Does anyone give BOSS ?

[whitney]

I also fed boss for 6 months and all it did for my minis were grow miniature sunflower patches all over my pasture. Some of the seed must have pass right through them. I switched to ground flaxseed it does a MUCH better job on coats. I took the leftover BOSS and made a nice sunflower bed in front of my barn.

Hey MARTY how about this for an EASY flower garden for YOU! It took 6 pounds of BOSS and NO weeding this picture only shows 1/2 of the bed.

 

[mininik]

That's pretty, whitney. How long do sunflowers usually last? Will they come back on their own in following years?

 

[Aggravation Acres]

I used to feed BOSS and then flax seed. but had a problem with both of them making my golden palomino turn a awful color. It looked like he was dirty all the time. So we quit using both.

This does not happen to all of them... I guess he was one of the lucky ones. :no:

Deb

 

[susanne]

I feed BOSS to all my horses; I've found that it has a huge impact on the coats of my blood bay gelding and dark silver black colt, but it has no visible affect on my red roan gelding or sorrel tovero/sabino filly. They love it (I use it for a training treat as well (not messy, easy to carry), and it's good for them even if it doesn't show up in the coats.

I would tend to consider any worming capabilities as incidental, but if it does augment the chemical wormer in any way, so much the better. Just be careful that nobody misinterprets and thinks that it can be used as a substitute.

 

[whitney]

Mininik:

No they don't come back year after year but they are SUPER easy to plant. Just pull up the old plants and thrown on some new seed and sprinkle some decomposed horse poop on top and water.

They last the summer and the cool thing is that all the bird come into eat the seeds in the fall especially the goldfinches.

 

[Shari]

I am going to be totally different here. I do not feed Boss.... first unless you get super high quality, clean..meaning no chaff or junk, you take a chance of getting colic.

I tried it on my mini's wayyy back when. Even the most tiny amount given and the super clean high quality stuff, Theia had some bad colic. Don't feed it to her.. no colic. Her mother got a more mild case of colic. Had the Vet out..did tests and the whole 9 yards. They can't deal with being fed boss. No colic at all when I stopped feeding it all those years ago.

Am sure there are others out there that have the same problem. So if you are just trying this out..only give a tablespoon at most for a week or so.. and move up from there if you do not see any problems.

There are other ways to get a nice shiny healthy coat.

:

Added:

Also no longer feed flax seed...even careful handling you can end up with rancid seed..which can posion your animals.

Poor DS had to feed my horses for awhile and did not know to sniff the flax seed each time he took it out of the frig before use. Luckly we caught it in time, so no lasting damage.

If flax seed does not smell sweet and nutty...don't use it.

 

[Margo_C-T]

I feed BOSS to all but my two 'elder' minis, who get Triple Crown Senior and don't really 'need' the BOSS, IMO. The other six get daily amounts of 1/4 to 2/3 cup, depending on their size. I have fed it now for probably 5 years, continuously, and like doing so. I do see a softness and underlying shine to their coats, not sure whether I could say that it affects the coat color of all of them(some yes, some ?)in an truly noticable way, but I do think it helps their coat quality, though the effect varies from horse to horse. Because I use Triple Crown "Lite" for several, I also add a modest(about 1 1/2-2 T./day)amount of corn oil to the ration of those, to 'up' the overall fat content--and that, I believe, also helps the visible quality of their coats.

I can no longer get the really NICE, triple-cleaned BOSS(the garden supply store changed hands and quit carrying the BOSS--GRRRR!--, so buy the bird BOSS at Walmart--and it does have pieces of stem, etc, in it....I pick out the largest pieces, but---it is just plant material, and horses are 'made' to eat plant material,so I decided it wasn't to worry about.

Just my experiences and 'take' on the subject!

Margo