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Post by mcdougal on Feb 9, 2010 22:57:17 GMT
My little section b has started eating a fallen tree in his paddock! It has laid there for years and apart from the odd nibble both my ponies leave it alone. I have not had it removed as it still grows and is a great shelter in the wind and from the sun( when we have sun!!!) There is absolutely no grass in the paddock which is great for my little fat boys but I throw plenty of hay every day whenever they are turned out. He seems to spend the first couple of hours out munching the hay and then goes for the tree. He has eaten so much of it in the last few days I am worried about putting him out in there but do not want to change fields as the others are resting. He is fed happy hoof and speedi beet and topspec feed balancer twice a day. He has haylage at night and always a mineral lick on the go. I have been told he is lacking in something but what? Or could it just be boredom ? Should I move him? Any help would be very much appreciated.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2010 23:21:18 GMT
normally a mineralised salt lick stops this problem.
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Post by sweetpea on Feb 10, 2010 5:57:15 GMT
LAST YEAR FRIENDS DONE THE SAME .MINE LIKE THE ROCK SALT ON ROPE.IT LAST AGES
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Post by mcdougal on Feb 10, 2010 11:14:22 GMT
Thanku I have taped the tree off this morning and will buy a salt lick this afternoon.
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Post by colourful on Feb 10, 2010 11:39:32 GMT
This is completely natural for horses and nothing to do with mineral deficiencies. Horses are not just grazers, they are browsers as well and will eat hedges, trees, herbs, weeds etc etc. We are so used to keeping horses in flat grass fields with no access to these in a lot of cases that people tend to worry about it when they do eat / strip trees. As long as the tree has no fungus growing on it, its fine. We have one paddock with not hedging/trees and we put logs in ( that we use for the woodburner) for them to strip the bark and chew the wood. ;D So I wouldnt worry.
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Post by Julie(luke3) on Feb 10, 2010 19:15:13 GMT
Agree with colourful. Mine strip the trees that are round the fields. I watched a programme on welfare, all the horses lived as a herd and had access to a barn. The people would put logs around the barn for the horses to nibble at x We did have a horse once that ate through 2 rails overnight!! Seaweed done the trick.
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Post by hs on Feb 13, 2010 19:19:42 GMT
I think they like bark as a tasty thing to eat as well as grass - even with plenty of of grass the ponies at our yard enjoy eating bark as well - I did wonder if it is perhaps the sap they are trying to get after as that is nice and sweet but they also enjoy eating leaves fallen from trees too and of course blackberries - I guess maybe like us they like a bit of variety in their diet!
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Post by baileys on Mar 10, 2010 16:34:03 GMT
Mine are like beavers they can strip the wood in seconds (even if we put hay out for them) little monkeys. The rock salt licks are lovely and do hold up to being out in the field for some time.
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