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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] MSAR-Riders Digest, Vol 74, Issue 2

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
  • To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] MSAR-Riders Digest, Vol 74, Issue 2
  • Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 18:29:40 -0700 (PDT)

In response to:

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 20:03:39 -0400
From: "Lila Corey" <Caballera@embarqmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MSAR] MSAR-Riders Digest, Vol 74, Issue 1
To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <8E59DFC2316D438092AF660496D849C8@computerwr8keu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear Karen,
What hays in your area are considered okay?  I live in NC- we grow fescue, timothy, orchard, bermuda, alfapha in our state and area.  However, due to my horses allergies, I have brome  brought in from out west.  I do not feed pellets due to allergies, but I do keep my feed in animal proof containers  Any advice here that  could help me when I travel would be greatly appreciated.   My horse is allergic to all our local hays. 

Lila

Lila,  Yours is a retorical question...I do think Irv answered much of your question.  But here is my two cents.
Fescue is not recommended for feeding to pregnant mares.  It can cause abortions. 
Bermuda grass is not grown up north.  Some grasses perform better in cold regions while others are hot weather performers.Typically bermuda is a southern states grass.  In my area most of the horse hay is of brome, timouthy, orchard or other native prairie grasses.  Key word, NATIVE.  Some areas use native grasses such as Big Bluestem, blue grama, texoka Buffalograss, green sprangletop, indiangrass, little blue stem, sideoats grama and some of these grasses will only grow in certain environments depending on soil quality and if the ground is a wetland or not.  Some are more suitable for pasture vs hay but can be hayed all the same.  Just depends on you having the right equipment.. Some hay round bales better where other hays square bale better and some people still do hay by hay stacking. 
Horses can eat wheat and rye grass hays as well.  Using both of those may have to be custom grown to order to get it at the prime feed value stage where it has not gone to seed.  And both are then cut green when used for hays. After that they still can be fed, but those are at the stage of growth where then they typically head to use as bedding..
Horses like a variety.  When you say your horse has allergies, what caused that?.. Usually its mold or dust or it could have been a weed.  Your vetrinarian would be the one to ask on what to feed.  You can water down your hay or shake it out to help reduce the dust in it.  All dust is not necessarily mold, but could be the soil residue that may get picked up when baling.  Mold, dust all can also cause choke or coughs, and eating too much sand can cause sand colic.  Feed in a feeder and not in your corral  on the ground.  Flakes of hay are notorious for being full of dust and mold.  SHAKE THEM OUT. Round bales can harbor dust too.  Do your mount a favor and fluff his hay.  You can then put it in a hay net if you are on the road to feed.  There is nothing worse to a horse than eating in a manger in a trailer that when you give him a moldy or dusty flake and how nasty that is.  The dust has no place to go in an enclosed feeder.  YOu should not feed it if it is moldy anyway.
When feeding a round bale, we peel our rounds and throw the lose hay into a feeder.  It reduces waste, but some horsemen will use a round bale feeder.  The only problem on those, if you only have a few horses the hay can spoil or be terribly wasted because it is not consumed quickly and may get rained or snowed on and then mold.  Feeding a round bale on the ground wastes a lot of money.
It gets to be a pain when we all suffer hay shortages, then we end up feeding something different.  Most people take a little time to gradually switch to the new feed.  Sometimes that is not always possible.  Hard times force bad things on many people.  And most horsemen I know these days are all suffering a lousy economy and the tightening of rules.  Its a hardship on everyone.  Everything is going save the environment. 
Likewise it is not always possible to get hay that is not stored outside.     
Occassionally there might be a little red clover in the hays.  It is not a grass.  Alsike clover is not the best to feed horses.  Red clover is better, but typically it is best to stay away from the clovers on horses. Alfalfa in my opinion is too rich for horses although many people do feed it. It is not a grass but a legume. Seems race horse people prefer it, but then they are also heavy grainers or pellet users and have to be to balance out the diet.  Alfalfa can also harbor blister beetles and those are a detriment to a horse.  It is a very hard hay to put up as it is common for it to heat and mold.  It is a major cause of hay fires if the hay is not cured.  Grass hay can heat too but not nearly like alfalfa..  If you are getting it out of the field you need to check that  new hay daily for the heat to make sure it is not getting too hot or your barn could burn down..  The curing process is about a week could be longer and needs to be monitored.  Depends a lot on how dry it was when going up and how high the current humidity is when curing.
Importing hay from outside your areas can get costly.  Finding someone to custom grow your hay can be difficult, but gratifying.
Getting cheap dusty moldy weedy hay at any cost is not a wise move.  Putting the wrong seed in a pasture is not effective management either.  Not managing your weeds is your own demise.
And finding hay that is affordable in todays poor economy is getting harder and harder.  We are all suffering some kind of difficult times.
Um, Irv, yes seed can to pass through a horses gut whole to the manure.  That can be proven from a manure pile that has set too long without turning and the seed within it will start to grow.  If you got weeds on top and all you got was the manure.. that is what passed through your horse.    It is possible for grass seed to pass through as well as whole corn or whole oats. Horsemen can however feed a cracked grain feed.  Grains that are cracked or milled cannot germinate.  Seeds of many kinds can lie dormant in the soil for years too before they germinate.  These seeds are seeds that require a stratification process in order to grow.  The stratification can be either cause by heat as such from a fire or by cold as through a winter.  The harder the shell of the seed, the longer the stratification process can take.Pinetree seed for example have a remarkable ability to germinate after they have been exposed to fire. 
The manure is also a nitrate issue.  You can rinse manure to flush the nitrates like if you are needing fertilizer on a garden.. but a huge pile of manure can be an issue of continuous nitrate concentration in one area. Maybe soemone else can explain this nitrate issue.
IN brief though a little manure too close to a bog can cause algeas to spawn.  That my friend is the detriment to an ecosytem.  The algea along with potential nitrates.  The algae chokes the water.  Waterfowl are super polluters when it comes to messing up a pond. They are grazers and so their manure is full of nitrates.
You can request of your growers hay that is of various seasons.  Hay cut before it heads out to seed is the hay you might be looking to travel with.  Hay cut after it is headed out, well, that might be your best bet for winter feeding to make use of the natural grains that would be a horses diet.  What kind of hay, well that depends on you, your need and your suppliers.
As for what can be taken into the conservation lands, that is up to the local authority incharge of the parks where horsemen are allowed.
Lastly, there are many weeds that are a detriment to horses.  Scout your pastures and hay feilds for them and cull them out.  That though is another long and complicated topic. 
  Karen 

 




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