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Expert
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| My girls are 4 miles down the road, turned out on grass with free choice grass hay and grain once a day. We are in OK. I know the winters arent terrible but I am a big baby.... last year I was renting an entire barn with7 acres and was out twice a day to bring them up and grain them in stalls and they all got blankets (3 of them) according to the weather. This year they are more pasture horses than they were last year, so I'm going to need to cut the cord a little and let them be horses.... What do you guys do with your broodies in the colder months? |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | nothing.....grain twice a day, and a round bale. That's it |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| lol thats kind of what I was thinking. They did great last year but I had several friends of mine telling me I was spending as much time and money on the broodmares as I was my performance horses and I needed to make/let them be real horses. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | My mares are here in OK too and in pasture and in foal... I keep round bales out and they get alfalfa pellets and grain. No blankets |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| question, do you bring your in to foal or do you foal out in the pasture? I'm debating.... I work at an equine clinic that is primarily repro so I see really bad, crazy things happen with mares and foals pretty regularly but I have to remind myself that because I work there I only see the bad, people arent going to take the normal and healthy to the vet XD
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| Do you guys have a shelter in the pastures? I like to unfold a big straw bale for them in the lean-to shelters, to give them somewhere to lay down when it's super cold. |
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Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | RoaniePonie11 - 2015-09-17 2:47 PM
question, do you bring your in to foal or do you foal out in the pasture? I'm debating.... I work at an equine clinic that is primarily repro so I see really bad, crazy things happen with mares and foals pretty regularly but I have to remind myself that because I work there I only see the bad, people arent going to take the normal and healthy to the vet XD
One of mine is a maiden mare and the other has had 2 foals. I will be sending them off to a breeding farm to foal them out for me because I work and can't be home to monitor them if a problem were to arise... |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| They do not have a lean to out there but there is a corner that is wooded on 3 sides and is very covered. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2258
| I am in Montana so we do get some very cold days. My mares are on a small pasture with limited shelter, they have a few trees to get in that is about it. I feed hay twice a day, three or four times a day on the days when it is 20-30 below and they get grain once a day. I do blanket mine now when it is really cold and I think they like it because they use to all run away from it and now they come wait to get them on. I know they don't need it but makes me feel less guilty about my lack of shelter. They do not foal in the pasture I bring them into a larger grass paddock where I can watch them. I am a little crazy about keeping an eye out but have been there to help when needed. We had a mare last year whos colt was hung up and it took over an hour to deliver him. He did survive though and is doing well. |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | Mine all stay out all winter up here in northern Iowa. They are on hay 24/7 and grain 2 times a day. I will see if I can post a picture from last winter when I was feeding. It was -15 degrees below on this picture.
 (horses in cold for breakfast.jpg)
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 horses in cold for breakfast.jpg (74KB - 186 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| RoaniePonie11 - 2015-09-17 3:47 PM
question, do you bring your in to foal or do you foal out in the pasture? I'm debating.... I work at an equine clinic that is primarily repro so I see really bad, crazy things happen with mares and foals pretty regularly but I have to remind myself that because I work there I only see the bad, people arent going to take the normal and healthy to the vet XD
I too work winters foaling mares at a Repro vet, and most of the time the pregnancies are not even high risk. It's overall safer to foal them out inside when you are getting early babies. I personally will never have a mare foal out in the pasture, just like I won't live/pasture breed. Just a personal preference on how I expect my horses to be treated. Too many risks otherwise. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | Feed and water them regularly. |
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