My gelding has moved to a private farm with great
trail access, but now I have a new question.
The farm's owner drives a school bus, so she leaves
very early in the morning, is back home by 10am, and then leaves again
about 2 pm for her afternoon run. So the feeding schedule is 10am and
7pm (the horses are kept in a paddock attached to the barn in the
evening/at night).
Never having been in
this situation before, I'm not sure how soon it's okay to do a conditioning ride
after he's had a full morning meal. At a ridecamp, he would have had
mini meals (heavy on beetpulp and light on grain) during the night and in
the morning, but his normal meals at home consist of 3 lbs. of a complete
feed grain (no corn), 1 lb. of additional beetpulp, 1 cup of oil, 1 cup of whole
flax seed, and his supplements (and right now, while he's still a bit too thin,
he's also getting 1.5 lbs. of Ultimate Finish). Of course, he
has also had access to hay all night.
So, how soon after he's eaten all this is it okay
to take him out for 10-20 miles of mostly trotting?
