Nutrition for a week long ride

[Lynette Helgeson <helgeson@lansford.ndak.net>]

we are going on this week-long ride with our 
saddle club and I need some advice on keeping
my horses healthy and happy for the week 
This is the schedule: 
Sunday - 17 miles
Monday - 20 miles
Tues.  - 20 miles
Wed.   - O miles, we are going to have a down day. Let the
horses rest and regroup.
Thur.  - 21 miles
Friday - 23 miles
Sat.   - We are camping so we are going out on some trails
Sun.   - eat and go home

The miles could vary a little bit. This club travels at an
average of 6 miles per hour, so we vary our gaits and do a lot
of trotting. We are taking four horses and two of these horses 
are 19 and 20 years old, Ragtime and Shamar. 

My question is how to keep these guys all healthy and happy will
working them hard for several days in a row. My main
concern in Ragtime and Shamar. 
Ragtime (19) has arthritis, so I have started him on MSM and
Glucosomine, (flex-GL). I also have increased his grain and
added oil to his diet. How much oil should I give him? How much
grain
should all the horses be getting? 

Shamar (20) has problem with hay, he has heaves. Plus he sweats
very easily so he
loses a lot of water and salt and becomes dehydrated easily.
Even on cool
days. I have him on grain and fastrack. He also looses weight
easily.
Fastrack helps to put weight on him. Should I start him on
electrolytes?
if so, when and how much. Should I give all the horses
electrolytes?

All four horses have nice weight to them right now, I have been
giving them grain every night (COB) and they are on full pasture
during the
day. The saddle club supplies the grain for the ride, so I would
like to use theirs instead of hauling my own. The provide sweet
feed. Will it be ok to switch from
the COB mixture to sweet feed for the week? 

Also I have gotten alfalfa cubes to give to everyone, plus we
will be hauling hay. I plan on giving 3 lbs of alfalfa cubes per
horse
per day. I don't plan on feeding Shamar any hay if I can help
it. He
starts coughing if he eats hay. I am going to set up a separate
pen for him and try and find enough grass for him. What do you
think of my plans, anything that you
can add?
Can anyone help me out?  

Thanks,
Lynette


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=