Alexios Is Introduced To His Foal Feeder

Alexios has reached the point where he will soon need to supplement the nutrition he is receiving from his mother's milk with more solid foods. He is currently nibbling on grain and grazing a bit on grass and hay but it is not yet the bulk of his intake. In preparation for this transition we are starting to introduce him to a new feeder, one that is made specifically for foals.

After allowing everyone to graze out in the pasture we brought them back in the pen for feeding time.

Anastacia really likes her grain and so always wants us to hurry up!

The new feeder has bars on it that will allow a foals nose to reach the food but will keep larger horses out of it. Once Alexios is comfortable with it we'll mount it on one of the panels that make up their pen, but for now we just want him to become comfortable eating from it.

We laid the new feeder on the ground next to the one with which he is comfortable. He was curious about this new thing that had entered his world.

He eyed it carefully.

Then he turned away, making sure to watch it at all times.

It didn't run away, or try to attack him so he gave it another look.

He really wanted to know the purpose of this thing.

A closer inspection did not reveal the answer.

He gave up and helped himself to his mom's feed.

Once Anastacia was finished eating she decided to investigate.

She soon realized that there was good stuff inside and so helped herself (we haven't yet adjusted the bars to keep her out).

This quickly caught Alexios' attention.

Once it was obvious that Alexios understood the purpose of this new thing, we moved it away from Anastacia and distracted her with some more feed, offered one handful at a time.

This allowed Alexios to get a closer look.

He had to mouth it first. His mother is just the same, wanting to explore everything with her lips.

Once he was satisfied, he reached in and took a nibble. Grain is still not that important to him, but each time we're there, we'll offer him some in this feeder. Once he is ready to eat more grain, he'll be comfortable with sticking his nose between the bars. This means that we can be sure that he won't have to share with the bigger horses.