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Fourth Question: What do you feed an endurance horse that is 
allergic to alfalfa, wheat, molasses, corn, oats, soy products 
and cottonseed. Beet pulp, rice bran and Bermuda just is not 
enough. Anyone feed straight barley and if so how much. Is it a 
hot feed? What is a good stemy hay that is in Southern Cal 
besides oat that has enough nutrients in it for an endurance 
horse.
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Mel, why is bermuda & beet pulp not enough?  How severe is the 
alfalfa alergy?  Can she not have ANY?

I feed all my horses bermuda & 3-way hay (oat/wheat/barley), 
plus a small amount of beet pulp & flax seed.  My non-
competition horses are fat (some too fat!) and shiney on that
diet.  My foundered mare gets only the 3-way hay because it's 
practically straw, and that's what she needs.  My competition 
horse (Phlyrt) & my new stallion (because he arrived skinny --
2 weeks later and I'm already going to have to cut him back) 
gets the same as the rest, except for the addition of a *small*
amount of alfalfa-bermuda pellets & more beet pulp than the 
others get.

In the past, when I haven't been able to find 3-way and/or 
otherwise was limited in what I could buy, bermuda alone keeps
them looking and feeling fine.  Granted, a horse being
conditioned and competed needs a bit more groceries, but can't 
you just try feeding LOTS of bermuda?  

When you say straight barley, do you mean barley grain or barley
hay?  I don't feed any grain, but if you could FIND barley hay
it should be similiar in nutrients to the 3-way I get (I'm not
convinced it's always "3-way" but rather whatever they happened
to get in that shipment).

Is this Tess?  You've seen Phlyrt, she's shiney and fit on her
diet.  I don't know if Tess' Morgan metabolism would make her
different from Phlyrt's Arabian metabolism on food use.

What prompted you to do this alergy test in the first place?  
And if you're getting results that multiple horses from your 
small herd are alergic to so many things, I'm tempted to wonder
if either the test is flawed or a high percentage of horses
would show up as alergic (in which case they do fine with owners
that don't know they're alergic).

~Nicole
(see you at Bar-H!)

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One would think that logic would prevail. But then, if logic did prevail,
men would ride sidesaddle. 
~  Bob Morris

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