Comments on: Barefoot Transitioning: How one endurance rider feeds and manages her horses

By: Olga

Olga — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:24:15 +0000

i use free choice Sea Salt for my horses i order it from Celtic Salt and but the PET Salt it is fair on the price and the horse do well on it,

By: Linda Switzer

Linda Switzer — Thu, 20 May 2010 06:05:52 +0000

HI,I just found your sight and I am most interested in trying your free feeding sait and beet pulp. I have 2 Arabians who have never required shoes. My gelding is a 25 year old Egyptian and my mare is 10 years old and mostly Babason breeding. I just feed a cup of pellets, 4oz of Dr. Reed’s vitamins and local grass hay. During the winter they are fed hay 3 times a day. In the spring we gradually work up to all day grazing. I don’t endurence ride, but it’s not uncommon for us to out on the trails 3-4 hours. Neither have ever been sick or lame and they are always game to go. I also show in local all breed shows.
What I would like to know is how to change them over to beet pulp gradually.

PS any one who has done a trim on them just says that they’ve hardly or never have seen feet so good—especially my old Egyptian(25 going on 7 ) They have stalls, but I leave their doors open so they can go in and out as they please to their large sand-gravel paddock,unless there is a terrible winter storm, but even then given a choice they would rather be out with their warm blankets on. Thank you–you’re a wealth of information.

By: Sibylle Waruszcak

Sibylle Waruszcak — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:37:15 +0000

Thanks, I really appreciate it. There is soooo much to learn when it comes to what our horses eat. While so many people have to worry about hay with too much sugar/starch, I’m finding out that mine just don’t have much energy without grain with my very low sugar/starch hay, their diets are apparently too healthy!
Sibylle

By: Karen Chaton

Karen Chaton — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:09:27 +0000

Hi Sibylle – I will try to find the pdf of my hay test results and post it. Karen

By: Sibylle Waruszcak

Sibylle Waruszcak — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:28:13 +0000

Hi Karen,
I would love to see a test result for your hay, especially the amount of sugar and starch in it. I’m afraid I’ve gone too far the other way in order to keep my horses from receiving too much sugar and starch.It turns out that my hay is extremely low in sugar/starch (5.3% combined). I’m curious as to how much sugar/starch your horses are receiving from their hay. My horses have gotten way too calm and laid back on their hay and small amount of Safe Choice mainly used as a carrier for their mineral supplement.
Thanks
Sibylle

By: kchaton

kchaton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:39:36 +0000

Hi Lina – you can put it in a bucket, pan or half a barrel – any way you can find to get it to stay put and not get knocked around. Loose salt is definitely better than offering block salt.

By: Lina

Lina — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:38:36 +0000

This might be a dumb question (I’m not a new horse owner but new to endurance…um, not actually having started yet. Your site is very educational). Regarding the loose salt: Do you just leave it in a feedbin?

Both my horses are in stalls, and they get their supplements from me in a feedbin, which of course they eat right away. But if I’m to leave loose salt, I’ll need to attach something to the stall (it’s just a pipestall) so that they won’t knock it over.

Thanks!
Lina

By: kchaton

kchaton — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:12:31 +0000

Hi Vicky – thanks – I think you can find the plain salt if you ask for it – it should either be called salt, or maybe sodium? Let me know how it goes! Karen

By: clink

clink — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:38:14 +0000

your blogs are amazing! this one especially! any idea what that salt would be called in the UK? people here use table salt. i ussually use specific horse electrolytes but this gets expensive. do you have any other names for this salt? thanks for the posts! keep them up!!
x vickyclink

By: kchaton

kchaton — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:18:22 +0000

Hi Sharon – I think the best way is to fasten the GPS onto the top of the horses halter or fly mask. Use duct tape or electrical tape. I figured that was about the safest spot to have it in case the horse rolled. Check often to make sure nothing goes missing . A fly mask or break-away halter is probably the safest thing to use for turnout.

Chief went about 12.5 miles before the batteries died on the GPS. Leave it on overnight if you can. My horses are more active then, especially in the early morning.