[namastemaxy]

My horse is in the pasture with 5 other horses, about 30 acres. I'm afraid that if I need to feed her hay when the grass gets low that she may colic because her feed would end up on the ground. And I was told not to tell the owner to get feeders for his horses because he would get bad. I don't want my horse to colic. What should I do? Also, the water is never changed and the containers never cleaned out. I'm going to be cleaning all 8 myself because I don't want the horses to drink from dirty water. What would be the best way to clean a 100 gallon plastic barrel that holds water? I don't want to use chemicals that could potentially hurt them.Thanks!

[sity.cent]

Just scrub the water barrels with a stiff brush and rinse them. I really don't understand the colic part. Your horse won't colic from eating hay off the ground.

[stormieqh]

Just scrub the waterers.Horses do better eatting off the ground or at ground level. It won't make them colic. What you might have heard is that if horses eat dirt or sand when they are eatting off the ground they might colic. That is true but might not be the case in your pasture depending on the ground. Getting just your horse a feeder isn't going to help because the horses do not stay at just one pile of hay. You would have to have enough feeders/feeder space for all of the horses to eat from. If you are worried about your horse getting sand/dirt colic then talk to your vet. There are products you can buy to help with that. You just feed it to the horse for a few days and it will help push the sand out of the horse's system. It's not a cure it would be best to feed from some type of feeder if the pasture is sandy or all dirt but it would help. Many horses eat hay off the ground(mine included most of the time) and they eat grass off the ground all of the time. It's my opinion that horses that aren't fed enough or are really hunting for the last bits of grass are more likely to have a problem with sand colic then ones that get enough food and are eating hay off the ground or grass from a good pasture.Does the barn owner plan on feeding the horses hay? If not just feeding your horse isn't going to work just like giving just your horse a feeder won't

[CYA Ranch Cowgirl]

scrub with a brush and water its actually better for a horses teeth and muscles to eat on the ground its prooven!!

[Bolder]

Lets start with the eating....out in the wild do horses have feeders? No they eat of the ground, the humans have to always put there two cents in. Yes feeders help food wast and keep it from getting dug into the ground by the horses walking on it but... they do not need feeders. horses by nature are grazers, that means that they eat with their head down, The water issue, Horses need clean water, out in nature the would be drinking from rivers and areas where water is flowing or not stagnant. If you want to clean out water buckets just use dish soap and a good brush. just make sure to get all the soap out, if you have any more Q you can contact me at http://www.myspace.com/snglgntlgy

[love connor.]

sorry, but why do you even keep your horse there?!you can fial a complaint agenst abuse of animals.love.malachai@yahoo.ca