Monday 29 September 2014

The (Really) Easy Keeper

Both girls are super easy keepers...even with the price of hay pushing $500 a ton around here, I've worked out it costs an average of about $100 a month (including a basic grain and mineral supplement) to feed the both of them. It's pretty nice that we have pasture to graze, but they have to have their pasture time pretty strictly regulated, even in mid winter.I suspect if I wanted to be a super budget owner and didn't worry about sugar content, they'd do just fine on pasture alone all year and I could forget about feeding hay. 

We know Ginger will eat just about anything. But now we have Bridget, who takes it to a whole new level. Is there some weird genetic thing that makes her want to eat the worst weeds and grazing in the pasture? Its a bit odd, since the pasture is seeded and mowed and the poop picked - it's beautiful! She really has to go out of her way to find weeds. Exhibit A:

A zoomed in shot of the other horses happily eating nice grass at the far end of the pasture. The dirt patch visible is from some digging to install more drainage pipes, not overgrazing. 
And....Bridget at the other end of the pasture, eating the weeds around the manure pile. Same moment in time, same pasture, She does this every day - it's really her preferred area to graze, and as you can see it's not a large area so she's eaten it basically down to the dirt. I pay extra  to board at this beautiful pasture why?

Whatever's in those weeds is making her shiny and healthy, at least.
Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! We did a bunch more trail riding, which is not so very exciting blog material, but was a lot of fun:)
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3 comments

  1. Selective grazers - those horses! I have to limit my horse's time on pasture, too. She doesn't have great teeth, and she would still balloon if I let her - those easy keepers! :-)

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    1. I'm a rather easy keeper myself so do find more than a bit of humor in it all and sympathize with my 'starving' ponies in their dry lots! The manure pile/weed thing could very well be that its the closest thing to the barn door...so weak from hunger she needs to graze there for a while to gain the strength to join her herdmates out in the field lol

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