HELP! Can horses eat porridge oats?

[Frizzzz]

Can they?  

[stargazer42]

It's not suggested. I don't really know but I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea. After all, when you add milk, they expand whereas normal rolled oats don't. It may cause colic?  

[AriaStarSong]

I'm gonna go with Stargazer on this one. I've never read anywhere that they're expressly forbidden, but the expansion thing could cause colic or choke. Choke would probably more likely. Either way, bad stuff.  

[iHorsetamer]

I wouldn't suggest giving them a straight bowl of it.
o.o
We've been giving Ruby a small amount of Oatmeal oats with hot water to absorb a little of the antibiotic taste. But we mix it into her feed and make it all mushy. >.<

I guess it depends on what kind you get and whether or not they expand.
But, I agree with Stargazer and Aria. It might cause them to choke (Hope not.. D smile or colic.  

[Frizzzz]

It was so scary, I'm minding a girl's horse for the summer and I love him so much, I'm REALLY protective of him. We walked down to the shop to get lunch while he was starving, got back after not very long and there was porridge oats scattered on the ground in front of the 3 horses in those stables and he was salivating loads. Turns out some IDIOT woman came in with her family to feed/pet the horses because she used to with the school ponies before they were all sold. I was SO angry with her, ranted for like.... 10 minutes to her and was so worried all that day and night, the next day he was fine though. I'm never leaving him again near the entrance without being very close by. Like there's people around to make sure the horses are safe but the woman looked like she was just petting them.

URGH!
IT'S NOT A PETTING ZOO! GO THERE INSTEAD!  

[AriaStarSong]

Ugh, that's so frustrating. I used to get families ALL THE TIME who would be hiking along the pipeline and come over to the barn I was working at last summer. They were usually good enough to ask, but I always tried to find polite ways to say "No, your small barefoot child cannot come into the barn to pet the horses while I'm trying to get 5 horses ready for a lesson and figure out why Valuer didn't finish his grain. Please go away." rolleyes I don't get why people think it's okay to walk up to an unfamiliar animal to pet them without permission, let alone FEED THEM. Seriously? WTH?

I'm glad to hear he's okay though.  

[iHorsetamer]

Aria and Friz--

That used to happen all the time where I keep Ruby. She used to be kept in the front pasture, which is by a main road.
(I'll admit, it's good if you want to give lessons. But not if you're watching what your horses eat, such as after they colic! >.<)
Anyway, I was on my way to get Ruby and these people were leaning over the fence trying to get at UNC (a VERY SKITTISH not good with people horse.) and I had to politely tell them to get the hell away from him. XD
So I know what you mean, Aria. XD

We also get frequent (visitors) around the permimeter because the ranch has a housing complex ALL THE WAY AROUND. (Golf carts, random walkers.. paint ball gunner-s) Its really fun threatening them though.
(Unfortunately these idiot boys decided that it would be fun to capture a BABY DEAR because it was "abandoned", while the doe was probably going "LEAVE MY BABY ALONE!")

Eugh, anyway.
I hate it when people think that it's okay to touch every little animal that they see. For one, it's dangerous. For both you and the animal!
>.<  

[Nite of Storms]

I am in full agreement with iHorsetamer People who do that are so annoying! It's really bad with horse since it can make them very sick and people have this idea that "horsies are just so cute and like they're so cool they all must love me" scream
Yeah umm folks that's not the way it is!
And then when you're at shows oh holy sea turtles. My instructor has a really nice gentleman like horse that is off the track. when he gets excited or is super happy he jumps a little and someimes rears, although he quiets down and gets to work right away*some of you may find this upsetting but he really means no harm and wouldn't hurt a fly. To this fact my instructor is the only one who rides him and he loves her to the ends of the earth, so we're all safe* well anyhow, some mother and son and cousin of son and best friend of cousin of son decided*while wearing flipflops* that they wanted to pet the "horsey" while my instuctor was getting on.....so they come up and pet him and he rears just a little.....naturally my instructor lost her balance since she was mid swing trying to mount. She regained her balance and told the kids to be more careful so the mother then told us we had an evil horse and he needed to be sent to a trainer to "break that right rottenness out of his dumb a**."

People are so dumb! And to answer the original question*sorry for the huge rant* I wouldn't feed my horse outmeal oats since as everyone before me mentioned could cause choke or colic....  

[Nilou]

My horses eat oatmeal and do just fine. They also prefer their beet pulp DRY. The only time I've had a horse choke is when they were fed in a pasture, with other horses, and had to fight for their food. --- or after they had lived in a pasture, fighting for their food.

Also, consider this - horses were not generaly fed grain foods until people began to realize that a good amount of grain can replace a good amount of hay. Thus making it cheaper to feed high concentrates of grain than growing, baling and storing hay stuffs. Some of the grains in the early days included YEAST & HOPPS - by prouducts of making beer. (Think Budweiser here.) Yeast is known to expand 10 fold, and it is a key ingredient in MANY supplements for coat shine.

I have changed my feed several times, w/o the prescribed recomendations of feeding part of the "old" feed and mixing it with new, etc, etc and have only had 1 problem. That was with a 2 yr old Impressive bred QH filly who was known to colic at anything realy. My horses travel cross country a lot and are not on a schedual for feeding and I don't have 1 brand of feed that I stick with. This makes them hearty when we are checking fence line at cattle ranches, going to week long shows, traveling from our summer to our winter quarters, etc etc.

Don't get me wrong, there are some horses that can't handle stresses like the ones I've mentioned above but more often than not, it's the owners/handlers that are more stressed over little things than the horse.