Remember that cereal commercial where the kids are trying a new cereal and they were afraid so they said “give it to Mikey, he’ll eat it”, or something like that? For years we walked around saying “give it to Mikey.” Now cereal is mostly sugar and even chocolate. When I was a kid it was just good for you. It didn’t matter how it tasted, it was good for you.
It’s pretty much the same with horse feeds. When I was a kid (yes I was a baby goat), the horses at our barn got oats, just oats. It was blown into a big storage bin in the loft, came down a shoot into a machine that crunched it. I’m not sure now if it crimped it, cracked it, rolled it, steamed it, but it did something to it to make it easier for the horses to chew and digest. The horses at that barn were fat and in great condition. They worked six days a week, sometimes a good six hours for the day. Some barns fed whole corn. It was whole grain, no additives. You could tell what it was by just looking at it. Now it’s pellets and for all we know it could be ground up cardboard. Horses back then worked for their keep. They did their days work and the fun days were when they went to horse shows which was just a couple of times a year. Pretty much all of them lived well into their thirties.
They weren’t pets, companions, show horses, or lawn ornaments. They worked like the rest of us.
So many things have changed in the last 50 years, and I’m sorry to say, not for the better. Yes we have a better understanding of nutrition, health care and medical attention, but horses are not necessarily living healthier, longer, useful lives.
Most of the horses lived in straight stalls back then. Big enough to lay down, but not good for turning around and watching the world go by. They weren’t pure bred anything, they were “grade” horses. Strong and healthy horses. Only remember one horse out of hundreds, that passed through the barn, with Navicular. Never heard of EPM. None had ever needed shots in their joints. None of them had ulcers.
What have we done to our horses? We’ve bred them to have small feet and by three years old they can’t carry their own weight. Okay I’m off headed to my soap box. Back to my point.
Now what was my point? Oh yes, I remember. The older horse and his nutritional needs.
For fifty years I have been dealing with older horses. And in the last thirty there have been feeds specially formulated for their needs. There is only one problem. In the last thirty years the older horses didn’t find them palatable. They made then extruded so they would be easier to chew when the teeth were gone or gum level. They put everything in those feeds to keep the Senior horse healthy, with a balanced diet. Again I say there is only one problem, they don’t eat it.
I’ve had two horses come in here in the last week. Both a little on the thin side. One was 27 and one 6. The older one, I was told, was not a good hay eater, picked at his grain, and didn’t graze much. The younger one was just under weight and was put on Senior and another designer feed to put the weight back on. They both got Beet Pulp also. They had both come from different barns in the last couple of months to the barn that was sending them to me. They had put on some weight but still needed more.
Now when my mare was thirty-two she had dropped weight and muscle. I am now experiencing the same muscle loss, but the weight is coming and not going. Age does strange things to the body. Anyway, I tried pumping food into her. Her teeth were gum level and things were hard to chew. I bought several different grains and supplements. I put each grain in a separate bucket on the lawn and let her choose which one she preferred to eat. She was more or less healthy and happy, but just plain old. About twenty years later they came out with a Senior Feed. Since I’ve always had old horses, I tried it. They didn’t care for it. They’d pick at it and walk away.
What is the point of giving them what is good for them and watching them walk away from it. It does them no good if it sits in their buckets and you have to throw it out. So then and there I learned that whatever you can get an old horse to eat, is what is good for them. Scientifically not, but getting something into their bellies is not a bad idea.
This theory has held up for the past fifty years.
So here I get this older horse, who is not a good eater. I had a bag of a Senior feed that came in with the younger horse. I had examined the feed and it looked like it was coated with a lot of molasses. Should be palatable and good for them, but when I put it to the test it didn’t hold up. So I started with small amounts of my Sweet Feed added to the Senior and Beet Pulp. All of a sudden this horse, which was not a good eater, in two days started cleaning his bucket and looking for more. Over the past week I have been steadily increasing the sweet feed and decreasing the Senior and now I have a horse that is waiting by the gate for his meals, and eating it in one shot. He’s still not big on hay but we have enough pasture that he grazes and naps throughout the day. The Beet Pulp will cover the fiber and help put weight on him.
My point is that “Mikey” won’t always eat it. It doesn’t matter how good something is for a horse, Or a person, if they won’t eat it, it won’t do them any good. Over the years I have found this to be true every time. No matter how good and healthy Senior Feed is, they just don’t like it. I don’t care what brand it is, they just don’t like it.
If I’m on my last leg I want to be able to eat the foods I really enjoy. Not because they are good for me and will keep me alive, but because it gives me great pleasure to eat them. So as much as I’m not supposed to eat shell-fish (cholesterol), I will cheat once a week or so and have just a little. And at the end bring on the Clams, Shrimp, Oysters Rockefeller, Muscles and especially the Lobsters. I’m going out in style.
