Idiots!!!!!!!

Okay - so I went to look at some horses for a girl - one girl wanted a barrel horse and another an english prospect and a girl had two about 2 hours away. I talked to her on the phone about them both and she seemed on the up and up.
So - I went and checked it out..............

MORON was feeding a SKINNY off the track TB gelding (he earned 21k) a WHOLE 3lbs of food a day and giving him CRUMMY coastal hay - he was soooo skinny I wanted to take him with me but I couldn't.

Then I saw the little mare - 14.2hands cute as a bug - but back bone sticking up...I was LIVID - girl wanted to swap both for my gelding (I had her two essentially sold if they weren't starved it could have worked out)...I gave her a lecture like you wouldn't believe about how a 10% sweet feed at 1.5lbs a day for the mare and 3lbs a day for the gelding was UNACCEPTABLE. I was calm/collected but ANGRY - she started to tear up and I told her to get over it and explained that she could FIX it by FEEDING them. Idiot I tell you - idiot!

good for you!!!!!!!!!! im glad you sad something to her. im surprised you didnt smack her while your at it.
remember kids COMMON SENSE IS NOT SO COMMON.
people i swear

Good job!!!!! Hopefully some of what you said sunk into her thick scull.

The world is full of them. I have a friend that was telling me what she fed her horses.. All sounded really great. Then she sent me some pictures.. Yes she was feeding all the good stuff, but only enough for a dog.. GAUD...

What I do not understand is how they cannot see that the horse is thin and does not look healthy? . I very tactfully told her she needed to feed way more then she was. I also learned later that one of her two horses got run off it's feed by the other horse.. So, since then she has put together a couple of stalls to feed in, blankets when it's cold and they have shelter.. Good grief.. Feeding 101 is an adult horse needs about 20lb a feed a day with that being 25% grains and 75% forage. That is just to maintain them at a healthy weight..

Some of the hay I see people feed would only make good bedding for a stall and I would not feed it to my cows.. Also, people do not realize that there is a time when grass is full of nutrients and otherwise has no food value at all..

I think a lot of it depends on WHAT you are feeding. Not saying that she was doing right by her skinny horses by any means! But overfeeding is just as bad. Since my mare's surgery a month ago, she has been on stall rest and all she gets twice a day is 3 flakes of good grass hay and 1/2 cup of Buckeye Ultimate Finish. She hasn't lost a pound and her haircoat looks like glass. So I wouldn't say that there is any set formula. It depends on #1 the horse, #2 the exercise and #3 the feed.

I completely agree with that. I have to almost double Vamp's ration during the show season. She's a bit of a hard keeper, but the stress seems to make it worse. She's not as bad when I'm just riding her at home, no matter how hard we use her.
I'm always told I overfeed, but when they get to looking fat, I back off on the feed a bit. My 2 yearlings in the barn are getting as much 1st cut alfalfa/timothy hay as they can eat. I'm pretty sure Brennen is giving them each at least half an ice cream pail of oats every morning and night. Both of them look good without being too fat. Of course, it's cold here, so I like to give them plenty of hay.
But neither of those two is over 14hh yet and I can guarantee they get more grain in a day than those two horses were getting total. And mine have a feeder full of good hay too. I'm glad you said something to her. Hopefully she's listen.
My neighbor got some two year old grass hay off us. It was the first year we had sown that field and it was more weeds than hay. We gave it to him for free. I wouldn't have used it for bedding. I kinda figured he'd spread it out for his roping stock to bed down on. No, he fed it to yearling horses. The stuff was gross. I burned the bales he didn't take so that nothing could eat it.

I agree - I should have clarified that she was feeding a 10% sweet feed that and coastal that looked like CRUD - I wouldn't have fed it to cows...she said - well they have a round bale - the round bale was STRAW - yellow, moldy, nasty...

Our horses that are up get fed according to work...
EVERYONE gets high quality coastal morning and night (usually about 4 flakes a day depending on flake size and weight). Plus the horses in training get Compete by Nutrena and the non-race horses or horses on layups/etc get Horseman's Edge 12% pellets by Purina.
MY broodmare gets alfalfa, coastal and Safechoice. She is lookin good right about now!

Every horse is an individual and you have to treat them that way. What works for one may not for the other.