My horse food guards!

by Joanne
(Coldwater)

Hey you, give me some food, NOW!

Hey you, give me some food, NOW!

I have a ten year old gelding thoroughbred,
(Lyric) about a month ago. He's turned out 24/7 with a probably mid 20s mare on family property. They get along pretty well except for around food. We feed them twice a day, some hay and some alfalfa cubes with a few apples or carrots. He of course knows dinner is coming and guards the door from the mare by attempting to bite her (and sometimes does). The mare returns with threats of kicking him (and sometimes does). Lyric does not return the kicking. At first I fed him if he backed off when asked, to put the bucket down. Then today I thought I was probably rewarding his food guarding. But when I was attempting to feed him today, he bit the old mare, but also my lab was close by, not paying any attention to the food, and Lyric got protective of his food from the dog and raised his front leg at the dog. Not wanting to reward it, I left and will attempt again later. Is this the right way to correct without punishment? and what if he keeps guarding, then how do I feed him without having to tie him, which is what I had to do before?-which seemed to be only a temporary fix.


Answer:

Horse’s digestive systems are made for having small amounts of food intake on a continuous basis, so feeding only twice a day can cause many horses to have behavioral problems. Is there any way you can give more meals throughout the day or have the horses have access to hay 24/7? Horses should never go without food for more than 4 hours & 6 hours at the most. If you are concerned about too much food intake check out all the great ideas these days on implementing a slow feeder. You can find lots of ideas here Paddock Paradise

Lyric has only been with you a month which is a very short time and he is still adjusting to his environment and company.(It takes most horses 3 to 6 months to adjust) With a herd of two someone needs to be on top of the pack and feeding time is often when we see who is the toughest. From a horse’s perspective and a hungry horse at that aggressive behavior with others is an instinctual reaction.

It is difficult to pose a training session around an aggravated, frustrated, anxious hungry horse so instead I would create a way to take Lyric’s focus elsewhere. Can you access a bucket that you can hang on the inside of the paddock where the horses are while you remain on the outside? If so, I would hang two buckets at least 20 feet apart take the apple/carrot feed and drop it in each one. While they are busy with this I would then enter the paddock and spread the remaining feed in at least 4 piles. Lyric has already been reinforced for this behavior enough times that any training effort you make during feeding will almost be futile. You would need to create a training session around food in a different setting to break the cycle.

Another reason some horses get very aggressive around food is because their nutritional needs are not being met (which often causes stomach ulcers) whether this is from the past or present. This can be something that has happened throughout their lives thus why it can take a long time to train it out of them. It has become a growing awareness that our typical feeding practices are lacking all the vitamin and mineral needs for our horses so I encourage you to seek an equine nutritionist in your area to review your feeding program too.

Elaine Polny
Training Horses Naturally

Comments for
My horse food guards!

Click here to add your own comments

My horse food guards
by: Elaine Polny

Good for you for trying new ideas! Seems what you have implemented is improving the situation. “Sir eats a lot” is displaying very normal herd behavior when it comes to pushing Lizzy away to eat her goodies. When it comes to fast and slow eaters, the only way around it is to separate them for feeding or to give more to the fast eater to keep them busier longer. Since Lizzy’s goodies are also more yummy to Sir eats a lot it’s sort of like giving one child the ice cream cone and the other a piece of toast! The one with the piece of toast is going to want the ice cream way more! Wouldn’t you? :0)

I would have you consider an alternative to sweet feed though. It is too high in sugar and has been known to have ill effects given over a long duration and not that effective for weight gain. If you need something for weight considerations I have found soaked beet pulp (without molasses) a better alternative. It’s very high in fiber and low in sugar. The other reason I like it is because I can add any supplements easily to it too like a horse mineral or vitamins.

Another thought is to change up your routine. When we institute the same routines like feeding twice a day and at the same time of day we inadvertently also create anxiousness from the horses because they can anticipate what’s coming. Being less predictable on our part helps this. So I try to change the times and frequencies of special treats to avoid this anticipation on their part. I also try to give the good stuff like apples and carrots when I know their stomachs are already satisfied instead of knowing they could be hungry. Thus why the 24/7 hay part is very helpful here too.

If you are separating for say a training session with “Sir eats a lot” that would be another good time to give Lizzy her special meal. So she can eat in peace. :0)

Keep up the great work!
Elaine

P.S. Thanks for the giggle naming Lyric "Sir eats a lot", that cracked me up!
Update
by: Joanne

Thanks for your advice as Lyric is improving with his food manners. Lyric (AKA Sir-Eats-A-Lot or fatty-cakes) now has a slow feeder made of hockey goal mesh and is working quite well (he kept breaking the metal grid kind). Took him about three days to really understand how it works. Free laying hay just adds to his nickname! They still get cubes twice a day with treats, which he still gets excited for and guards the area, but not as agressively. I have discovered that if I put the treats in a bucket down at one time, even if far apart, Lyric will choke his down and run over to Jazzy (the old mare who is a very slow eater), push her out of the way and eat her treats- therefore almost eating both buckets of treats. So I now divide the cubes into four buckets as you advised (Lyric still initially blocking "his" bucket) and drop the treats (apples and carrots) one by one to the buckets they are at only so eaten right away. Lyric goes from bucket to bucket after the treats are eaten (to make sure they aren't any hidden treats in the other buckets)and leaves the cubes until the end. Once just the "boring" cubes are left,he still follows Jazzy bucket to bucket and pushes her out of the way, but more casually now. Much less spats happen and usually only while they hear the food being prepared or initially delivered. Lyric still pushes her bucket to bucket- Is this behaviour appropriate and just part of being head of the herd? Jazzy is also on high fat/high fibre pellets and sweet feed to keep her weight on, which Sir Eats-A-Lot can smell across the paddock! Any advice on how to give Jazzy her feed without making Lyric aggressive or pushy? Eg. dooesn't tie well knowing his old friend is "getting treats" and he isn't, and pushes out the paddock door when taking Jazzy out to feed her, as he knows what happens then!

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Ask Me!


footer for training horses naturally page