Ideas required,to temp young unhandled rescued horses to eat.?

Hello all i have had horses all my life how ever all easy feeders but my new 2 have never had hard feed but will eat carrots and apples


i have tried ready grass,pasture mix,high fibre cubes but they wont touch any thing i have mixed honey or apple juice in with the small feeds ,both eating hay but will need hard feed over winter i will try speedi beet next as this is sweet to .


Any ideas horse owners if you can help love to hear from you i am in uk not usa .1 is arab x welshcob and the other is warmblood.


due to be wormed and cutting teeth at the moment.

Ideas required,to temp young unhandled rescued horses to eat.?
Grass is really the choice of the horses so let them pasture and they will come around and if not , they will eat hay in the winter. Really grain just heats a horse and they only need good pasture and will take it over anything.If they are on pasture now , come winter they will eat hay and grain if they are hungry. Like the old saying, " You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink".If they are young and working hard you can feed alfalfa hay but older horses need a good timothy grass mixture. They are not used to this lifestyle so give them time and feed a good alfalfa hay w/ plenty of exercise.
Reply:Apples , carrots,bread, sugar cubes,cabbage.
Reply:You could try a "meal" feed as opposed to cubes, grated carrots and apples mixed into the feed may tempt them into eating it.


If they have come from abusive or negligent owners they could have stomach ulcers, which wont stop them from eating the roughage, but any "hard" or concentrated feeds will hrt their stomachs, there are antiulcer treatments available from your vet. we also give appetite stimulants like caffiene or mint, both are available from an irish company called "Orchard Equestrian" they do have a website, oh, also an oral liquid called "Su-Per Appetite".....the caffiene is good, but doesnt always work.


And i dont know how opposed you are to giving unnatural stimulants, you could try cutting back on their roughage slightly to encourage them to eat the concentrated feed.





But i really think it could be ulcers, it can occur in all types of horses, but especially the young ones.....ulcers can be caused mostly by stress, either coming from an unhappy environment, or going into a new one.





Definately worming and teeth should help.





Ultimately though, as ive said, spk to your vet about a course of antiulcer medication - easy enough just to mix with some honey in a syringe (to make it more palatable) and squirt it down their throat, you should see an improvement both in appetite and general demeanor after a couple of weeks.





Hope this helps!!! good luck!:)
Reply:Stop feeding them carrots and apples! You are maybe overfeeding them as horses are browsers and will usually eat all in front of them!
Reply:Welll that could have been the problem right there with the horses. If there teeth are too long it will hurt to eat, so they won't. But even after the floating, if the horses still don't eat, I would suggest putting some molases in their food. It is sweet, or you could pick up some sweet feed from your local feed store. My gelding won't eat anything unless there is sweet feed mixed in. But you could also mix in some bran mash with their food if they are still not eating. But since the horses were just rescued they are still under a lot of stress, so just give them a little time. But if you are really worried and all these things didn't work, I would talk to my vet.





Good Luck!!





Also don't start them on any alfalfa hay. If they are not used to it, you could kill them, or make them start colicing. But if that is your hay of choice, gradually work them off the timothy.





And by the way, oats make a horse heated up. Grain just makes them gain weight.
Reply:Put some feed and diced apples on top of a flake of hay and leave it out for them while they are turned out. They will be more likely to explore what it is.
Reply:Mollases is something most horses love and is very safe... add some to their feed.
Reply:Apart from the fact that they are teething, the first problem is stress. They've had a very unsettling experience, the environment is comletely unfamiliar, and they may be unused to eating out of a bucket. Added to that, were they weaned before you bought them? The kind of breeder that can't be bothered to handle young horses isn't likely to have put a lot of thought into any of this.


I'd think carefully before you turn them out because oyu won't be able to catch them.


Can I please suggest as a matter of urgency you pay to have them started by your nearest behavioural horse trainer? Its the method developed by Monty Roberts, there are people doing it in England; if you're a competant handler you could do it yourself from instructions once you understand why it works.


After that they'll trust humans and you;ll be able to handle them safely and without them freaking out, plus it will lower their stress levels.


They need to learn everything from scratch. They've probably been out at grazing til now with their dams and haven't a clue what to do.


Check that they are drinking from a bucket, and give them grass and hay.
Reply:Thankfully Ive never had that problem with any horses but my advice to you is to spread the feed along the grass where they are picking - thus enticing them to sniff it and gradually pick at it. You can then try leaving small amounts in buckets for them to sample at their own leisure. Alternatively feed other hard feed eating horses in front of these 2 - they were instinctively be curious as to the fuss the other horses make over the banging of buckets etc etc and usually horses follow lead and will eventually end up eating!!! Good luck
Reply:the easiest way to teach them to eat feed would be to pasture feed with your other horses like in a long trough, when they see the others eating they will be curious


and I agree with another answer shown here, get Monty Roberts


book "The Horse Whisperer", you can have both of them halter broke in one day


Good Luck

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