Celery for IR horse

[Diamond Jake]

My horse is IR (Insulin Resistant).

On endurance rides so many of us feed carrots- well- too high in sugar for Jake.

But he likes celery. Can they offer the same benefits without the sugar? Any other nutritional issues with feeding celery as a treat?

Any help is appreciated. Going to the vet tomorrow, and can ask there, too.
Steph

[ChocoMare]

If it's in chunks, the stringiness of celery shouldn't be a problem. It's a pretty benign veggie. One of the reasons why it's a Freebie on Weight Watchers for people :D

[slpeders]

My IR mare got celery and parsley for 'fresh' treats after she was diagnosed. I think it would be a great "juicy" snack for an endurance horse. I also used the items offered by Skodes (www.skodeshorsetreats.com (http://www.skodeshorsetreats.com)) and never found a blend my mare didn't happily wolf down.

[Diamond Jake]

That is a great website!

My plan for some treats was to freeze un-molassed beet pulp with some Onatrio dehy Timothy balance cubes and maybe a little senior feed. Pop the into a mini-muffin pan and ta daaah! Frozen horse treat. Maybe I will add celery too.

Besides the Yahoo group, and safergrass.org, is there anywhere else I can go to research alternative food for my guy? Teh Yahoo group gets way intense into mineral balances, and pergoglide, etc. I will not know what I am dealing with until next week.

Nice to meet you, Sheri. I am from MN... well, until next week!
Steph

[ChocoMare]

For a "true" horsie treat, you can't lose with Hilton Herb's Herballs (http://www.hiltonherbsusa.com/equine/equine_generalhealth.cfm?cfid=8364&cftoken=47570438) - (scroll down)

They're 100% sugar free, smell YUMMY and I have yet to have a horse not gobble them down. They also hold up well in your pocket :D

My IR Percheron would sell her soul for one :lol:

[Diamond Jake]

Ooh! I had no idea those were out there!

Have you heard of Withers and Withers? They make an organic, free-trade horse treat, and one of their lines includes one for IR horses. Cute aluminum tin, refillable....
www.withersandwithers.com

I will always miss the Buckeye peppermint treats, though. Those were Jake's favorite.

But he eats the Timothy balance cubes like a treat, too. Of course, he is perpetually hungry now, and would eat just about anything.

I would love to have an email conversation with some real live IR horse owners. Feel free to PM me if you are open to chat.
Steph

[ChocoMare]

I would love to have an email conversation with some real live IR horse owners. Feel free to PM me if you are open to chat.
Steph

If you get on AIM, I'm BlueMareSu.... we can chat :D If you're not, get it....it's free at http://dashboard.aim.com/aim

[slpeders]

Steph -- so you're leaving the Land of 10K Lakes?!? :)
Best of luck with your IR horse. I only had to deal with it for about a year before my dear dear mare managed to get injured beyond salvation by a pasture buddy. We did pergolide capsules, which I hid in tiny bits of Equus muffins (highly illegal for IR horses, but her absolute FAVE and if I microwaved the muffin first, I could mold 4-6 capsules with one muffin. She did reach the point where I could just put the caps in her food (pelleted) and she would just figure she got one bad mouthful rather than refusing to eat because it might ALL be poisoned.
Good luck with your horse (and your move!).

[whitesage]

What a great thread everyone and as the owner of a gelding with Equine Metabolic Syndrome, it's great to see he does have some treat options. I found an article in Holistic horse that was helpful to me too;

http://www.holistichorse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=597:dietary-strategy-for-your-ir-horse&catid=62:nutrition&Itemid=120

Apparently I *shouldn't* have been feeding him those apples...

:/

[Diamond Jake]

Just an update-

I got tired of guessing on Jake's issues and had him tested. He is not IR, he is Hypothyroid! I still want to get the results of the insulin glucose test, just to see where he fell in the range of normalcy.

He has thin soles, which speaks for his ouchy issues, and that is my fault because I trim him myself. I honestly did not think I was taking a whole lot of sole off. Mostly evening out the toe callous.

Anyway- I am still transitioning him carefullly to grass, and soaking his hay. It cannot hurt! I am hoping to eventually have him on grass for all day, and dry lot at night. I think I will never be able to do more than that, if I want to keep his weight down. That is fine with me!

I cannot download AIM on my computer, but will drop you a PM. I still think it is good to treat him mostly like he is IR, just because he is such an easy keeper.

Oh, and for food during dstance rides? He loves Nutrena Senior, and eats it happily mixed in with soaked, un-molassed beet pulp. He can have grass on the trail.