>I need some input as to whether or not
you feed grain while at rides. I know some who feed no grain, even on
hundreds. I know others who feed grain darnnear free
choice.
First of all, one has to understand if one
is talking about "grain" (ie products that are truly just or mostly cereal
grains) or about preformulated concentrates that may have a lot of thins in them
besides grain. Truman mentioned high fat products--and no, I DON'T want
those close before or during a ride, because fat slows gastric emptying, and I
want the gut motility as good as I can possibly keep it. Other products
such as Equine Senior (also mentioned) have grain but also have forages in
them--so one is getting essentially the same thing that one would get if one
mixed grain, hay pellets and beet pulp all up together.
That said--the main thing with grain is to
keep the individual meals small. I'm not even as brave as some as SuG's
advice--I've never fed more than 3 lbs of grain to ANY horse in a given feeding,
and that only to one horse, ever. But giving a pound at a time fairly
frequently during the ride works fine. What I do depends on the horse and
how hard we are campaigning and how far we are going. Right now I'm just
getting a horse going--he is ready for 50's but I'm not sure if I am yet, so we
just did an LD last weekend. All he gets in addition to his hay is a bit
of Equine Senior, although I'm adding a very small amount of beet pulp and a
touch of grain to his diet now just to get him used to them, as he does not eat
like a Hoover vacuum cleaner pre-ride the way my other horses have. (He is
learning, to his credit.) But when I was campaigning horses for 1000+ mile
seasons, they might well get a pound a couple of hours pre-ride and a pound at
each vet check--and these days I'd put that in beet pulp, although riders were
just beginning to discover the merits of that last time I had one do that sort
of a season. So during a 100-miler, a horse might well get 7 or 8 pounds
of grain (I'm talking real actual grain here, not Senior, not beet pulp, not
some mix).
As to slurries--I'm a big fan of wet food
at rides. Horses tend to be already dehydrated, and IMO they have to
"download" a lot less saliva to process the feed, never mind that even what
saliva they do "download" you are at least partially replacing by putting
moisture right back into the gut. Although it isn't near enough water to
make up for their water losses, it is at least a start. Also, they are
less apt to choke on wet feed. (Maybe SuG can share the incredible numbers
again on the amount of fluid that has to shift in order to process food--when
there isn't fluid in the body to spare for that process, unless you are also
putting it back in! Yeah, the water you add to the food doesn't come close
to replacing it--but it is that much less that they need to
drink!)
Best general plan I've seen (with
variations for individual horses) is all the grass hay they can eat for several
days preride, during the trip to the ride, and at the ride. Add beet
pulp and/or Senior to that as needed. Remove any fat supplements
or high-fat concentrates prior to the ride and replace those concentrates
with similar concentrates such as Senior. Then add the carbs as you work,
together with whatever sloppy product works well for that particular horse to
keep him happy to eat at every check. Soaking hay in muck tubs at vet
checks also really helps.
