Survey: How long after feeding grain do you wait to ride your horse?

Meagan....colic, colics, colicking, colicky, colicked, are correct, just like panic, panics, panicked, panicky, panicking

Tip.....when a word ends in c, like colic, and it is pronounced with the harsh k sound when a suffix is added, you (almost) always change the c to ck if the suffix you're adding begins with an i, e, or y.

If the suffix begins with an a, o, or u, you don't need to add a k , and it will still be pronounced with the harsh k sound (as opposed to the s sound)........................

It is okay to saddle up within 15 minutes after feeding of grain begins, since it is rapidly emptied from the stomach. But, if you plan to do more than just hacking around, it is best to wait longer. During heavy exercise, blood flow is shunted away from the digestive tract to bring more blood to skeletal muscles (to supply oxygen needed for exercise). The muscular movement in the tract is also slowed or even ceases during heavy exercise. This muscle movement , called peristalsis, is what keeps intestinal contents moving along. Without it, the contents sit and can cause problems. So, waiting a good hour after feeding grain is a good idea if you plan to work your horse hard. For a trail ride, the movement just aids digestion and does no harm if it begins shortly after feeding. Be sure your horse is offered plenty to drink before the ride, regardless.

Everyone says differently, and each horse is different, but I will ride right after feeding and have had no problem whatsoever. My main riding mare has eaten a gallon of sweet feed (she is hard to keep weight on due to her active life) and has been ridden for a total of 45 min afterwards with no problems. I have also fed her gallon of grain right after our workout (say 15 min or so) with no problems either. My horses have strong stomachs however, and out of the 8 I have had for 3-10 yrs, I have had only one colic case, and that was due to the horse being too lazy to go to the waterer from the pasture- not riding related at all. If you have a finicky eater or an easy coliker, you want to wait a longer time, preferably over a half hour for grain. For hay or grass, you would normally not have to wait because that stays in their stomach for hours for digestion.

A lot depends on how much grain the horse is getting and the sort of work it is getting after the feed,

I was brought up with waiting an hour and it is no bad thing. If I have a meal I do not then go out for a run.

JULIE It might be a fallacy that swimming after a meal is harmless but, I well remember my father who was a life saver, warning a man about swimming immediately after a heavy lunch. The man just laughed and went into the sea which was choppy and my father had to swim in and pull him out as he cramped badly.

You are correct over the mustang explanation but, that is not hard feed which takes longer to digest.

No athlete would eat a meal before competing whether it is a 100m sprint or a marathon.

In all the years that I have ridden and looked after my horses and others, I have never waited an hour to ride a horse if he was just fed especially when camping. Of course trail riding is not considered hard work, that may be the difference. There has never been a problem with the feeding arrangements. Like Julie mentioned...when in the wild, the horses are ready to move at a moments notice and they are eating all day off and on. I guess you would call it a personal option, wait an hour or don't wait at all. Tomorrow I am loading my guy in the trailer and giving him his breakfast in the trailer and I am moving out.

I don't grain Mystic... she's like a kid on speed when she has the stuff. If she's out on her normal pasture I go by the swimming rule of waiting half an hour... if she's out on the back 40 which where the grass is a lot longer, fuller, and she's also quite the pig, I wait around an hour.

I've only seen a horse colic once and that was at the last boarding facility I was at. The cheap skates decided that they didn't feel like putting a new roundbale in the mare's paddock for three days, so when the new bale went in, everyone was gorging themselves. One of the mares was used in a jumping lesson and literally collapsed on top of her rider. I've been paranoid of jumping on and even doing light work from that point on.

My QH literally got half a handful of grain, so if I did get there right after he ate I would groom him, tack up and go. It was so little it didn't make a difference. My TB got a lot more than he did so I usually gave him 1/2 an hour before I got him out of his stall to get ready to ride if I was was just going to hack and I let him digest for a full hour if I had a lesson/was jumping/heading out on a long trail before I got on. I really think it depends on the amount of grain. If they hardly get any, it's not a big deal. If they require a lot more grain, I would definitely wait an hour (unless I was riding lightly).

I've always waited an hour. That was ingrained in me as a child and now many, many years later....I still do. Everyone I know at every barn I've been to, does. My vet who boards at my barn does as well. For whatever that's worth.

That's for grain-based feeding only. We introduced that when we domesticated horses, so it's not the same as with wild horses.

Here are some feeding myths: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.n...

Waiting time before riding is not mentioned as a myth.

http://www.horsebacklessonsguide.com/how-to-ride-a...

3rd bullet http://evrp.lsu.edu/healthtips/EquineNutrition.htm

I don't wait. Lots of people don't!

People take grain-bags on all day trail rides all of the time... they don't sit around waiting for an hour before they ride!

If a mustang is eating and a puma walks up, the mustang does NOT sit there for an hour before it runs away- it just runs!

Endurance riders feed their horses during events, then go straight back to doing their endurance ride! No issues.

It really doesn't matter if you wait or not- this theory is just as crap as the theory that you should wait an hour to go swimming after you eat.

ive never waited i always rode hard workouts too

ive gone to shows feed them oats and grain before i go into my game classes and it hasnt bugged my horses at all i even rode my horse all day at the show working him in a grass feild and i started at 10 and went to 11 at night riding watchin gmy friends and i feed my horse oats all day to keep hyper.

Usually if i have an early lesson, i wait until after im done to feed grain. hay is fine to feed before. If you know in advanced feed him about half his gain, and the rest after. if you must feed it all, give him about 20 min.