HelenBack
Well-Known Member
Im looking for thoughts on managing my horse over winter. He has mild RAO nothing too bad but obviously I don't want it to get any worse. Ive never been able to find a trigger for it as it seems to come and go all year round. The only possible theory I have is that we live on the edge of a large wooded area and it may be an allergy related to this. When we went for a weekend away to the sea he had no symptoms whatsoever. I do plan to move to the coast but need to sell my house first so need to manage him in the meantime.
We have the opportunity to winter out this year and the yard owner has offered to put round bales of hay out in the field. She will only do this if everybody in the field agrees and I cant help but think that all the good work of leaving him out would be undone by him having his face in a dusty bale of hay all the time. So the alternative is to have no field hay, bring him in at night and manage him dust free. Our barn is a large internal barn and is pretty well ventilated. His neighbours are all either dust free or winter out but there are horses three or four doors down who do have hay and obviously no barn is entirely dust free whatever I do. So what would others do? Leave him out with hay in the field or bring him and manage his environment as best as possible?
The good news is that we do have loads of grazing as we only moved to our winter field two weeks ago. Hes right at the top of his acceptable weight range at the moment and is still living on just Lo Cal. So by the time the grass goes off and he needs more food I think well be looking at only needing to do something for a couple of months before spring comes but obviously I want to do the best thing for him. Ive emailed some feed companies to see if they can advise a feeding regime to keep him out with no hay but I can only give him two feeds a day so have to be realistic about whether this will really be doable or not.
Really interested to hear any thoughts as Im agonising over this decision. I know I need to phone the vet for advice really but I only phoned about something else a couple of weeks ago so am stalling before phoning again and feeling like a complete pain! Sorry for the long winded post and thanks for any advice.
We have the opportunity to winter out this year and the yard owner has offered to put round bales of hay out in the field. She will only do this if everybody in the field agrees and I cant help but think that all the good work of leaving him out would be undone by him having his face in a dusty bale of hay all the time. So the alternative is to have no field hay, bring him in at night and manage him dust free. Our barn is a large internal barn and is pretty well ventilated. His neighbours are all either dust free or winter out but there are horses three or four doors down who do have hay and obviously no barn is entirely dust free whatever I do. So what would others do? Leave him out with hay in the field or bring him and manage his environment as best as possible?
The good news is that we do have loads of grazing as we only moved to our winter field two weeks ago. Hes right at the top of his acceptable weight range at the moment and is still living on just Lo Cal. So by the time the grass goes off and he needs more food I think well be looking at only needing to do something for a couple of months before spring comes but obviously I want to do the best thing for him. Ive emailed some feed companies to see if they can advise a feeding regime to keep him out with no hay but I can only give him two feeds a day so have to be realistic about whether this will really be doable or not.
Really interested to hear any thoughts as Im agonising over this decision. I know I need to phone the vet for advice really but I only phoned about something else a couple of weeks ago so am stalling before phoning again and feeling like a complete pain! Sorry for the long winded post and thanks for any advice.
