Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Leonard--aka "cool dude"

> I can not agree more on what you say. I don't know how horses are raised
in
> the US, but by passing on the highways and watching them, I saw many in
> small paddocks, or on small irrigated pastures. But you have huge land
> pastured by cows... Is it not allowed to raise horse 'in the wild/open
> range'  the same way?

Horses USED to be raised in the open.  Now, most horses are owned by people
who have tiny parcels of land, and hence are cooped up on those tiny
parcels.  Some of us still do have horses in the open--we recently moved
back to Idaho, just for that very reason, and have 155 acres now.  It is
certainly "allowed"--but most horse owners prefer to live near population
centers where they can make a living <g> and the real estate prices there
are too high to afford a big area for just a few horses.  Personally, I
think feeding practices have a bearing on future electrolyte efficiency as
much or more than confinement.  Horses who have access to some sort of
forage 24/7 and are on low concentrate diets tend to become much more
efficient with the forage, not only in terms of getting food value out of
it, but also in terms of maintaining their hindgut as a reservoir of fluids
and e-lytes.

I do think genetics plays quite a role as well.  I've never had to use
electrolytes to any great extent in my horses, even those raised in
confinement (although I've always fed so that they have quality forage in
front of them as much as possible) but have been very selective about the
lines of horses that I ride.  One of my stallions participated in two
different studies at rides where horses were weighed and blood was drawn
repeatedly throughout the ride.  On one of those occasions, he was first and
BC, and although I didn't think it was one of his "better" days
metabolically (he only recovered to 52 at the hour, for instance, instead of
his usual 44 or so), his bloodwork indicated that he was fine in terms of
hydration and electrolytes.  (He also had one of the smallest weight losses
of the day.)

Heidi


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