Hi everybody. I am hoping that someone out there can at least ease my mind. I have a yearling Kiger filly, who I think could subsist on air alone if she had to. Unfortunately, the barn manager has always known Thoroughbreds, and insists on feeding my little mustang like a TB. This means one "ration" (about 3.5 pounds) of generic sweet feed twice a day. Needless to say, Sombre has blown up like a balloon since the grass turned green. She is out 24 hrs a day in a HUGE pasture with 8 other horses, with unbeatable trail access, and close to my house, so I really can't move her to another barn. The problem is that every time I ask the barn manager to reduce her grain, she gives me the "I don't like it, but she's your horse" speech and reduces the grain, but within a week she's back up to where she started.
I have finally convinced her to not feed Sombre any grain at all. I truly believe that she will get plenty of calories from the pasture, but I am concerned about essential nutrients or vitamins that the grass alone may not provide. For example, I know the east coast is notorious for being low in selenium. (We live in central Maryland). So my question is this. Is anything essential to a growing yearling missing from a 100% grass diet? If so, can somebody recommend a good supplement that will provide the missing essentials, without adding calories? Also, since our barn-manager-problem is guaranteed to repeat itself when fall comes around and the grass isn't so rich, can anybody suggest a way to deal with the barn manager so that she will listen to me and my instructions on how much to feed? I really appreciate any thoughts on these issues. I'm so stressed about it that I'm actually dreaming about grass and sweet feed at night. Thanks a ton, Cristin ________________________________________________________ Outgrown your current e-mail service? Get a 25MB Inbox, POP3 Access, No Ads and No Taglines with LYCOS MAIL PLUS. http://login.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
