How are you feeding your horses? Are you force feeding a uniform feed regime to all your horses without leaving them any freedom to choose? If so , it’s about time you retire such a feeding practice and start trusting in a horse’s inbred senses that they might typically depend on. Many an equestrian has a stringent training regimen not only for safe and disciplined pony riding , but for a sport as definite and accurate as dressage. The issue is when an equestrian’s strict coaching regime influences his holistic health care for his horses such that he also gets really stringent when it comes to feeding them. Sure, he would probably know plenty about horse feed, but a stud or mare has its instinct guiding it—and they’re usually right on the money.

The perfect feeding regimen is something close to a correctly supplemented free choice feed environment. There are headstrong steeds out there that will not take a bite of anything you force them to take. If however you let them become used to free choice feeding routine and you think that giving them freedom to choose is affecting their health negatively, then introduce supplements to their feed. What our equine buddies might be really averse to are those unpleasant shots and additional medicines we mostly rush off to administer when they get out of condition.

And there comes a time, especially for horses undergoing equestrian training for such sport as dressage or physically demanding activities, that they do develop an illness of some sort. When they do, go on and take a veterinarian’s prescription, but do not expect your pony to gulp it down with pleasure. The first thing to do is to try regular doses of anything prescribed. If in all your earnest efforts and methods of administering it your pony seems to get a way not to take it—from leaving just the pills and eating up everything else in her feeding box to gulping it down and spitting it out as soon as you turn around—then there just could be a sound reason why.

If you have been coaching a specific mare for some time now, then you know she has her own temperament—but her hardheadedness isn’t due to merely a peculiarity in her disposition. Trust her instincts like she is doing, and you will see. If she indicates a certain bent to eat more of a particular feed, then let her do so. You might be shocked she gets better on her very own choice of feed even without the drugs. Or she might take the medication when she’s going through the indicators of her illness, and hates it when she’s not. Obviously, she knows what’s helping her along when she’s ill and when it’s required.

Just as a pony trained for sport affords you the advantage of easy and delightful riding, you can at least afford them their right to trust their instincts.

Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about cheap horse rugs