This message is from: Mary Thurman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --- Dagrun Aarsten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am following the founder discussion with big > interest. I might be wrong, > but it seems to be more of a problem here in the US > than back in Norway. > The cases of founder I have come across in Norway > have all been the case of > "overfed, undertrained" horses. With a few > exceptions (e.g. switching to a > different kind of hay). > > In Norway, most horses are kept in a stall in winter > (with daily turnout) > and they usually get some grain in addition to hay. , some horses don't > get worked but it's still very rare to feed just > hay. Probably our hay is > poorer in nutrition than the hay you get around > here? > > Most horses go directly from their stall-boarding to > their pasture paradise > in summer. > I've seen many cases of just letting the horse out > on green pasture in early > summer and all went well. > > I guess another difference is that our "pastures" > are usually more like big > wild areas, with natural grass and plants, hills, > woods and rivers, and they > do have to walk around quite a bit to fill > themselves up
Possibly we are getting somewhere on this 'founder thing' now!! I had not thought about it before reading Dagrun's post, but.....Our old mare, Line, came from Norway - with a five year stopover on open range in Canada. Our 'pastures' are very similar to what she had in Norway - basically 'wild' areas where she has to move around a lot to fill herself up. We keep our horses in stalls with turnouts in the winter - feeding them local grass hay and a little grain/vitamins - and they have access to the 'early spring' grass and subsequent 'slim pickins' in the summer. Line has never been a problem with founder. Sure, she gets fat in the late summer, but it's all gone by spring. The only time she ever came close to founder was when we first had her. She had been trailered a LONG way in three days - with time out of the trailer at night - and was 'tender footed' when we got home(also was about 200 pounds overweight). She recovered quickly from her 'tender feet', and began to lose weight. The problem was, she didn't STOP losing weight!! Her gut was incapable of digesting the grass we had here - which was much different than the sparse grass she was used to. Our vet 'seeded' her with enzymes for a few days and all went well. She has since been free of any symptoms of founder - no matter what her weight. I cannot say the same for the "North American" mares we have had. All have been prone to founder and once foundered have been unable to tolerate grain or clover hays. All our horses have been kept under the same routine as Line, but developed problems if not carefully managed, except, of course, for young, growing stock. Interesting, no? Mary ===== Mary Thurman Raintree Farms [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com
