I think we should all have a category on our blogs for when we find out things that no one could possibly care about - but we have to share them anyway.
A horse's diet consists mostly, at least in my mind, of generally tasteless stuff that takes a lot of chewing. They seem happy with this.
So this morning I am reading about some alternative supplements for horses. I use slippery elm bark for ulcers, works great most of the time, sometimes she seems to need a bigger blast of it. It also falls into the tasteless group of food. So this article says that fresh ginger can have the same effect and works better for some horses.
Ginger? That stuff that can spice up your life.... or take the top of your head off?
There is no way that my super suspicious, WHAT DID YOU PUT IN MY FEED, picky horse is going to get near a pungent bucket of anything with ginger in it.
The recommended amount is a chuck the size of your thumb, chopped up small. No kidding, small? Does microscopic make the taste milder? That is a LOT of ginger in a feeding.
But I decide to experiment. After all, I will just be throwing away one bucket of beet pulp, no big deal.
I walk into Nina's pen with the bucket and she nearly knocks me down. Her manners around feeding are generally great and she will stand patiently and watch me play with her feed as long as I want to. Not today. I whacked her on the nose with the big plastic spoon a couple of times and she finally backed up a step. I dumped the ginger beet pulp into her feed bucket, she dove in and I don't think she took a breath until it was gone. She certainly did not raise her head or even open her eyes. All her focus was on her mouth. Unbelievable.
There now, totally worthless info but you can see why I had to tell you.
A horse's diet consists mostly, at least in my mind, of generally tasteless stuff that takes a lot of chewing. They seem happy with this.
So this morning I am reading about some alternative supplements for horses. I use slippery elm bark for ulcers, works great most of the time, sometimes she seems to need a bigger blast of it. It also falls into the tasteless group of food. So this article says that fresh ginger can have the same effect and works better for some horses.
Ginger? That stuff that can spice up your life.... or take the top of your head off?
There is no way that my super suspicious, WHAT DID YOU PUT IN MY FEED, picky horse is going to get near a pungent bucket of anything with ginger in it.
The recommended amount is a chuck the size of your thumb, chopped up small. No kidding, small? Does microscopic make the taste milder? That is a LOT of ginger in a feeding.
But I decide to experiment. After all, I will just be throwing away one bucket of beet pulp, no big deal.
I walk into Nina's pen with the bucket and she nearly knocks me down. Her manners around feeding are generally great and she will stand patiently and watch me play with her feed as long as I want to. Not today. I whacked her on the nose with the big plastic spoon a couple of times and she finally backed up a step. I dumped the ginger beet pulp into her feed bucket, she dove in and I don't think she took a breath until it was gone. She certainly did not raise her head or even open her eyes. All her focus was on her mouth. Unbelievable.
There now, totally worthless info but you can see why I had to tell you.
Really? Now you've got me wondering if my super picky don't-get-that-peppermint-near-me Jackson would like it. Have you tried licorice with Nina? Jackson loves it which totally blows me away.
ReplyDeleteHi there! Just found your blog. I too, also own and blog about my OTTB :).
ReplyDeleteI started feeding my guy slippery elm for ulcers. He is rather picky too (my other OTTB was extremely picky) so it's interesting to hear that the ginger worked for your horse. Might have to try that myself...
Ginger, really? Cool, I'm going to test that out. I have heard that fenugreek, a very pungent Indian spice, was supposedly one of the favorite flavors of horses in a study. So maybe Ginger's not so surprising...
ReplyDeleteHey Diligent Horse! Welcome.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing! Glad she liked it...or, shall we say, LOVED it! ;)
ReplyDeleteHrm.. I'm going to have to try that on Allie. She totally does not give two hoots about food 99% of the time and is super distrustful of anything different in her feed.
ReplyDelete