Wood chewing? Increase hay? Boredom or more?

dianneS

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I have had four feet of snow on the ground for some time now. Its not going anywhere any time soon. My horses are accustomed to having grass and/or hay in front of them 24/7. I have more pasture than I have horses and I give them plenty of hay.

Since the snow fall, they are on hay exclusively, and they've never experienced this before. My horses are being fed "meals" now rather than being able to graze non-stop. I'm giving each horse plenty of hay for their size and activity level, plus grain twice a day. Of course they have mineral blocks and regular salt at their disposal too.

They finish their morning hay in the pasture pretty early in the day, so I bring them in around 4 or 5 in the evening and give them hay and grain to last them through the night.

When they finish their daytime hay, they get bored. They don't even have any dead grass to chew on. The snow is too heavy and packed down for them to even dig through it to get to the dead grass. My mare has started chewing fence posts and boards. She's not eating the wood, just grinding at it with her teeth. I think its boredom since she has nothing else to do but stand around in the snow. She's used to having her head down, grazing non-stop during the day.

I've increased her hay already and she still finishes it all before its time to come in for the evening.

Should I be concerned that she's chewing wood like this. She's not doing it that often, but could it be a deficiency or would a horse do something like this out of boredom? She is a cribber too and will crib unless she's wearing a collar.

I have neighbors who's pastures are over-grazed every fall, well before the snow comes. I see those horses finish off their hay piles and just stand around the pasture the rest of the day and they seem fine. My horses have never experienced a feeding regimen like this. Are they just spoiled by our large pastures, or should I be dumping hay in front of them round the clock to keep them happy?
 

Bunnylady

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Whether you want to consider it boredom, or having to burn off excess nervous energy, a lot of horses turn to cribbing or other (usually oral)behaviors when they have nothing else to occupy them. Sometimes these habits become so ingrained, I don't think the horse even knows why it's doing them. I remember watching a dedicated cribber that would grab the top of his stall door or a fence rail in between bites of feed, even spilling the grain that was already in his mouth to do it!

Horses can scarf hay (especially softer hays, like bermuda) at a much greater rate than they could ever graze grass. Some horses might do fine on free-choice hay, but others would get very fat. I have minis, and they are notorious for becoming little beach balls on legs unless their hay and/or grass consumption is limited. Slow feeders, which are racks or other containers with relatively small holes in them, can dramatically reduce the rate at which the hay is consumed, and keep the hay available for a much longer period of time. There are some commercially available designs, but they can be pricey; you can find some homemade versions on line that work just as well and can often be built for much less.
 

ducks4you

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You can't just figure out how much hay a horse needs and keep to that amount. You need to observe how much they eat until they don't want any more. THAT is the correct amount. Also, don't think that they eat 2 meals/day. People THINK that they eat twice a day because it fits into our schedules to feed them twice a day. They actually eat about 8 small meals throughout the day. Horses have small stomachs that evacuate quickly. If your mare is looking around for more hay, give it to her. Hay (or grass) is the staple of their diet.
Most full-sized horses will self regulate their intake of hay. (Miniatures are different, and that's not what you own, anyway.) Grain ( or equivalent ) is tastier, so some horses will pig on that and eat less hay, while others will never overeat their grain--My Arab never did, even when he and 2 buddies escaped and got into the grain can.

It could also be the hay you feed them. Some horses won't thrive on poor quality hay. Buy hay that looks like it's tender and smells sweet. I'm feeding some 100% rye grass bales that are 2 years old and even they still smell sweet.

Some horses lose weight on grass hay and need more calories, like alfalfa. Don't shed any tears about their seasonal lack of pasture. MANY horses eat exclusively hay and have no complaints.
 

WallTenters

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Hopefully they're eating a balanced diet (be it just quality hay or added nutrients etc) and are getting enough salt and nutrients to complete that.

Some horses just crib habitually. The best thing I've ever found or heard of is Irish Springs bar soap. I'm sure there's a horse out there that will crib through it, but I haven't found or heard of one yet. Just take the bar of soap and spread it on any area they're cribbing, and voila. If they crib through it, try putting it on a little thicker. Some horses just need a little bit of it, others need it to be a bar of soap with some wood under there. It's cheap, very very effective, they won't eat enough of it to get sick and it washes off so it's not harmful to the wood like a lot of cribbing products/alternatives.

PS - blue grass straw is usually available in any hay growing area. It's cheaper, because the seed (what they're growing it for) has been thrashed out. You can feed them just about as much as they want, we pretty much just free feed the BGS and give a small flake of orchard each feeding to our horses).

And no, you can't just feed them until they won't eat anymore. If you've got a higher calorie hay, your horse will get obese and founder. Some horses want to eat and eat and eat (like our gelding) and will eat themselves to death, literally. Also, horses need about 7% protein. Quality grass hays have about 14%, alfalfa has over 20%. Beet pulp, or a low-carb senior feed are much safer and just as afordable (calorie for calorie) as supplementing alfalfa, without risking kidney and liver burnout.

Good luck!
 

dianneS

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Bunnylady said:
Whether you want to consider it boredom, or having to burn off excess nervous energy, a lot of horses turn to cribbing or other (usually oral)behaviors when they have nothing else to occupy them. Sometimes these habits become so ingrained, I don't think the horse even knows why it's doing them. I remember watching a dedicated cribber that would grab the top of his stall door or a fence rail in between bites of feed, even spilling the grain that was already in his mouth to do it!

Horses can scarf hay (especially softer hays, like bermuda) at a much greater rate than they could ever graze grass. Some horses might do fine on free-choice hay, but others would get very fat.
My horse does crib just like that! She will try to crib between bites of food and drop grain all over the place, if she's not wearing her collar. She knows when she is wearing that collar or not and the minute I take it off, she heads for a fence rail to crib on! She's an ex-race horse and I've heard a lot of them are cribbers. She's been doing it much longer than I've owned her and I can't get her to stop.

I've increased her hay a little, and she seems to have stopped with the wood obsession. I don't know if it was the increase in hay, or if its that she's just getting used to the idea that the pasture is covered with snow and she's just going to have to take longer naps in the afternoon to fill the spare time! I will try a slow feeder and see if that helps too.

At least my horses are venturing out to walk around in this deep snow! Most of my neighbors horses haven't left their barn area in over a week. Not a single track in the snow.
 

ducks4you

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Good points, and :welcome, WallTenters ! I guess from my experiences with only about 25 horses over 25 years I've never had a horse that overdid it with just hay. (I'm aware of the problems with straight alfalfa. The horses I own now are young and they don't get it.) I've also never had an obese horse. (I have SEEN overweight horses, and they were roley-poley with bulges even on their croup.) I HAVE had to fight to keep weight on older horses.
My horses get a lot of turnout. I believe that they have a psychological need to move around, and turnout keeps them sane. If this is a serious problem your Vet should be involved.
<---"Moon Eyes", ("Warrens Cindy") is covered, but not overweight. She has a large girth, but no rolls. I had an older horse die of Cushings, so I keep my eye on my stock for that now, too.
 

dianneS

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I'm thinking about having some round bales delivered. There are some farmers with horse quality timothy hay 4x4 round bales, stored inside for about $30 a bale. Then they could have free choice of the round bales and I'd feed the square bales in the barn at night.

I just feel like this snow is never going to melt and I'm forgetting what grass looks like! I hope we see grass again some day, I'm so sick of snow!
 

WallTenters

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Hello too :)

Everything about horses has to be taken with a grain of salt. No horse is the same - some horses eat too much, far too many are fed too little. Our gelding will eat himself into oblivion. He doesn't care what it is - he'll eat it. He is a retired endurance horse and never lost the appetite that helped him win so many races, I guess.

On the other hand, my mare eats like a bird and I have to watch her weight in the middle of summer. She's a very easy keeping QH, but we ride so much that she burns off everything she eats, and she doesn't chow down like Stat does. In the winter time, we ride rarely (few times a month) and so she puts it all back on. She has gotten better this year, because I think she knows now that you eat and drink every chance you get.. with this crazy lady, who knows if we're riding for ten minutes or ten hours :).

It sounds like the original poster's horse is just bored from not having the usual grazing time. It is so so so important for horses to have grazing if at all possible. Important for their mental and physical well being, head to toe (literally!). But no worries, the sun will shine again! All this mud (Oregon) will go away some day and we can all ride every day again!
 

dianneS

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WallTenters said:
PS - blue grass straw is usually available in any hay growing area. It's cheaper, because the seed (what they're growing it for) has been thrashed out. You can feed them just about as much as they want, we pretty much just free feed the BGS and give a small flake of orchard each feeding to our horses).

And no, you can't just feed them until they won't eat anymore. If you've got a higher calorie hay, your horse will get obese and founder. Some horses want to eat and eat and eat (like our gelding) and will eat themselves to death, literally. Also, horses need about 7% protein. Quality grass hays have about 14%, alfalfa has over 20%. Beet pulp, or a low-carb senior feed are much safer and just as afordable (calorie for calorie) as supplementing alfalfa, without risking kidney and liver burnout.

Good luck!
I don't know if we have Bluegrass in our area? I've never seen it, or known of anyone who grows it. I live in hay country too! Lots of big hay farmers around us. Orchard grass is really the cheapest stuff we can get around here. I feed "horse quality" timothy hay, one notch cheaper than alfalfa hay. I don't want to free feed my horse that stuff. My mare would eat and eat and not stop. My mare has gained weight since I've had her. Not too much, but she was fed rationed hay by her previous owner. They had too many horses for their pasture and they fed their horses "meals". My mare had to fight for her spot at the hay pile, so now she pigs out since she doesn't have the competition.

Maybe I'll get some orchard grass round bales delivered to hold us over until we see some grass peek through this snow. I'll supplement with the timothy hay in the barn at night.
 
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