Hi,
I am caring for a friend's arab and pony that live and eat together.
The pony has cushings and IR and has foundered mildly before.
The owner wrote out instructions to disolve prascend and mix with
a little Triple Crown Safe Starch Forage and then feed more forage
with sups before hay - which is untested.

The problem is, the pony will refuse to eat anything but the hay - period!
He is very picky, and skitish, etc. He has trained his owner - I am sure of
it.
And... I don't have much time between the two barns and students
and Nutcracker performances, etc. I will be caring for them a long time.

Would it be ok to feed just the forage in the am, and not offer hay until
the pm feed? I think it would be better for the pony? I'm sure that if I
consistently offer only forage in the am, that the pony will eat it, and
his meds, etc.
I have dealt with him before! If that is ok, how much forage would replace
one flake
of grass hay?

Of course I will try to gently persuade the owner to buy tested hay - which
is available
nearby. I already brought it up in conversation, and told her about the
group, etc.

Many thanks,
Karen with Serrano, who is missing exercise because I'm too busy already!
in rainy California

Hi Karen

It's hard to give a clear answer without more specifics. Need to know how much by weight he's getting of each. A little (?) Safe Starch Forage may or may not keep him for the day.

In my neck of the woods a flake can weigh a pound and on up to four or five depending on various factors.

Nancy C in NH
ECIR Moderator 2003

NewEnglandEquineBalance@...

those were the instructions from owner. can i just replace hay with forage pound for pound safely?

those were the instructions from owner. can i just replace hay with forage pound for pound safely?

I also feed my horse Safe Starch Forage as a supplement to less than great quality, untested hay. When I communicated with TC, they said 1 lb of SSF is equal to 1 lb of regular hay. That said, my easy keeper should be getting 1 to 1.5 lb per 100 lbs of body weight.

The one thing about SSF is a) is has molasses, so too much could push an IR compromised horse over the edge, and b) it also has vitamins/minerals built in, so depending on what you are already supplementing, it could be overlapping.

The TC representative told me that unless I was feeding at least 8 lbs to my 1100 lb horse, or roughly half the suggested daily amount that would replace hay, he was not getting the recommended amount of balanced minerals/vitamins, so if I was feeding a handful here or there, I should still feed a vitamin supplement or ration balancer.

Hope this helps.

Allana and Mojave Moon
Northern IL
Feb. 2011