Thursday, June 23, 2022

What's in Your Feed Bucket

 I'm jumping on the mini blog hop Moonlit Pastures did and showing what's in my ponies' feed buckets. 

Currently the ponies are out 24/7. Peebs is in a smaller pasture that's half dry lot half short grass. Cinder is out with two other horses on a 2 acre field that's really nice right now. My BO reseeded and fertilized it last fall and we've kept the horses off of it till a few weeks ago. Obviously Cinder's living situation will change next week, but I'll go over what she's currently getting and what she will be getting. 

Peebs would like you to know he doesn't get fed enough

Peebs is the easiest of easy keeps. Which is good, considering he has Leaky Gut Syndrome. I've done a lot of trial and error over the years, but have found that he does best with half hay/half hay pellets. Contrary to most horses, his gut does better with shorter stem fiber vs long stem. He currently gets 1 flake of Timothy and 4 quarts of soaked pellets (I try to do Teff but its been hard to find lately, or super expensive, so I also do Timothy) am and pm. Sometimes I'll give him a little extra hay, like half a flake, midday/early afternoon because I feel guilty.

 I've had him on Assure Guard Gold (the recommended 3/4 scoop twice a day) as a GI support on my vet's recommendation, but over the winter he had a bad Leaky Gut flare and even a double dose of the it didn't help. I was reading a thread on Twitter and someone recommended Tribute Constant Comfort. Tribute isn't sold anywhere near me but I was able to order it on Chewy and it made a huge difference. He gets a cup and a half twice a day. They also make a Constant Comfort mineral block but Chewy has been hit or miss on having it. When they have it in stock, he gets it and one block last about a month. He's also on salt twice a day and MSM once a day. 

Peebs' supplement packs I make up so my BO doesn't have to measure all his various shit

Cinder is currently on just pasture as far as hay goes. During the fall/winter/spring she was on 2 flakes of Timothy in the morning and 1 flake Timothy and 1 flake alfalfa at night, plus being on pasture during the day and her stall opens up to a grass paddock. So she basically had 24/7 access to forage. When she moves to SF, and when she was there in February, she was on 2 flakes of orchard am and pm, and 1 flake alfalfa at night. They're also turned out daily, and fed piles of orchard at lunch outside. Their pastures aren't as lush as our home barn, and I appreciate that they feed as much hay as they do to compensate.

At our home barn, they sometimes get fed in piles at breakfast outside too

 As far as grain, Cinder is currently on Nutrena Safe Choice, but once I'm out of it she'll be switching to Purina Wellsolve. SF provides three different Purina grains so if I'm going to be spending $$ on board, I'm going to take full advantage and use their grain. She currently gets about two cups of the Safe Choice once a day. She's also on a little rice bran as another boarder bought it for her horse but he refused to eat it and she didn't on it to go to waste so she gave it to me. Cinder's also on Platinum Performance and 1 pump of GutX. I'll probably up her to 2 pumps of the GutX this weekend and keep her on it for a few weeks after the move just as a precaution. Cin can be a bit of a picky eater so who knows how long this version of her grain will last.


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