We've had more pounding snow this week ... measured with yard sticks not rulers.
It normally takes me 45 minutes for my drive home from work each night. This week, as a result of the snow, I had two nightly drives of 1.5 hours and one that took close to 2 hours. That night I'd been gazing at tail lights and snow flakes for two hours which can be hypnotizing. For part of the drive I was thinking back on the blogs I'd been reading recently.
I remembered reading "A Horse Crazy American in Germany". She noted that when moving her horse to Germany, her horse was going to have to get accustomed to eating bread. Apparently, it's been common for centuries to feed horses bread in Germany.
One of our 5 horses is a mammoth 18-2 Hanoverian named Monte who was actually born in Germany. We never actually met his owner ... but he was shipped with a his passport (he has one ... I don't), a box of raisins and a note that said "he likes raisins". So, he gets raisins. He flips out when he gets the box, acting like a goof swinging his head and tongue around like he's experiencing extreme equine ecstasy.
Remembering the blog, I decided to give him half a slice of bread ... same reaction ... like he was remembering his youthful days frolicking with some Fraulein Phillie in Frankfurt. He loved the bread. However, his boorish American siblings were not as crazed about the bread.
Note: if you're going to try bread with your horses ... you may want to Google "feeding horses bread" No, not everyone in the world is convinced bread is a good idea.
That being said, I think perhaps I'll try Monte with some raisin bread. I'll probably put the poor guy into a coma. I just Googled "feeding horses raisins." See above disclaimer and substitute "raisins" for "bread".
We feed our horses bread all of the time as a treat. Mom dries out the left-overs from breakfast (including pancakes) and turns them into horsey biscuits. Then, once a week or so, we take the horsey biscuits out to the pen and fling them like frisbees. The horses love to snuffle them out. Well, all except Ranger, who *must* be hand-fed his biscuits.
ReplyDeleteModeration is the key - they can't live on bread alone, but they certainly love it as a treat and it's good for them to have something to snuffle and root for.
That's great. I'd never heard of feeding bread before I read it on her blog. Monte went nuts when he ate it. He clearly had it before.
ReplyDeleteMy mustang loves the dried bread, but one time my wife handed him a piece of fresh bread. He closed his teeth on it, and then opened his mouth without taking a bite and gave her a look that said "This one isn't ripe yet."
ReplyDeleteBill
hi there - my mom just showed me your blog! i *lol* twice reading this post, thanks! baasha has learned to eat bread, and loves it, both dried and fresh (though people say it causes colic fresh, that's a myth). since we buy bread from the baker every week, and german bread has no preservatives, it tends to start to get white spots before we can finish the loaf, and i always give the rest to the horse and donkey. (i hope a tiny bit of mold doesn't hurt?)
ReplyDeletea lot of people feed bananas here too. maybe you can try giving your horse a banana and seeing if he recalls them?
i'll have to try raisins. actually i don't know where to find raisins, they must not be big here.