bizarre practices

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

Amanda Apesos amandaapesos@qwest.net wrote:

>Yesterday I arrived at the barn where I board my horse to discover that
they feed the horses sunflowers on occasion. I find this to be extremely
bizarre, and it was very concerning to me. Sunflowers  seem to be very woody
and stiff in the stalk to be feeding to horses. Does anyone know if they are
OK for horses to eat?<

Amanda, I'm not an expert in nutrition by any stretch, so take this as
simply "anecdotal evidence".

My horses are bedded on a mix of sunflower husks and shavings.  As a result,
I have heaps of sunflowers growing on my manure heap - I think I have the
prettiest manure heap in town.  My horses regularly go down and snarf up the
sunflowers growing there.  They don't always eat the storks, but they like
the petals, leaves and, of course, the seeds.

Doesn't seem to be bothering them any.

My farrier has just suggested that I add a handful of sunflower seeds to
their feed at night.  He said that one of the yards he shoes for (which is
also our top Warmblood breeding yard) has started doing this and he has
noticed a significant improvement in the quality of the horses' hooves.  I'm
not sure whether the sunflower seeds are doing this because, as I said, mine
eat them in the paddock anyway.

Now if only I could convince them to chow down the loose salt in the same
way....

Tracey

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