Help with treats

[Rhondaalaska]

Hi

The farrier came out to day to do my little mare Diva's feet. She said that Divas feet were good,

But that she had rings on them showing that she had a lot of sugar in her diet. I have only had my little mare since the 9 th of September. I feed timothy hay and no grain. We do give her horse cookies and carrots. We do that for her rewards in training. I have also let her graze. The farrier said that the hay was fine but I needed to find other no sugar treats for her. Do any of you know of any and where to find them?

She also said not to let her graze on short grass or after 11:00 am . She suggested getting a treat thing to put in her stall for bordum, as she will chew her barn when she is bored . She has a paddock that she can go out to from her stall. She hates the rain so refuses to leave the stall. Do any of you have ideas for me for treats and things for her to do. She has 2 balls as well.

Thank you

 

[shorthorsemom]

My guys don't get much in the way of "treats" as they tend to balloon. I feed fine grass hay and purchase a supplement such as enrich 32. Or triple crown lite supplement. Over the course of the day I "treat" my guys with little bit of supplement tossed into their feed tub. I do not give more than their daily allotment over the course of the day. They love their pellets. They gallop in when I call them. I don't hand feed treats because I have kids and don't enjoy beggars for horses. For grass we mostly do muzzle time to limit intake so they can be turned out any time during the day. During the early frost time and spring grass time my guys get mostly hay diet and I use a muzzle. I am very careeful and if I ever saw rings forming on their feet I would be concerned. Founder has visited me twice in my horsey life and I tend to be ultra careful now with grass time.

 

[targetsmom]

We don't feed any of ours treats, but do reward good behavior in other ways. We have an insulin resistant mare (which may be what you have) and show many of the others, so they are all kept on a dry lot with no grass. But we tend to do our training in the back yard where there is grass, so they get rewarded after a training session (even the IR mare) with a few mouthfuls of grass. They also get lots of pats, withers scratches (or wherever they like it) and "good girls" or "good boys". Our IR mare is also on Remission, a Magnesium and Chromium supplement to help prevent founder. Also, this time of year when our pasture (where the mares & foals stay in the summer) is almost all eaten down, so we do put everyone out there for an hour maximum about once a week. We do this right before supper so that they will come in readily. They think this is the best reward ever and put on quite a show, which is OUR reward.

ETA: Not sure how old Diva is, but if she is young, she probably should be getting grain. There are a number of low starch grains available - the best I found is Nutrena Safe Choice Special Formula (NOT the original Safe Choice). This would also be suitable for "treats"

We tie flattened plastic milk jugs in the stall as "toys" and we know they get a lot of use! You can also toss the plastic jug on the ground in the stall and they will flatten it for you.

 

[Jill]

I wonder if you could make very small carrot slices or cubes? I know that's a starchy vegetable, but it may work well in small amounts?

Nearly all of our horses are on a low starch "complete" pellet, and they do well on it; however, most nights, I go out and give cookies to all of the horses. I buy 20# bags of them at TSC (we have more than a few horses). This doesn't seem to cause any problems, and the horses, of course, really look forward to it

I do, too

Good luck!

 

[chandab]

I would venture to guess that since you have only had Diva about a month, the rings in her hooves were caused by previous stresses (be that previous diet as your farrier suggests or other stress), and not her current diet (to which a vit/min supplement should probably be added to be sure she's not missing something in her diet). I would still limit her intake of sugary or starchy treats; carrots are very starchy, and most commercial horse treats are sugary. If you can find them locally, hay pellets or cubes would be a low sugar/starch alternative to treats and carrots (perferrably timothy cubes or pellets, but alfalfa/timothy mix would be good too). [sometimes the cubes are super hard, so need to be soaked to soften, so those really hard ones would only work as a mealtime treat in her feed dish.]

 

[disneyhorse]

I don't feed treats to any of my animals for the most part.

Sometimes I give an alfalfa pellet. Horses will eat anything, so even a stem of hay is enough for them if you like to use food as a reward.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I would venture to guess that since you have only had Diva about a month, the rings in her hooves were caused by previous stresses (be that previous diet as your farrier suggests or other stress), and not her current diet (to which a vit/min supplement should probably be added to be sure she's not missing something in her diet). I would still limit her intake of sugary or starchy treats; carrots are very starchy, and most commercial horse treats are sugary. If you can find them locally, hay pellets or cubes would be a low sugar/starch alternative to treats and carrots (perferrably timothy cubes or pellets, but alfalfa/timothy mix would be good too). [sometimes the cubes are super hard, so need to be soaked to soften, so those really hard ones would only work as a mealtime treat in her feed dish.]

Hooves grow slowly. If you've only had her a couple of months, you inherited her hoof condition. The same thing happened to me. I got mine in March and she is slowly growing them out. My trimmer said it will be December before the old hoof is grown out. Her new growth is fine. I think my mare had poor nutrition and lots of stress when I got her. Stress can be as much a factor as food.

However, obviously this is something she is prone to, so I watch my girl. She has been fine on pasture this summer, but if we get a lot of rain and some rank grass growth, I limit her grazing by putting her in a dry lot for a few days, then only half a day out to graze. I find the best way to keep tabs on whether she is at risk is feeling her feet. If they are warm-hot, into the dry lot she goes on hay and timothy pellets, no grain.

I try to work with her every day. She is in training to work in harness, so she has that diversion. Also take her for 2 mile walks at least twice a week and pony her behind the cart of my other horse. Just something simple like teaching her simple tricks, and ground manners lessons every day should keep her mind occupied enough.

I wonder if the wood chewing is a bad habit, something else you inherited. If she has good nutrition she will not need to do that. Try a mineral block for her, perhaps, or a pelleted mineral supplement.

As for treats, they don't care about the size--they just enjoy largesse from the herd boss. Break store-bought cookies into pieces. I dry apples for mine and sometimes tear the slices in half. Just because a treat comes in a certain size doesn't mean we can't break it up into smaller servings. Lately I made some treats from an Oaties receipe someone on the Forum had. Instead of flour I used mesquite flour. I tried to make the cookies little, but they are still rather large, so I break them into smaller portions. I bought some wee pretzel balls to use in trail mix, and find they are a very good size for treats. My horses love pretzels!

 

[Rhondaalaska]

Hi everyone

Diva is 11yrs old. I have a mineral block in her stable,

I also give her one scoop of mellinium gold vitamins.

I try to walk her 1 mile 5 days a week , unless it is raining hard

Then we don't walk. We do reward with scratches as well as praise,

But have found that she is a food motivated horse , we are trying to

Over come some fears and bad manners from past and she responded better to

Food . I will look for some hay pellets or cubes , it seems like she chews mostly when we are gone

And when it rains. I know it is because she is bored , we are training her to cart, ground driving right now

We don't feed by hand but put in a bucket for her. She is a sweet little mare, she was just let go and didn't have anything done with her

Unless the 6 yr old went out to play with her. She has learned a lot so far. She no longer pushes us when we walk and doesn't snatch her hay from our hands now. I have a ball that hangs in her stall, I was just afraid that the milk jugs might cut her little legs, can they?

The farrier said she hasn't foundered before but that we needed to watch her diet. I know she was given apples a lot and grain I don't know what else was given to her before I got her. She didn't have vitamins till I got her. I will keep looking and checking her hooves to see if they are warm. Thanks for you help

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

With my guy who is also very food motivated i simply use his grain as a treat and adjust his meal time feeding of grain accordingly. He had rings on his feet too. However he was being fed as much sweet feed as a full sized rachorse before i got him. Nor did he have an up to datr trim. He has been fine on the mini pony feed and grass, along with a pasture buddy he loves to run with!

With my guy who is also very food motivated i simply use his grain as a treat and adjust his meal time feeding of grain accordingly. He had rings on his feet too. However he was being fed as much sweet feed as a full sized rachorse before i got him. Nor did he have an up to datr trim. He has been fine on the mini pony feed and grass, along with a pasture buddy he loves to run with!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Sounds as though you are on the right track with Diva and will work through all those issues successfully. I am anxious to hear how her cart training goes!

 

[susanne]

While I'd be very thankful the farrier alerted me to such a problem, I would get my vet's opinion on what exactly is going on and how best to treat it. Of course, not all vets are aware of mini-specific issues, but I wouldn't go just by my farrier's word unless he/she were also a vet.

As for treats, I do clicker training with very limited treats. They get verbal treats while working and a food treat when we're done. For this, I use black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS). The horses love them, they are not sugary, and they are great for their coats. Don't go overboard with them, as they are fatty, but a couple of seeds is all that is needed to say "good pony." They also save your pockets from sticky, gummy mess and leave no crumbs to mess up your washing machine.

 

[Rhondaalaska]

I will keep that in mind. The vet when she looked at her didn't say anything about her hooves. I don't think she sees very many mini horses, she measured Diva incorrectly . She measured her at the highest point of her withers instead of her last mane hair which is on the flat part of her neck and back, almost 3 inch difference because Diva has large withers. We thought she was going to be over her papers but when we measured her to the last hair she was right where her papers said. I will cut down on treats and switch to hay based ones instead. The farrier sees a lot of founder classes here. She is an expert on special cases here. She has a few other ponys and one mini she takes care of. She said she was in good shape other wise that she can see. The vet had said that I needed to get her teeth done this spring , Diva is starting to get wolf teeth. So I will find a vet to do that. The one I saw doesn't do teeth. Thank you everyone for all the help and ideas. Have any of you tried the little lickit treats that you hang in the stalls?

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

I have. My sutd won't even touch likits though.... Go figure! He does seem to really like the other random hanging treats though. They're called "uncle jimys hanging balls" LOL

http://www.uncle-jimmys.com/

 

[AngC]

It's simple... they're pigs. Mini horseys are just flat-out pigs. .... no offense to all the pig lovers out there, but minis seem to make fat out of virtually nothing.

I have had my stallion on the vet hospitals recommended diet of grass hay. He eats maybe half what they recommended. He has vision problems so he is on the smallest pasture and there is pretty much nothing to eat there. He gets absolutely no treats whatsoever. I've increased his exercise. He's growing his winter coat, but it seems that he is just getting fatter.

I've been feeding the little mare a similar ration, since they are of similar size. She looks even fatter. Everything dried up here, so her pasture, although larger, has very little to eat also. I'm not too sure what I should be feeding Baby; Mom is dominant in the food department, but Baby has a nice set of drumsticks on her too so must be doing o.k. when it comes to snagging food.

I would be interested in how people are assessing the "fatness" of their animals. From what I've read, weight tapes don't work well for minis. My farrier, trainer, and vet seem to be able to run a hand over them and grab their necks to get a ballpark assessment of "fatness." I am not skilled enough to tell from that.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to weigh minis? (....without breaking the bank.)

 

[Rhondaalaska]

My vet used a tape measuer and said diva was 300 pounds. I don't have access to a scale so how do you measure . I know she is bigger that the horses I see on here. My avatar is her and I have photos in gallery.

 

[susanne]

If none of your local vets have a large animal scale, check with feed stores in your area or other businesses that would have one.

 

[chandab]

A scale is always best, but the formula for calculating weight on the LB info pages isn't too bad: http://www.lilbeginnings.com/info/misc/ The formula is about half-way down the page, right below the weight chart (the chart hasn't been that accurate for my minis).

I actually used the formula on my babies about a week ago and the formula was within 10# of actual weight of the babies (I have a livestock scale). [i've read the formula isn't as accurate for babies as for adults. I haven't measured my adults in awhile to test that theory, I just weigh them and go with what the scale says.]

 

[Rhondaalaska]

Ok thank I will do that

 

[Miniv]

We use 1/4 inch size alfalfa pellets as treats for training the ponies and minis.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

If your small animal vet will let you walk her up on his dog scales, that will work. I've done that. Also the grain elevator, or any Public Scales will work. My first horse I weighed on the grain elevator scales before I took him for gelding. It was fun to see the vet and all the spectators that suddenly show up at a gelding guess his weight. They used calves for comparison. It was pretty funny. He is 32 1/2" tall and weighed 245# at age 5 when he was gelded. Still had his winter fur then. He is the horse in my avatar. He was weighed last year at age 15 and weighed the same.

Frankly, I would look for an equine dentist to do your horse instead of a vet. Most vets don't have the correct tools for small horses.