noon feeding while hitched

if you feed your horses good they should be able to make it all day with out being fed at noontime i have never fed a horse or mule any kind of treat while working or riding ronnie tucker tn logger

My understanding is that equine have a circular nerve at the bottom of their stomachs that when the stomach contracts from being empty that nerve basically shuts down the progress of food through the digestive tract. It kind of makes sense they would work that way as evolving from animals that in the wild may have to travel miles to get forage on the steps of Mongolia and then further to get water.

That is something I’ve noticed when folks tuck pulling horses to get them in weight classes. Once they stop getting water they stop eating and they stop pooping.

I have never been able to make myself do this type of shrinking stuff, but have seen it done and the horses can go for long periods of time without food, even when working. It is certainly a wonderful feature to have beast of burden with so much tolerance of variance in their life needs to be of great service to mankind.

Once I had an apprentice working in the woods with us and he decided the horses need some hay in the middle of the day, so he took their bridles off and put a bale in front of them at lunch, while I was driving the log truck. Well he didn’t bother to get them some water too and that evening one those horses became colicky and it took hours with the vet and hundreds of dollars to save that horses life. It is funny because that particular apprentice went on to become a veterinarian himself and learned an important lesson on working horses and feeding in the midday from that experience. Water is the most important ingredient in their diet.

We don’t use any treats either, tends to make the horses think about eating instead of working. The best reward for any beast of burden is cessation of demand or whoa. Feeding an animal from hand makes them think that anyone may have treats in their hand which doesn’t bode well for visitors, particularly little kids reaching up to pet them on the nose… The boss horse in the wild doesn’t feed them by hand, just takes them to where food/water is….

Of course I think the horses do think we are going into the woods or fields looking for something to eat, because they definitely will browse leaves when they can reach them and if you don’t have a head check on them they will try to graze.

@Biological Woodsman 10438 wrote:

My understanding is that equine have a circular nerve at the bottom of their stomachs that when the stomach contracts from being empty that nerve basically shuts down the progress of food through the digestive tract. It kind of makes sense they would work that way as evolving from animals that in the wild may have to travel miles to get forage on the steps of Mongolia and then further to get water.

That is something I’ve noticed when folks tuck pulling horses to get them in weight classes. Once they stop getting water they stop eating and they stop pooping.

I have never been able to make myself do this type of shrinking stuff, but have seen it done and the horses can go for long periods of time without food, even when working. It is certainly a wonderful feature to have beast of burden with so much tolerance of variance in their life needs to be of great service to mankind.

Once I had an apprentice working in the woods with us and he decided the horses need some hay in the middle of the day, so he took their bridles off and put a bale in front of them at lunch, while I was driving the log truck. Well he didn’t bother to get them some water too and that evening one those horses became colicky and it took hours with the vet and hundreds of dollars to save that horses life. It is funny because that particular apprentice went on to become a veterinarian himself and learned an important lesson on working horses and feeding in the midday from that experience. Water is the most important ingredient in their diet.

We don’t use any treats either, tends to make the horses think about eating instead of working. The best reward for any beast of burden is cessation of demand or whoa. Feeding an animal from hand makes them think that anyone may have treats in their hand which doesn’t bode well for visitors, particularly little kids reaching up to pet them on the nose… The boss horse in the wild doesn’t feed them by hand, just takes them to where food/water is….

Of course I think the horses do think we are going into the woods or fields looking for something to eat, because they definitely will browse leaves when they can reach them and if you don’t have a head check on them they will try to graze.

I have nothing to offer in regards to Rick’s initial post in this thread. I can say that Jason’s point about water in the diet seems to be dead on correct.

EVERY time, except one, that I have had a horse with any kind of digestive problem / colic issue there was some tie to not getting enough water in them. I have become almost fanatical about keeping clean, uncontaminated water in front of them anytime they want it.

My daughters aged saddle horse gelding will go off water just about anytime there is an abrupt change in the weather. He then gets a condition that my vet calls a “pre-colic” where he starts to get somewhat constipated and looses his gut activity, i.e. no “gut sounds”. I wasn’t aware of the nerve thing that Jason is talking about in the bottom of their stomachs, but it stands to reason that this plays into the equation. Anyway, to offset this problem I feed him a couple of tablespoons of a generic form of Metamucil and some re-hydrated beet pulp.

BTW: Use to be when he started getting out of sorts and stopped pooping I would call the vet, have him tube him with mineral oil and give him a shot of Banamine. This is an expensive way to get him to poop. Now he gets a Fleet enema and 20 minute ride in the horse trailer; a sure fired proven way to get his bowels moving. That said, keeping him drinking plenty of water is still the cheapest, surest way to prevent this problem.