Re: eating and performance

[rides2far@juno.com (Angela C. McGhee)]

> despite the rider error of being lost twice on the foggy mountain.

Oooh, "Foggy Mtn. Breakdown" 


>The problem  -  he doesn't eat.  Anything. 
>At home he is very picky and eats about 1/2 of what any other horse on 
the place consumes.  For two or three weeks before the ride I would bring
him inside twice a day and offer him free choice grain. 

Marie, I had an endurance rider from Texas visit my house and she just
watched my horses eat with total amazement.  She said, "I've never seen
horses so intent on eating...they never take their faces out of the
buckets!"  

My secret?  Well, I've got these two Welsh ponies that eat like locusts. 
When they finish their grain, they go straight over to try to help the
next horse. (I have 5 buckets hanging from a wooden fence, every other
post.)  If Kaboot so much as turns his head to knock a fly off his side,
that pony's nose will be in his bucket and he has to bite him HARD to get
him to take it out...meanwhile the OTHER pony gets his nose in there. 
Now he's learned to just eat until it's all gone regardless.  I think I
could throw rocks in his bucket and he'd eat them if he's out with
them...however, if I bring him in with no competition, he's far more
likely to get a little picky.

I was the 5th of 6 kids.  If we saw something good come home from the
grocery store, we didn't put off eating it until later...we ate it quick
to keep the others from getting it.  I think it's funny that we all lost
weight after we moved out on our own.

Kaboot is more likely to get finicky at a ride than at home, but I've
found that if he has competition, he gets busy and eats. (Another good
reason to share things at a vet check).  At his first 100 last year, we
had 2 picket lines set up.  Kaboot was on one and 10' away was his
traveling pardner.  He wasn't eating until we put them on the same line,
then he really scarfed it down.

In camp, he shared his line at one ride last year with Faith Clark's
horse "Rock".  We put the water & their hay between them and you would
have thought they were having an eating contest.   I honestly worried
that he'd eat so much hay he couldn't trot the next day!


>Next time I look for a horse my first question will be - does he eat??

Hmmm, that will get rid of that problem...of course there's 999,999 other
ways they can drive you crazy.

Angie McGhee & Kaboot (Would SOMEBODY please get these ponies?)

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