Uh oh - horse breaks into hard feed...

C

capalldubh

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May 26, 2006
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Just heard from LucyJ that Jackson and his mate have broken into the feed buckets while she had Ciara out with the farrier. They have eaten a fair bit of Blue Chip. They would both have had full tummies before their break in as are out 24/7, and apparently did not eat everything (but ate a fair bit). Jackson does not get anything in the line of hard feed - only fibrenuts and Fibergy at the moment. He usually gets about 600g or so of fibrenuts but has not had any today.

Should I be worried and should I do anything? Immediate concerns are colic and laminitis - I don't know what's in Blue Chip? His wee mate is StarPiper's Highland, Jester, who gets a very little bit of hard feed plus Farrier's Formula.

Think they just ate till tummies full and then stopped, so hopefully not too much went in :(
 
Oscar broke into a full bag of competition mix once, and ate about half :eek:. He was nice and lively the next day, and did particularly well at his SJ! I was worried about him at first, but calmed down after he pooed fine.
 
Have texted K to tell her to check them over if she is up before me...

Shannon also survived eating a vast quantity of 16+, I seem to remember...
 
He was nice and lively the next day, and did particularly well at his SJ!
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Hmm, thinking about this, maybe exercise is a good idea? Should I get up there this evening and go for a long ride in the other field till it gets dark? I know you feed to match exercise but afterwards, not in anticipation... Pity I gave him the day off yesterday after the marathon hack on Saturday :rolleyes:
 
My retired pony ate who-knows-how-much hard feed (mostly grains, some pellets), chaff and then about 10L of molassas!! He was pleased with himself, but not sick.

Another Pony at my yard (a shetland) busted into my shed & ate about 2kg of sunflower seeds before I rolled him out of the shed. He was find too - just really glossy for a month! :D
 
ate about 2kg of sunflower seeds before I rolled him out of the shed. He was find too - just really glossy for a month!
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:D lovely image of fat shiny pony :D

We have just upped the field security to prevent horses being taken out. It didn't occur to us that the trouble would come from within :eek: I suspect the two of them are now plotting how to get back into the feed - especially Jackson who didn't know hard feed existed until today (or if he did, he didn't know what it tasted like, just that it smelled really gooooooood ;)).

Bet he refuses to eat his Fibergy dinner from now on :rolleyes: Well, if he's expecting more Blue Chip, he can dream on... I'm not made of money.
 
That kind of concentrate intake would concern me too.

I'd ring them, just to be in the picture

My Icelanidc ate half a bag of cool mix, spent the rest of the day looking sorry for himself, did a BIG poo and carried on grazing.
 
i do hope they are ok. i don't know how they managed it. they had vacated the scene when I got back - the first thing i noticed was my lidded container on its side (still with lid on) looked like they'd been playing football with it.

what got me was the way they had managed to take the levers off the bin lid and not actually manage to pull the bin over.

i suppose better it was the balancer than the coarse mix. but it must have been quite a few kilos, perhaps less as ciara had managed to spill some before we left and i managed to spill some in my car while trying to get it to the field.

i just don't get how they got in. :mad:
 
See what happens when the stabilising female influence is removed? They are a pair of bad boys up to no good... I expect all that work I did training Jackson to put his hoof up on things will have paid off, he probably held it still while Jester undid the catches :rolleyes:

Spoke to Blue Chip (still not quite clear what's in it) but apparently don't panic - there is a fair bit of bulk stuff in the balancer as well as calories so harder to OD, fingers crossed. That will be why they stopped eating, I guess...

How did the farrier go?
 
Ginny once broke into to tack room (my fault-didn't lock door) and pulled the lid of the bin off and ate conditioning cubes-didn't eat much luckily as she is already a fat h/w cob...good-doer :rolleyes:
i wouldn't be worried unless started acting strange.... a bit like me lol:D ring up just in case though
 
Seemed ok when I was up...he had the cheek to be suggesting he was due another feed!

When I moved to my previous yard, the nice-but-dim stable boy mixed the wormer into an entire bucket of oats, barley, pony cubes...a bit of everything they had basically :eek: I was horrified, but Jester actually had trouble finishing the bucket (and suffered no ill effects other than waistline expansion!)

Looks like he's sussed the electrics aren't on, if they were he would definitely not have tried to go through to the feed.
 
Star_Piper said:
Looks like he's sussed the electrics aren't on, if they were he would definitely not have tried to go through to the feed.
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Yep..Nelson will be more than happy to push through electric fence if it isn't ticking...at high speeds too so he will take the posts out with him :rolleyes:

Yet if he can hear it he wont go within a metre of it...these boys are crafty buggers!!
 
Well, everybody fine last night and this morning. Jackson refused his bucket of Fibergy and supplements last night - unheard of! He pushed it politely around the plate a bit, then chucked it on the grass hoping I would think he'd eaten it ;) I suspect Jester then ate it, and stood looking a bit full for a while...

I arrived at 7 this morning to check hoof heat etc, and found the three of them standing around looking at the tape. Jackson and Ciara were sort of lurking in the background and Jester was leaning over it - backed off when he saw me and went "who, me?" So I increased security a bit with a lot more ropes etc., but a rethink is needed. Last year the feed was over the wall in another field in the sort of big barrels that have metal catches (and there was nothing more tasty than Fibergy). This year, darn it, there are cows in that field, and we have a lot of tasty feed in see thru plastic tubs behind some tape...

Jackson is also quite happy to shimmy under electric tape when on as soon as he has a full winter coat so I think that won't be enough. Will have to think of alternatives. Maybe under the big beech tree down and to the right of the gate (i.e. not in field, but not on side that cows are...)

ETA - ours only clicks when it rains. I think they test it by holding their whiskers very close and feeling for vibrations...
 
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Good point about cows - I forgot they were delicate creatures that can't survive the Scottish winter (like our hairy horses do :D). In the meantime, the wee woody bit was what I was thinking of...
 
Changed days! I can remember when the tape being off made no difference to how much clearance Jester gave it! Obviously a downside to de-sensitising him to snaky things :D Wouldn't put it past him to try climbing under the tape now too, if he's got over his fear of it.

Be a bit irritating having to go back down to get feeds, but it's a lot better than colic or laminitis!
 
Wouldn't put it past him to try climbing under the tape now too, if he's got over his fear of it
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which is why I put the orange rope all along, lower down than the tape... ;) But yes, I think we have to think again. Just until the cows go in, and it wouldn't have to go all the way back down - just where the hawthorn hedge ends to the right of the gate (about 100 yards down? I think there's a way in there, but will check).
 
I've seen a storage box like this in use at a couple of places now as a tack/feed store in a field and they seem to work quite well. I think they're generally weatherproof, they're lockable and I couldnt see the horses getting in very easily. They're not the cheapest but if it would work? You can find them in most arden centres as well.

Personally I wouldnt put tack in them as a persistant thief could proabably get in but I would think it would be fine for feed etc.
 
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