At 07:57:35 on 25.09.11, kibby wrote:
Well it turns out resting a horse off pasture could actually be more harmful then beneficial. I was reading a heap on John Konke who is one of the best horse nutritionists in Australia and a vet too. He actually suggests if you are going to be going on a long hack, hunt or if you ride endurance so feed a well watered down bit of lucerne hay (alfalfa) or 200gm of sloppy watered down lucerne chaff about 20min before you ride. The reason is the hay and water will act as a buffer in the stomach stopping acid slopping around causing discomfort and causing ulcers. He says horses are not designed to be ridden for as long as we often do. I think I found the articles
http://www.kohnkesown.com/index.php

At 20:52:29 on 25.09.11, NMH wrote:
I knew this from my endurance days; an added bonus is it retains water in the gut & lessens dehydration, or something. It's very unnatural to leave a horse with nothing in its stomach, isn't it, they are trickle feeders.

At 00:20:50 on 26.09.11, kibby wrote:
I hadn't heard of I before. but being honest how obvious is it once its pointed out. And yea the lucerne hay is supposed to be the best for retaining hind gut water.

At 16:47:05 on 26.09.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
I never rest grenville, they gallop about in the field on a full tummy anyway and he just comes in and eats his haylege anyway so i see no reason to rest him, the only time i make sure i don't ride is after he has had his breakfast or tea

At 20:18:53 on 29.09.11, Gilly wrote:
I feed a small amount of Alfa A and carrotts dampened down,before riding. By the time I have groomed and tacked up it is about 1/2hr before I set off and I mostly warm up in walk for a while anyway. This leads the horses to think that they have had their breakfast, and it saves me having to wait for an hour before excercising, and because they have eaten a little, they do not get grumpy. I then feed the rest of the breakfast when we return from the ride as soon as the horse is cool. This also acts as a reward after a good ride. Thanks for the tip about wetting the Alfa, I will make their initial feed wetter in future.