Prompting a Picky Eater

There you stand in your feed room, scratching your head and trying to concoct the perfect meal for your hard keeper. Last week he loved the bale of expensive grass hay you brought home from the feed store, but now that you’ve stacked two tons of it in your barn, your finicky eater seems to have changed his mind.

It’s the same problem with his grain and pelleted feeds—he seems to prefer a different product every week. It wouldn’t matter if he were fat, but his picky eating habits keep him skinnier than you’d like. In fact, last week one of your barn buddies even commented on how thin he looked. What can you do?

It’s a challenge! And that’s why I say give me a fat horse any day. Calorie restriction, dry-lot turn-out, and a grazing muzzle might feel like horse abuse, but at least you can influence his eating. On the other hand, trying to get a skinny, picky horse to eat? That’s another story. Because, just as with water, you