Two New Rescues - new to horses - advice/suggestions sought

On the DE, I'd wait and talk to the vet, but as long as it's food grade I know many people use it as a dewormer and swear by it.

On the aggresion thing, they've both been starved and she's submissive. You will need to either put so much feed down that she gets what she needs and he can eat all he wants, or separate them. I prefer to separate mine, no fussing or kicking and no chance for ME to get hurt in the melee.

When it comes to the petting thing, if I want to give LOTS of attention to one horse, I pull that horse out of the crowd and we go somewhere by ourselves. If I'm just giving a quick pet and snuggle, then the agressive horses get told to go away while I pet the one I'm petting and I enforce that with a carrot stick. They are NEVER to invade my personal space, especially on pasture and especially en masse. I would not hand feed them right now because of the hunger and agression issues, the big one especially sounds like he could turn into a nipper/biter with real ease. You have to maintain control and respect, these guys (even a pony) are too big to treat like big dogs. You can get hurt very badly. Don't be surprised if the 2 year old doesn't start growing like a weed here real soon too, she's not so old she can't get most of her growth and be a pretty good size.

They do have a run in shed that's 10 x 24, closed on two sides with a third side sheltered by trees. We've asked several folks now if our modular barn, which has thus far only been used to store hay/feed..if we needed to contruct actual stalls for them and everyone is saying no. For the run in...we're using "as is" right now, but plan to tarp a third side during the heat of summer to insure they have a much cooler area when its hot and muggy.

In the same field area, we have a 10 x 12 cedar cabin we built last year...also planning on opening the front wall of it up come warmer weather, to give them a secondary run-in as they choose.

Thank you for the suggestion on being more precise with the feed. I've all ready pulled out measured cups to use until my next trip into town (towns an hour drive each way so I don't go out all the time).

One "quick" way to measure feed is to grab a full bag, scoop full coffe can amounts into wm sacks then divide the 50 lb bag by the amount of scoops you get out of it. Just a quickie until you get a measure! It's not accurate but will help!
So if I can get 12 scoops out of a 50 lb bag of feed, that's almost 4.2 lbs of feed per scoop.
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Thank you for being so willing to help these two sad horses. You are an angel.

There is a pretty good thread about rescues. You sound like you have thought this out pretty well, but you might find something useful in it

The Care of an Emaciated Horse

While blanketing is a really good idea, if they are totally outdoor, it may present some problems. If they are out in the weather, blankets can get saturated and lose much of their value. They can be a big problem then. Even "waterproof" blankets can be a problem as they often don't breathe enough to keep sweat from causing some problems. If a horse is brought up in bad weather I would say blanket. If not, shelter is better.

The loafing shed is a good thing, but horses will often ignore them, the dummies! In the winter I might partially tarp the third side (full tarp may make the shelter uninviting). In the summer I would do NO tarping of the third side. In hot humid weather you need flow through ventilation to keep the hot air moving. Tarping that third side would cause the air to be stagnant and hold any heat, IMO.

Good luck and PLEASE keep us updated on their progress!

I would take away the sweet feed. Sweet feed is very unhealthy for horses, it is full of sugar, and minimal fat and fiber, which is typically the healthiest and fastest way to gain weight on horses. Beet pulp and rice bran are high in fiber and fat, and may be a good choice. I would get them on free choice grass hay (due to you seeming to have snow on the ground), either on the ground or in a small mesh hay net, possibly with some Alfalfa hay.

Other than that, looking great! Congrats on rescuing them!

How long have they been on this diet? If it's been 2 weeks, it's time to step things up.

First off, the mineral block is a waste of time unless you're offering it as a SALT block. There are only trace minerals in it. The minerals they need in much larger amounts are deficient. Give them a quality loose mineral. ADM Grostrong has a great value of all minerals as well as a super high Vit A. If you can't find that, go with Progressive Nutrition's Grass mineral.

You're only feeding about 3# of the Safe Choice which is about 1/3 the recommended amount. You can safely double what you're feeding of that. The oil is good and you can safely double that as well. I'd include a great protein source for both of them to promote muscle growth and fill out their topline. Roasted whole soy beans provide a great protein profile (high in lysine which the filly needs for growth), are high in fat and inexpensive. Get both on a daily double dose of a pre/probiotic for a month to help replensih the bacterial flora in their gut. You have to feed alot of DE to get a "deworming" dose. I'd rely on the toxic chemicals to do the job for now. With getting the filly on a great feeding program, she can do alot of catching up and in 6 months you won't recognize her.

I personally hate sweet feed. Its like crack for my horses and they go nuts...to help with weight and coats we give them Maz-e-glo rice bran it helped alot to put weight on our TB (very hard keeper) and it helps give them all healthier coats.

Heres what we give them.
http://www.mannapro.com/products/equ...glo-rice-bran/

Just wanted to say thank you for taking them in... take lots of pictures, with your care they will be different horses by summer.

I have a warmblood filly growing like a weed and it's hard to keep weight on her so she gets about 3X the pellets the geldings get but is an extremely leisurely eater...... so, I have to stand there with a dressage whip or some kind of stick and keep the geldings away. I don't have a way to separate them at the moment and the rest of the time, she really needs the gelding discipline to cool her engines! The geldings know to stay back now and will stand there mournfully looking at me like "Aren't I your baby anymore :("

Goodluck with your new horses!

I think you are doing great, THANK GOD there are people like you out there willing to take in horses that greatly need the TLC.

Your feed schedule sounds great, I am a huge fan of Safe Choice. Eventually though I would probably ditch the sweet feed and up the Safe Choice (gradually of course)

Sweet feed does not offer much in nutrition and only leads to teeth issues down the road, of course they are not getting enough nor had enough at this point to cause any harm.

To blanket or not blanket, neither would do harm. In snowy weather though I would probably consider it, just make sure the ones you get are water proof.