Remus’s new fly sheet arrived and I love it. The neck thing attaches great but it is so hot outside for now I removed it but otherwise it definitely helps keep the big ass horse flies off him as well as the smaller flies. He seems less stressed with this sheet on than his other THREE FLY SHEETS (yes he has four sheets now)! This is the Tuffrider one (it’s on sale now! Get one!) and the tail flap is very long and it has a belly band. He doesn’t seem to sweat too much under it either. So hopefully it stays in one piece for a while. I may (or may not) have one in Tate’s size in my cart right now. SOMEBODY STOP ME!
Speaking of heat and flies, yep, I didn’t ride. Wanted to. But the bugs and heat chose differently for me. The poor horses went outside in the field about ten minutes total all weekend. Every time they ventured out, the horse flies drove them back to the barn. There was no way I was going to ride Remus in the situation like that. AND the humidity was intense. He was even sweating yesterday at 8 pm in his stall in front of a fan. Fall is coming. I hope. And we totally worked on yard work instead because omg it is so needed.
But I did do a grain change on Tate and Remus. Well I am starting to change it. I had them on Omolene 100 which was 10 percent protein but I did not like the sweet feed aspect of it. It had way too much molasses in it. When their small ration sticks to the bottom of the bucket at each feeding there is too much sweet in that sweet feed.
SO I started looking into Safe Choice (used that in TX). I like a pelleted feed for numerous reason. The lack of sugar and molasses for my piggy ponies. The fact that mice are less likely to be in love with pellets than sweet feed. The fact that flies are not as into the pellet droppings out of the feed tub rather than the sweet feed which the flies love. And then I found Safe Choice Special Care. The protein is higher than I like but the starch and sugar are better.
Both my current horses at my place are beefy individuals with a tendency to cresty necks and metabolic issues (don’t have this on authority for Tate but he is hefty so I have put him on a metabolic supplement AND this food). Tate gets a handful of the grain and a handful of this as I switch him over but it can’t hurt.
Remus is hefty but not cresty and I want to keep him that way. I had him on Wellsolve Purina years ago and that helped take off the crest but since this Safe Choice is sold locally and easy to find I thought I would give the Safe Choice a try again. Again the 14 percent protein bugs me a bit since Remus was on 10 percent protein in PA but I am more interested in the sugars and starches being lower. He is getting a bit more than Tate since he can have more but I am still mixing his too to wean him off the Omolene. Let’s revisit how FAT Remus was when I got him a few years back. YES those are rolls on his butt. So we don’t want to go back to this. Do we?
I found some grass hay with bermuda mixed in for a fantastic price and Remus and Tate both ate some last night over night. They are not overenthusiastic over it but they do eat it. I may get a bunch to put in the barn just to have for the winter. But boy are they picky! OF course I do spoil them. Badly. UGH.
Speaking of spoiled let’s look at what the900facebookpony got Remus shall we?? Who is spoiled? REMUS is, that is who.. I still think she should have had Weemus put on the ear but I love it. ONE day maybe I will get to ride in it. 🙂 Thanks Amanda again for it!
I also graduated them to staying out in the paddock last week overnite which helped the stalls immensely and then last night it was SO hot I left the gate open to the field I have no idea if they went out there but the stalls were really easy to pick this am so win win. Fingers crossed that we can expand their pasture this week once our poles and new tape comes in. They still have the stalls to go into and during the day Remus pretty much stays inside all day (Tate wanders a bit but ultimately comes in front of the fan). The bugs are in a panic mode now I think. They seem to be so intense. I am hoping that means that when the cooler weather comes the bugs will die. Because between the flies and wasps I do not like bugs at all.
We are getting ready for Mark’s parents to arrive this weekend coming up. We went and bought some new furniture so we aren’t all sitting in a row on one couch (Ollie approves of this chair above). Fun times ahead. Ha.
Also, I did get a cool shot of the heron in the photo above fishing. I had no idea we had that big of fish in the pond. Sorry for the crazy ass videoing going on. No clue what I was doing. LOL The wildlife here still astounds me. PS he left that big ass fish on the bank but he did come back for it. I was fuming on the waste of a fish till he came back! 🙂
So what do you feed your horses? If you have hefty rotund beasts tell me what they get. Inquiring minds and all that. Has anyone used Safe Choice?
Hope everyone had a great weekend!! Can’t wait to catch up on blogs today!! Can you believe SEPTEMBER starts this week? WHERE DID SUMMER GO?? But this may be the first year I am not too upset that Fall is coming sooner than expected….
Fat Buckskin in a Little Suit 
That is a seriously Barbie fly sheet. I am giggling.
Henry eats Triple Crown Senior because the NSC (11.7%) and starch (6.4%) are so low. Lower than most of the “low starch” feeds, even. He too starts looking a little metabolic if he’s on a starchier feed. The Senior is also grain free, which is nice, and with 10% fat I can feed him less but still keep his condition. He gets the minimum recommended daily amount.
Presto is on Triple Crown Growth, which is very similar to the Senior but with a little more starch (still less than a lot of the pelleted feeds like strategy or safe choice) and extra vitamins/amino acids.
There are a lot of good brands of feed out there these days, the options are so much better than they used to be! Triple Crown isn’t my most favorite, but it’s my favorite of all the ones we can get here. With your two I wonder if a ration balancer might be better, since they’re both porkers and eat so little.
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it has purple (or orchid highlights) that sheet. SO SHUT UP 🙂 Remus does love himself a fly sheet no matter the color. Even Tate has his on today. Those flies are no joke. Bastards.
PORKERS (Remus and Tate are offended by you now HA HA HA)….I keep thinking about Senior since Remus is now 15 so will have to take a look. I just have a hard time making heads or tails of the ration balancers. Maybe someone who uses them will post!! (Barbie Fly Sheet Henry would look GORGEOUS IN IT HA HA HA)
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Sadie was on a ration balancer from age 2 to age 4. It served her very well during that time period! That would be my first choice for super easy keepers… less food, but still meeting all their nutritional requirements.
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I’m just gonna nose in on this conversation. I feed Rio Triple Crown Senior also. Easy to get, he loves it, and I like the low starch aspect. Jamp can’t have it anymore because he can’t have anything with an NSC higher than 10%. He’s now eating Empower Boost which is a ration balancer. He gets it along with some alfalfa pellets, which oddly enough he hates and keeps picking them out.
I’ve actually started giving Rio some of the Boost as well because he’s struggling more and more with eating hay. He gets a chopped hay as well, but he was looking thin. The boost seems to be helping, he’s looking a lot better.
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Actually, I guess they call the boost a supplement not a balancer? Not sure how that’s different.
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I keep telling you, RATION BALANCER. Yes, they are high protein, but they don’t get much AND they get what they need in terms of vitamins/minerals. Batty and Jiminy both eat ration balancers and I’ve fed various ones over the years. The problems with feeds, is you really should be feeding the minimum recommended amount or why bother. So, most bagged feeds that comes to be about 6lbs/day. Jiminy, Batty, Remus, and Tate don’t need that. Ration balancers really help. You can feed MUCH less. So, Batty gets about 1 lbs. Jiminy gets about a cup (I weighed it, but don’t remember how much it was). So it’s very minimal. I like the Buckeye, but TC 30% is great and I’ve fed Purina Enrich and Progressive as well. All were fine. Nutrena makes one Tractor Supply sells.
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And, in the winter, if Remus needs more, you just add fat.
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Eli would happily welcome any donations of fat Remus or Tate would like to send his way.
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ha ha ha if only we could. I could send Eli some as well HA 🙂
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haha I am actually drafting a post on what we feed Whisper and Amber! We have them on Purina Ultium competition. I really like that one. I had Amber on the original Safe Choice for a while and didn’t like it as much. Amber did okay, she just didn’t….shine if you will, even with a lot of added flax. On the purina one I love how both of them look. It does have a higher starch and sugar content (6% sugar and 10% starch + 15% NSC) but it’s lower than a lot of them I found in my research. The triple crown Amanda mentioned looks really good too tho; I may see what my mom thinks about it! I also find it amusing that your guys don’t like Bermuda. Amber and Whisper love theirs! Perhaps it has to do with where it’s grown? I don’t know haha.
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Tate will eat it but Remus is like ehhhhh he is used to timothy and orchard grass up in PA. SPOILED. I am sure when winter is here they will eat it all up. OH cool i will wait and read your post 🙂 Great minds think alike right?? 🙂 HA
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Haha they do! Remus certainly is spoiled ;D lolol
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all the fatties i know are on ration balancer!
meanwhile, i keep telling my BO i want to invent some kind of lypo donation program so I can take some of you people’s obesity and give it to spice.
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we have plenty I know i have another pony attached to Tate’s belly and ass 🙂 HA HA HA And Remus is not too fat but he is not skinny either 🙂 At least he doesnt have the crest on his neck that Tate does. HA HA HA is Spicy a good eater or has he always been a hard keeper? It is so funny how the tbreds (EXCEPT FOR HENRY) sometimes are harder to keep/get weight on them. 🙂
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Spicy eats a lot it just doesn’t seem to stick. I think he might pace some of it off…
That being said, the red TB mare I used to ride was an air fern and I believe she’s currently on ration balancer. It looked like she gained 50lbs in one night when it rained because of the grass. She was sooooo fat.
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I put all three of mine on Tribute Ration Balancer (Essential K). It has 30% protein which made my stomach turn when I first was told about it but my three get maybe 1 lb a day so they are getting very little protein. They all lost weight on it slowly and in a healthy way and their coats looks fabulous and healthy. With Pete (28) and Gem (20) both retired they maintain well on grass pasture and a tiny handful of the balancer. Cruze also is doing well on it though I suspect I will change to a real grain once he goes into work, but we will see. He tends towards chunky naturally.
I’m not sure if they have Tribute in your area, but I’d look into a ration balancer either way.
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I can’t help you on the food front because although Rio is a bit husky now, it is because he gets shit tons of feed LOL. I don’t think they are thattttt fat! I also LOVE the fly sheet colors and the bonnet, too cute!!!
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OMG FAT REMUS IS AMAZING!
The last barn I was at fed Safe Choice and I wasn’t a fan (but my horse gets considerably more than a handful so….). It has a lot of sugar in it and P can’t do sugar.
When I moved him, I switched him to TC Senior, which totally helped combat the ulcers and made him sane again. Then TC switched to having Purina mill their feeds and lots of people noticed a substantial drop in quality, so we just recently switched to Pro-Elite. So far so good, the horses eat less of it and everyone looks great.
P actually has man boobs right now, so his feed is being dropped even more so, bahaha
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My little QH cross Finn is an air fern like your guys and gets cresty and fat if he just sniffs grain! He does not get grain but gets a ration balancer called Dynamite and soaked hay cubes plus as much hay as he wants. He’s currently competing Novice with his person on this feeding plan and doing quite well! He’s fit, in good weight, and never runs out of energy plus he turned 15 this year too. I really don’t see having to change this plan anytime soon (except to restrict his hay intake if he gets to chunky) Also at camp we fed the chunky guys Seminole Equalizer (which is their ration balancer) along with orchard grass pellets and everyone looked really good on that diet. A ration balancer may cost more per bag but it lasts sooooo much longer than a traditional bag of grain if following the feeding directions so I’m a big fan of them for the air ferns of the world!
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How did fat Remus trot? Wow, those were some amazing photos!
June doesn’t get any grain yet.. but Georgie was on one of the Safe Choice feeds and I was happy enough with it. I never gave her enough to change her weight, it was more for mixing her supplements in with. So, I’m kinda zero help here, lol
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I like to feed ration balancers. We fed LMF super supplement in CA and I loved that. Unfortunately it’s not available on the East Coast and I’m going to have to find a new one.
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dying to KNOW WHERE YOU ARE MOVING TO. You are killing me woman 🙂 HA!
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Annie is so jealous of the purple sheet – Remus rocks it!
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