Feeding -Older Horses/EPT

VMAXEPT@aol.com
Tue, 22 Oct 1996 22:57:20 -0400

Fasha is 18 had her since she was 2. Been in compettion since 4. Has 4000+
miles.
Sound, willing strong healthy. Does quite well.
We have done 2-50 mile endurance rides this year and a number NATRC open 2
day and one 3 day.
Carol rides a 15 yr mare, Fame, out of Fasha and a 23 yr old gelding Magic.
Had Magic from 2. Has about 1500 miles CTR and END. Was my daughters.
Magic has done one NATRC 50 and one 25 LD End this year..out of
retirement since Fame has old injury problems.
We also have a 25 yr old Zar, my first real End horse. Had him from 2 yrs
also. I rode him for about 3 years then Carol took over and rode for about 5
to 8 years before she retired..for a period of time.
Our feeding program over the past 20 years has been quite varied.
We been thru many ..but now we find going back to the basic grains, like we
did when all we rode were 'cowboy-pleasure' rides works the best.
NO SWEET feed. I must know what goes in the feed
We feed;
whole and cracked corn..VERY CLEAN and tested for mold.
Steamed crimped oats. no dusts
That is our basic blend. We mix the oats and corn by WEIGHT NOT volumne.

The blend depends on the horse.
The older boys are on Purina Equine Senior.
with corn. We add oats druing the winter and reduce the corn.
FIBER digestion keeps the horse WARMER then carbo.

CORN does NOT make the horse HOT..ie temp.. it increases the GO POWER..as in
hot to handle.
WE cut back on oats in the HOT summer riders and guess what our guys recover
faster, they are not as HOT inside. As Earl Baxter -Canada about this one
as well as Jim Helfter of ABC...

We add a few supplements to this base mix.
Fasha ; 4lbs corm 2 oats, Vite-se, 1 oz Mega-sel, 2oz Multi-flex, 4oz ABC
Energy, 1/2 lb Rice Bran, few handfulls beat pulp. We try to feed this 2
times a day.

Magic; 3 lbs Eq Senior, 1 corn, 2 oz ABC Plus, Vite-se, 2oz Multi-flex,
beetpulp, 1/2 rice bran once a day then 2lb Eq Sen at night. with 1 oz
DMG (for O2 uptake)

The others are on maintaince, what ever it takes to keep weight up. They ALL
get Vite-se, Multi-flex
We also add to the mix, a blend of corn oil and apple juice. This adds
additional fat and makes the mix very palatable. The working horses get at
least one cup of oil per day. The mix is 50-50 corn oil-apple juice.

We pre-load with electrolytes Thur night before a ride and the Fri moring
before we leave for the ride.
Feed at the ride is the SAME as at home...EXCEPT Fasha, she gets extra feed
and electrolytes about every few hours when in camp. She is a very slow picky
eater at rides she does better on small portions of feed thru-out the day and
night.
We carry the same mix to the vet checks.

Fasha gets a dose of GloMax a 'Red Cell' copy , MSM and 5000iu VitE , and
electroyles for a few days after a ride.

The newest things we added is the rice bran and beet pulp, they all like them
and appear to do well, rice bran for a safe fat and beetpulp for fiber and
great water absorbtion.

We cannot get the LMF feeds or any of the other hi-pro endurnace mixes, so we
roll our own..it works well..may not be the least costly , but it works.

Roger