now..I am sure there has to be someone out here that can give me advice and tell me if this product even exists.
I have 2 horses which both share one pen in my back yard. Now when I had my two hard keepers it wasn't bad I'd just add more hay, or a complete/high fat/protein supplement/feed into their diet. But this October I sold one of the hard keepers. I now own a Paint that can live off of air, and a hard keeper. Now the hard keeper is mostly because he is a growing yearling that didn't have a good start to life (his mom tried to kill him) and so he has been an orphan since birth. They both get the same amount of cubes a day which is two ice cream pales per day. This has worked out well so far, with the yearling staying in his summer condition (ribs show when he bends) and the fat Paint has lost about 70 pounds..
To keep my yearling at his optimum weight I give him half a coffee can of sweet feed, and about a pound of high fat feed (a heaping Hoffmans complete feed scoop), and flax along with the cubes. He is doing well, I don't want him super hyped out so this has worked wonders..(the sweet feed is used unstead of oats because he doesn't quite like the taste of the protein feed and he needs the energy for a freezing winters). Because the protein comes in quite big pellets I have gone to soaking it over night in about 4 cups of water.
Now here comes the question, my fat Paint needs to have glucosmane and MSM so I hide it in soaked 2 cups of sweet feed, 1/4 cup of flax and the glucosamine/MSM. It has worked wonders too, excpet that he isn't drinking enough water since the cubes have little moisture content and need water to break down in their digestive system. So how can I get more water in his diet?
I cannnot soak the cubes as they will freeze in our winters and they won't eat it. I cannot give him any higer fat feeds to soak as he is fat and that would cripple him. SO is there any fillers out there that I can just soak to his glucosamine that will give him some extra water, since the yearling is not having the problem since he gets that extra water in his supplements. His poo is hard which is where I have come to that fact that he is not getting enough water. They have 24/7 water which is never frozen, they have 24/7 to mineral and salt lick which is near the water trough.
both horses have drank the water as I have both watched them drink.
I am just worried of dehydration and colic.
thanks. (here are some pictures of both of them, and their cubes)