Never freefeed a horse

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

Once we decided to bring 100 lbs of carrots for Nasrif to Tevis.  Yes,
that's 100, not 10!  2 cartons!  We gave him lots of carrots before the
ride (we're hydrating him, don't you know!), maybe 20 or 30 lbs over the
2 days before the ride.  He loved this! (Before anyone squawks, we were
giving him carrots at  home too, so we weren't suddenly changing his
diet).

We fed him lots of carrots during the ride, but somehow, when he got to
the Deadwood vet check he didn't want any of those nasty, warm, beat up
carrots from my cantle bag, instead charged for (and devoured part of)
the watermelons on the "people food" table, thereby requiring much
apologizing on my part.

When we got to Auburn, Nas had a whole new 50 lb carton of carrots
waiting for him!  He half-heartedly munched on the top carrots & ignored
the rest.  He wouldn't touch carrots for a month.

By the way, his sire, Ben Rabba, at  one point in his later life, had a
large luxury stall with a 30 gallon garbage pail in each corner, each
filled with grain, pellets or whatever.  He had total free access to
this & never had a problem.

Would I try that with any of our horses?  Of course not, cause everyone
knows you should never freefeed a horse!

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                                    ____________
Lif & Paul Strand   STRAND ENTERPRISES   www.fasterhorses.com
   Arabian Horses * Nutrition for People & Critters * WebArt
                       Quemado, NM  USA