Certainly our horses are the control freaks right?  Imagine feed time: they demand our attention as they pace or paw the floor and fence or neigh to us when it's feeding time; they pick on their neighbors and push their pasture-mates around - or worse - the person feeding them. They'll even pin their ears at a stall-mate through the bars.  We call them names such as pushy, big bully or mean-mare.  Is it them? Or are we, their loving owners, the ultimate control freak?  

We control everything they do: from when and what they eat, to where they're going to spend their days and nights.  We even place requirements on where how to stand when we're with them.  Why is that horses display some of their worst character traits, and often most dangerous behaviors, at feed time?   Could it be that they have no choice in the matter?  What if you allowed them to choose what to eat and gave them more options on when and how to eat it. 

 Consider giving your horse a slow feeder or two and give him options on how he wants to spend his day. There are various styles of slow feeders available on the market to include toys for feed stuffs and nets and grazers for hay.  He can nibble from the netted hay, or push a hard sided toy feeder such a Nose-It! around. Slow feeders such as the Nose-It! engage the horses brain to think about how to get their food out and they seem to relish the reward of getting the food than simply gorging through it. There are a multitude of benefits for using slow feeders.  They nearly eliminate bad behaviors caused by boredom, stress and anxiety. Overall, the horse becomes healthier and happier since his gut is getting little bits of food throughout the day vs. eating as if it's the first and last time he'll ever eat.  You will save money from limited feed waste and you'll also notice that there will be less teeth marks on your horses’ surroundings since they're keeping their face busy eating.  

As children, we were scolded for playing with our food.  For our horses – we should encourage them to play with their food.  You may find that most prefer to play with their food if given the chance. I have had several discussions with others who use hay nets who have commented how their horses prefer to work for bites of their hay out of nets vs. pulling directly from the loose bail.  Many Nose-It! owners are often surprised at how quickly their horses adapt and look forward to nosing the ball around.  Several feed hay cubes from one ball and complete feed cubes from the other.  They were sure that the horses would go straight for the complete feed.  Instead, the horses would play with both intermittently...perhaps to see if a peppermint candy might come out.  

One day, I came home from a ride around the neighborhood to see a few of my others milling about in and around the open garage.  After the initial shock of loose horses (yes, I must have left a gate open), a flood of panic came to mind.  The garage is where I leave all the open bags of concentrated feeds for my senior horses and sweet feed.  I anticipated bags strewn about with their heads buried in the feed.  Instead, they were busy nosing these red, blue, yellow and green Nose-It! balls all around the garage floor – even though they were mostly all empty.  Why not go to straight to the feed?  That could have been an enormous vet expense.  They had their choice, and fortunately, they chose to play. 

In short, slow feeders such as http://nose-it.com/ are going to be the best thing you can offer your horses - because it gives them options.  Relax and let them control something for once. 

 How have or might you use slow feeders to provide your horses a freedom to choose?

 

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Comment by Jackie Cochran on August 30, 2013 at 8:55am

Your tale of the feed room raid sold me.  If I still had horses on my land I'd be getting several.  I wish these things were around over a decade ago when I still had horses!

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