She Eats Like a Horse

Roxy: "Hullo. Got anything to eat?"

To say that Roxy, my lesson horse at Touchstone Farm, is food motivated is only to scratch the surface of her deep passion for all things edible. Roxy dines on good quality grain and hay in quantities appropriate for her age and size. Even so, she never – I mean never – misses an opportunity to scarf down extra “noms.”

Roxy is impressively skilled at finding sources of snacks. When leading her, I’ve learned the hard way to watch for bales of hay, grain buckets intended other horses, and patches of green grass. But pulling leaves off a nearby tree? No, I didn’t see that coming.

In the lower barn, the smart money is on keeping Roxy to the middle of aisle. Otherwise, she sticks her head into every stall to see if there might be a little grain left unattended in a bucket. (I guess it’s the equine equivalent of double-checking the coin return in vending machines. It could pay off.) Even on cross-ties, she can snatch a mouthful of hay from passing barn staff just trying to do chores.

A big challenge of trail riding with Roxy is all the greenery along the roadsides. When I see this:

Roxy apparently sees this:

Roxy’s food escapades are legendary. Here are a few of them:

• A few years ago, she got loose in the lower barn, worked her way into the grain room and feasted. She ate so much that staff needed to monitor her carefully for signs of laminitis. (Thankfully, it didn't develop.)
• Last summer, she regularly defeated the electric fence around her paddock to roam the farm at night in search of edibles. (I had a part in one of these excursions – a story for another post.)
• This summer, on a Pony Farm overnight camping trip, Roxy got loose during the night and ate the hay and grain intended for all the horses on the trip.

Fortunately, the new paddock fences put in this summer keep her secure at turnout, and her stall is now far away from the grain room. But Roxy’s determination to get at good eats is a challenge for the equine staff and her riders. We know, but Roxy alas does not, that she is too clever for her own good when it comes to finding food. Overeating could make her very sick.

Still, part of me admires Roxy’s ability to see potential dessert trays in the landscape of her world. I think of it as her personal take on the “Bloom where you’re planted” philosophy. In Roxy’s case, perhaps it’s “Eat the blooms where they’re planted.”

See you around the farm.

Kathy McDonald
Rider and Volunteer at Touchstone Farm