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  Discussion on Treats for horses
Author Message
Member:
Jlmule

Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2003 - 3:54 pm:

Over the years we have tried a variety of products for mineral supplementation as we live in a selenium-deficient area. It seems like the hard mineral blocks stay around for ages, getting little attention from the herd. The soft, molasses-based blocks are devoured in a matter of minutes. Loose salt is inconvenient and I worry about what seems to be excessive amounts consumed by some of the horses. Recently we have begun using the large molasses tubs which are mineral-enriched. The horses love them but cannot easily over do it because they have to be licked. When left in the pasture the whole gang gets a chance to dig in, including the babies. Now the question. Would anyone have a recipe for making these? We have tons of the empty tubs and would like to be able to refill them with our own homemade version. I know the neighbors would fall off their porches when they see us stirring our copper kettle full of molasses and mineral over a fire.

Leslie
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Saturday, Apr 16, 2005 - 11:17 am:

FEEDING RAISINS/GRAPES -- A month or so ago there was a conversation about possible toxicity of raisins/grapes, which included discussions about dogs ingesting these items and questioning whether they were suitable treats for horses. I have searched for the exact thread but cannot find it, so am posting here. My daughter sent me something today from AKC that states as few as 7 raisins have caused serious problems and even agressive treatment was unsuccessful in reversing kidney damage/failure, in dogs. AKC says NOT to feed ANY raisins or grapes to your dogs, nor allow them to eat them from your yard. Reasons for the toxicity are unknown. Dogs chewing cocoa mulch has also caused some incidents of illness. Here is the site she noted along with her cut and paste info. (It was a newsletter separating fact and fiction): https://www.akc.org/enewsletter/yourakc/2005/april/rumors.cfm Personally,I don't think I would chance these treats for horses.
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Saturday, Apr 16, 2005 - 12:47 pm:

Just a quick clarification to my prior post, written in haste. It is not so much I am worried about a couple of grapes for a horse, though since the toxic effect is not understood I cannot help but wonder about cumulative effects, so would probably be inclined to err on the side of caution. Most of us horse owners,however, also have dogs, and I first found this information while researching Labradors. Just a few raisins or grapes have hurt large breed dogs severely, as well as smaller breeds. If AKC says to feed NO raisins or grapes to dogs, that is good enough for me.
Member:
Dres

Posted on Saturday, Apr 16, 2005 - 2:20 pm:

that is very interesting about grapes.. my lab female eats them all summer long off our grape vines... between her and the birds, I don't get many... she is fine.. healthy and active...

On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with SPOTS..
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Saturday, Apr 16, 2005 - 10:37 pm:

Good to know. Perhaps further study will show these grape eating dogs are all on a common heartworm medicine -- or something, that when combined with grapes/raisins (as with the nightshade/ivermectin ingestion)results in higher toxicity. There has been some speculation that it could have to do with the chemicals used on the grapes. Do you spray yours? Commercially grown grapes are heavily treated.
Member:
Dres

Posted on Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 - 2:45 am:

no i do not spray anything on the grapes or the dogs ..the dogs are wormed every 6 weeks like the horses vs. every month...

On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with SPOTS..
Member:
Frances

Posted on Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 - 7:07 am:

That IS surprising, as a favourite summer game for my three dogs is leaping to catch (and gobble up) the seedless grapes which we throw for them. Haven't had any problems. Still, I certainly won't try them on my horse, now.
Member:
Redalert

Posted on Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 - 9:01 am:

Vicki, I just read your post and then looked at your profile, SO now I have two questions for you... what is "nightshade", and what is this"sprawl" you mention in your profile? If a horse person is fighting it, I might want to join in! AND, I think I'll just avoid the grapes as treats, just in case!

Thanks, Nancy
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 - 5:24 pm:

Nightshade is a toxic weed. It is most poisonous when it is bearing the green berries, but should not be ingested by horses (man, or other animals) at any stage of growth. There is some research that shows when horses eat some of it around the same time as worming with ivermectin wormer, the toxicity is greatly increased. I loaned my toxic weed book to someone or would look up how much it takes to make a horse very ill. Birds DrOp the nightshade berries in waste areas of the pasture. I check my pastures at least every 12 days to pull up any (plus other toxic weeds) that appears. If you do a search for "nightshade" on the internet you will be able to pull up sites that show pictures, etc. About sprawl -- as busy individuals, horse people often don't spend enough time communicating with local and state governments about how growth is managed. I live in central Florida. A few years ago I attended a very good health seminar conducted by excellent Vets. They stated that the "biggest threat to the health of the horse is loss of our green belt areas." Over the past few years we have taken on rezoning proposals that would have turned rural lands into 4 houses per acre plus commercial space, and rural lands into more golf courses and houses. Sprawl is when growth leapfrogs in a non-orderly fashion, bringing suburbia into rural areas where proper roads and services do not exist. Then our taxes go sky high because this kind of growth does not pay for itself. Plus people move in around you and then complain about the flies and manure. We have a 7 - 7 1/2 BILLION dollar per annum horse industry in the state of Florida, but if not careful houses and golf courses will flatten all our beautiful hills and ridges and continue to fill in increasing amounts of our wetlands. Thanks to sprawl, you can pay more for your taxes (and water) as your quality of life slips away. I would rather ride and not fight these battles but we've had some major victories, slowed the growth beast down and will continue to try and make a difference.
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 - 6:14 pm:

Not only are riding areas being taking over by "urban sprawl" but we are loosing them due to misguided government officials, overly zealous enviornmental groups,etc. also. In California we were fighting the Sierra Club who was trying to get trails around the Tahoe area taken away from us and turned into foot traffic only trails. These were trails that many of us had worked to build/help maintain. Here in Utah we have found the local government and the BLM (Bureau of Land Mangagment) very sympathetic and willing to work with us to preserve existing trails and they have even been willing to designate some trails for horse use only.

This is something all horse people should be involved in. Many local officials have no idea how big the horse dollar is, nor are they aware of any concerns and needs horse people have. It is up to horse owners/riders to educate these officials. Also, keep your eyes open for meetings, new laws, etc. announced in the papers. If we as a group are not pro-active, we will loose a lot of vauable trails, as well as properties zoned for horses. A lot of people have misconstrued ideas about modern horsekeeping and still equate a horse place with bad smells and lots of flies.

There are groups across the country who are also trying to get old railway beds converted to trails for non-motorized traffic, as well as having trails laid out in any new city/town planning that are just for the use of non-motorized users
Member:
Gageten

Posted on Thursday, Apr 28, 2005 - 10:09 pm:

In response to the post about raisins and grapes being bad for horses, this is not true according to Rutgers University. According to Sara L. Ralston, VMD,PhD, dACVN, Associate Professor Department of Animal Sciences, raisins and grapes are perfectly acceptable treats for horses, fed in limited quantities.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Apr 29, 2005 - 9:43 am:

Thanks for the update Molly, Dr Ralston is a renowned equine nutrition expert.
DrO
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