it myself when i read the back of the pack- so many sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame- known to cause headaches (and i can assure you aspartame does because i used to get them when i drank a lot of it) Our bodies are a bit more adapted to these types of additives over years of consuming them , although they arnt good for us- id just worry that it could really upset a horse's stomach, i put in some crushed mint leaves from the herb section in mine's food to make her eat her new tendon supplements! very pungent from a small amount and im sure it added a fair bit of flavour
 
picolenicole said:
The cherries and berries flavour will be fine, my cob picks blackberries in the summer!! We have to try and pick them first so he can't eat them all, it's quite funny watching a cob carefully pick berries from the hedge.
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my mare does this except she will stand in the middle of a bush and spit out any berries that arent black enough :rolleyes: red ones tend to get spat at me!:D
 
Your hore will no doubt be ok. She would equally be ok if you fed her cocopops and chocolate digestives everyday but it doesn't mean that it equals a sound, reasoned, educated approach to horse care. We all have stuff to learn about horse management but there are some fundamental basics that you really should know before you have the privilege (sp) of owning a horse. If you're really not sure of some of the basics, then you should be on a yard, surrounded by people who are able to advise and help you to learn via mentoring/shadowing etc, so that the horses welfare isn't compromised in any way.
 
kittykatcat said:
Squash and juice is full of sugar (even natural fruit sugar) that a horse is not really designed to eat...saying that so is molasses, lickits and other treats and most mixes so if you are fine feeding your horse sugar in it's diet, then chucking a load of squash over it won't 'harm'. Fenugreek is a natural way of stimulating a horse's appetite.
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Grass is full of sugar too.....
 
There are different types of sugar, and grass sugar is quite different from cane sugar etc used to sweeten human food. As someone above said, even sugar free cordial is full of additives and bad stuff like aspartane. Many young children go bonkers off things like cordial because of the colourings, flavourings, artificial stuff in there.

I would use either mint, or try a different type of chop, there are lots of nice ones out there. Ours loved the local herb and garlic flavour and they have apple flavour now which smells lovely but also quite mollases-y so may not be great for your mare. It might work out cheaper to buy a nice locally sourced one too if you are buying a 'brand' at the moment. You can add all sorts of nice natural things to feed, some horses like dried nettles which are as cheap as you get since they are free ;) Just don't pick them from the sides of busy roads where there will be lots of exhaust fumes. Wear thick gloves, hang them up to dry or leave them in the sun and then crumble them into her feed.
 
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