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Post by holi on Jan 20, 2013 15:09:33 GMT 1
Can anyone give me any ideas why some horses are like this. I can understand if they have been starved and neglected but when you find the good doers who literally eat food at such speed as if they will never get food aagin I do wonder why.
I have thought he could be gripes associated with hunger (like us)
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Post by cheekychops on Jan 20, 2013 15:16:00 GMT 1
I have one of those! His new trick is to wolf down his feed in record time to be the first to the hay piles. He is a typical cob and would have you believe he is constantly starving.
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Post by rifruffian on Jan 20, 2013 15:17:10 GMT 1
Instinct to aid survival.
I myself am right in there with the same mindset.
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Post by holi on Jan 20, 2013 15:19:40 GMT 1
my girl paws the ground and gets really worked up when food is coming up - I feel a bit embarrassed sometimes as the others are very sedate lol
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madmare1
Grand Prix Poster
The Gruesome Twosome
Posts: 1,500
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Post by madmare1 on Jan 20, 2013 15:20:01 GMT 1
my 3 are just plain greedy I think! Gelding had been starved before I got him (sent to be sold, tried starving him into submission...didn't work, just made him very protective over his grub) and my two mares are arab horse pigs.....they will eat anything..you can't stand outside their stables with food (any of them) as they will (and have and do) pinch ANYTHING that fits in their mouths! Up to and including bacon butties, sausages, kids hot dogs at shows, chips, chips and gravy, chocolate, crisps, pot noodles, or anything I happen to be attempting to munch. Old mare will even finish off cans if she is allowed to!
Friends donkey has a thing about munching surcingles on rugs...or tail flaps, especially the ones covered in poo, but then again he is about 50 or so (we think) and is a cheeky bugger st the best of times!
Emma xx
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Post by holi on Jan 20, 2013 15:28:30 GMT 1
but to stop them getting so fat - I wondered vif there is a horse equivalent of Prader-willi syndrome??!!!
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Post by ladyndibs on Jan 20, 2013 15:42:43 GMT 1
I've got one like that, she will quite happily eat non stop, when we had snow last year she was rugged and had ad lib hay, she gained 20kg in about 10 days and Twiggy she isn't ;D.
This year she's naked and the hay isn't quite so plentiful.
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Post by holi on Jan 20, 2013 15:51:50 GMT 1
lol!
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coblet
Novice Poster
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Post by coblet on Jan 20, 2013 16:06:51 GMT 1
Some people say that if you offer food ad lib, eventually a horse will self-regulate.... but I'm really not sure that this would be the case with some horses. I have a cob that is incredibly food-driven and has lived a very happy, contended life - never been starved. If there is hay on offer he will stand and eat in the field until it has gone. The others will all eat for a while, then wander off to go to the toilet, or have a snooze buy this one will not leave the food until every single morsel is gone.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2013 20:39:11 GMT 1
I agree coblet, I tried with Henry when he arrived (under the illusion that he'd learn to self regulate) as until then Talin had happily had ad-lib and maintained a reasonable weight. Henry just ate and ate and didn't even bother to leave the hay when he wasn't eating, he just stood there eating non stop!
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Post by iceberg on Jan 20, 2013 21:28:51 GMT 1
Archie is like this, and to my knowledge has never been starved - he just cant stop eating if food is available. He doesnt gobble his feed down though, eats slowly and sedately, just wont stop until its all gone. I seriously belive if he got into a feed room he would eat until it killed him!
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Post by holi on Jan 20, 2013 22:12:43 GMT 1
Could kelly perhaps enlighten us???
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Post by SarahW on Jan 21, 2013 10:55:36 GMT 1
It's not astonishing that horses should be food obsessed - it's natural. It's more astonishing when they aren't. Horses have evolved to see food as an absolute priority, essential for their survival and usually in very short supply. You look at how driven the wildebeest are to go and find nitrogen rich grass on the plains of Africa - they throw themselves down steep banks and into crocodile infested waters to get to food. Horses have to be as tenacious as that.
Whilst food might not be in short supply for a particular horse, they haven't evolved to the extent that they feel they can rely on that, although some get more relaxed about it. Put a few shortages into the equation, add in a bit of occasional exciting sugary food, intermittent food, or competition from other horses then you are back to what you have always had. A horse that NEEDS to be food obsessed. Add in owners that inadvertently reinforce unwanted behaviour around food - supply on demand, basically being a free vending machine, then you get a horse that is apparently more food obsessed but actually all he's doing is pressing buttons!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2013 11:20:05 GMT 1
It's a good point Sarah. The most stark difference for me is that if I give Talin and Henry a really big haynet each Talin will nearly always lose interest and wander off to snooze or interact with the other horses or just stand and chill out before he's finished, but Henry won't, all the time there's hay there he'll just keep eating so I have to limit their hay so that Talin actually eats half of what I put out, otherwise retired Henry gets more food than working Talin.
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Post by holi on Jan 21, 2013 14:18:54 GMT 1
so sarah we contribute to the food obsession by letting good doers go without at times? Bit of a vicious circle made then.
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