Choke can be terribly scarey!! My daughter's later-teen gelding choked this spring. We had a nice day and had been messing around with the horses, grooming them, trimming bridlepaths, etc. We de-wormed them with paste ivermectin, and then gave them each about two cups of grain as a treat. Our young filly got all-stock pellets, and the gelding got some of his regular purina senior (that we usually soak). He snarfed it up and promptly choked: ropey, foamy snot coming out his nose,circling with

Thanks, SBW! I had to miss yesterday's races and only saw 4 races today. I knew that when I got home I would be able to find out who won the "big one" today by checking your post! I may have to see if I can find a video of Z winning the classic... Thanks again for the posts!

Depending on how much time & effort you want to put into it, a combination of both systems might do the job. Have a notebook or whatever with pages for vet, farrier, feed, whatever, where you can write down the horses that get whatever procedure is being done. Then have another book - perhaps that you can be in charge of - that has pages for each horse, that you can transfer the info from the "general records" book. That would allow for charges/procedures particular to a certain horse

Plastic 55 gal drums (that held food-grade stuff), cut in half the long way, and mounted on a couple of 2x4's work well. Since the feeder would be under the shelter, you wouldn't have to drill holes in the bottom to let water out. They don't have to be mounted to anything, and they are close to the ground so the horse is still in a grazing position.

If your horse has a good sized lot, and it's feasible, try feeding him in several different places around the perimeter of the lot, or at the very least, as far away from the water and/or his favorite standing spot as possible. Walking around to eat various piles of hay will force him into a little bit of activity, and every little bit helps!

So many times, horses hurt themselves and we never do figure out how it happened .... But it sounds like it's just one of those things that will heal, so that's a good thing. Thanks for the update!

It's hard to say what horses will eat; she may very well like a cucumber! I would slice it lengthwise before offering it to her, to reduce the chance of choke. Let us know what the vet says - just from what you posted I wonder about a puncture wound at the coronet band. :( It's a very tender place, like the cuticle on your fingers/toes. Fingers crossed for good news!

I was a horse 4-H leader for years and years, years ago. I had one kid who desperately loved horses, but was also afraid of going faster than a walk. Now, to be fair, she was a little kid, and her horse was about 16+ hands, although he was very gentle, and an excellent horse for her. Her parents pushed her, hard - it didn't help that she had two older sisters who were fearless on their horses. My solution was to just back off of her (I wasn't too popular with the parents for a while), and

Given the choice, goats and horses will hang with their own kind. But if it's just one of each, they will generally be friends. At racetracks, high strung horses get goats as companions all the time. I have had goats and horses together for years, running together, and have never had a problem. Goats are a lot of fun, and entertaining.

I like the product, and will definitely continue to use it; I will just make sure I soak it before giving it to the older gelding. I don't know if he would have still choked if I had given him the Strategy pellets that the younger filly got that day - I'm not blaming the sr feed for the choke. ANY grain/pellet Jackson gets from now on will be soaked - I (not to mention the horse!!) don't need to go through that again!