From: Kaycee
Hi Jessica, I'd like to start by saying you have a great page and I'm glad you take the time out to answer our questions. I have a 17 year old Arabian mare. I ride her about 4-5 times a week. She gets 6 pounds of sweet feed and 2 flakes of hay a day. I don't feed her, the barn owner does. We want to give her the supplement MSM but we need something to mix it with. So we bought some sweet feed, I'm always careful with things like that cause I don't want her to colic. So how much extra feed would be too much to give her with that? We also give her 1 and a half flakes at night but when we start giving her the supplement I'll cut it down to 1 flake. Thanks. Kaycee
If your mare is already getting sweet feed, why not just mix the supplement with her regular feed? There shouldn't be any need to add more feed. Most horses find MSM perfectly palatable.
Unless she spends most of her time grazing in a pasture, though, I would worry that she isn't getting enough roughage. Is the night-time flake-and-a-half in ADDITION to her other two flakes of hay each day, so that she's really getting three and a half flakes? That would be good. If not, and if she really is just getting TWO flakes, if each of her two flakes of hay weighs ten pounds or so, well and good. If not, you may want to add some hay to her diet. Horses have rather specialized digestive systems, quite delicate and designed to process small amounts of high-fiber, low-protein food continually, around the clock.
There's a much, much greater incidence of colic among stall-kept, grain-fed horses than among horses on full-time pasture turnout, and that should tell you something about what happens when we feed horses for our convenience, in two or three large meals each day, instead of according to their nature and needs.
I'm not sure why you would want to cut back on her hay when you begin feeding MSM. There doesn't seem to be any obvious connection. My suggestion is that you talk to your veterinarian about your mare's feeding program and how you can best meet her nutritional needs; especially with winter coming, your mare is likely to need MORE hay rather than less.
Jessica
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