FEEDING BELIEFS Pt 2  

Last month we looked at a few feeding myths- things that we thought were true about oats, hay, and a few other subjects. This month I had planned to write about bag tags, but then I started getting questions and comments that made me think about additional beliefs that we hold. Looks like we’re not done yet with this subject, so we’re going to look at a few more myths about feeding horses. Remember, don’t believe everything you think!

1. The protein in ration balancers is too much for my horse. I hear this a lot when introducing the idea of a ration balancer to someone for the first time. When you look at a feed tag, what is the first nutrient that you see? It’s the amount of protein in the bag. People see a number in the vicinity of 30% (most balancers are close to this number) and immediately back off, shaking their heads and making comments such as “That’s way too much protein for my horse. He’s retired/not doing much work/too hot/already gets enough protein.”

Let’s take a look at this. First, what does that 30% mean? It’s telling you that 30% of the product in the bag is protein. That’s right, 30% of what is in the bag is protein. It does NOT mean that if you feed this, 30% of your horse’s diet will be protein. Let’s look at the numbers: if your bag of ration balancer weighs 50 pounds, then 30% of that, or 15 pounds, consists of protein. “Whoa…” you may be thinking, “that’s still a lot of protein!” Take a closer look. What is the feeding rate of this balancer? Let’s say that it’s one pound per day. For every pound that you feed, 30% of that pound is protein. When we do the math, 30% of one pound is almost five ounces. Do you still think it’s too much protein? That’s really a small amount.

Remember though that this ration balancer (or concentrated feed, if applicable) is not the only source of your horse’s protein intake. His forage contains protein too. It can be hard to have your pasture analyzed as the nutrient values change frequently (and sometimes rapidly) depending on the season, weather, and other factors that you can’t control. You can, however, have your hay analyzed and you’ll get a good idea of how much protein it contains. Let’s say that your analysis indicates that your hay has 5% available protein as is. (Make sure that you are reading the columns and rows correctly- there may be a couple values for protein, but available protein is what your horse will get out of the hay, and “as is” means hay in the real world.) You have weighed a typical feeding for your horse and figure that you give him a total of 20 pounds per day. Do some more math…5% of 20 pounds is one pound of protein. Your hay provides much more protein in his daily diet than the small amount of ration balancer.

Now you may be questioning how much protein your horse needs. It will vary depending on your horse’s age, his job, and other factors. The short answer? For a 1000-pound horse doing nothing, a minimum of 1.4 to 1.6 pounds of protein will likely suffice, and any horse doing more than that will need more protein. This is a good conversation to have with your veterinarian. Remember, each horse is an individual and should be fed as such.

Another part of this question should be, “What happens if my horse is eating too much protein?” Yes, it is possible to feed him more protein than he needs. It isn’t usually a concern though. As long as his kidneys are healthy, he’ll eliminate excess protein in his urine. You’ll likely notice a strong ammonia smell in his stall. To help him clear excess protein, make sure that he always has access to clean, fresh water. Breaking down protein can be thirsty work for his body, plus he’ll need adequate liquid to clear the protein. This doesn’t mean that it is safe to consistently feed excess protein. It’s thought that over time the additional burden on the kidneys can become damaging. There isn’t a lot of research in this area yet. Of course, if you have concerns, or if you notice changes in your horse’s drinking habits, stall odors, or peeing habits, talk with your veterinarian.

2. Protein makes my horse hot. Not really. I won’t deny that having adequate protein can help your horse feel better and he may show his true colors as a result, but protein doesn’t make him hot. You can blame excess carbs, windy days, lack of exercise, the hose in the grass, rabbits, horse gremlins and pent-up energy if your horse is being “spicy.”

The main source of energy in a horse’s diet is carbohydrates. They break down quickly and fuel the horse’s activities; everything from moving, breathing, digestion…all those things that a horse’s body does during his day. Protein’s job is to build the body: bone, hair, hooves, soft tissue, muscle, his hormones, immune system…we could go on for pages. If a horse runs out of carbs to break down, then his body can break down protein and use that for energy, but it is a very expensive process, metabolically speaking. The body would much rather use carbs because it’s easier to break them down to access the energy. Make sense? Even if you are feeding more protein than he needs, his body will use the carbs first.

You may be thinking, “But I gave my horse a higher protein feed and he had way too much energy! It must be the protein.” What was the amount of non-structural carbs (NSCs) in the feed? Before you run out to the barn to check the feed tag, I’ll ‘fess up. That’s an unfair question, because you may not be able to find that answer on the feed bag. If the info is there, you may have to do some work to interpret it by adding together the starches and sugars. (Yes, we’ve said before that fiber is a carb too, but fiber is a structural carb and is fermented, not digested.) Fat is also a source of calories, but it is considered a “cool” source because it doesn’t release a rush of glucose like sugar break-down does. There isn’t an established number for high NSC feeds vs low NSC. It’s kind of like human food that is marked as low fat- what does that mean? Think of it as a range. Oats can be as high as 40% NSCs, ration balancers are around 10-12%. Lots of performance feeds fall in the 20% plus range.

Of course, there are reasons other than diet that may cause your horse to be hot. If you think that your horse’s excessive energy is caused by his food, consult with your local feed store and your veterinarian for alternatives.

3. Bran mashes are great in cold weather. We’re talking about wheat bran here, not rice bran. I thought this myth had fallen out of favor until someone asked me last week for a bag of brand and told me that she had fed it to all her horses, since forever! Then I went online, and apparently there are still lots of sites out there with conflicting advice.

Now I know all the arguments for feeding it: supposedly it warms up your horse in the winter (not really) it holds a lot of water and is a good way to stave off dehydration (debatable) and it helps with their digestion (not like you think!) If you don’t feed bran, there really isn’t any good reason to start. If you are feeding bran, we need to talk. Are you giving a bran mash as a weekly treat? Please don’t. It makes the microbes in their GI tract unhappy, and that’s why you get soft manure. It’s not really acting as a laxative or a digestive aid. Think of it more as a GI upset. Wheat bran doesn’t have as much fiber as forage anyway. If you want fiber, it’s best to stick with forage.

Speaking of fiber, if you want to warm up your horse in winter, give him more forage. While giving a warm bran mash may make you feel good, it isn’t going to generate the metabolic or whole-body heat that the fermentation of fiber will do. And as far as getting more water into your horse- try giving him warm water instead. Yes, that quart or two that you mix into the wheat bran is beneficial, but your horse needs at least 10 gallons a day. If you like the idea of giving him a warm porridge, you could give him soaked hay extender pellets or timothy pellets or alfalfa pellets instead…or even soaked timothy or alfalfa cubes. They all contain more fiber and are less upsetting to his GI tract.

Perhaps you give a small amount of bran, such as a measuring cup, on a daily basis. The microbes in his stomach are probably used to the wheat bran by now but it isn’t having much of a laxative effect for him. Of concern is what the bran contains…or doesn’t contain. Wheat bran has a high level of phosphorous and a low level of calcium. That is the exact opposite of what we want in a horse’s diet. Ideally, we like to see a calcium:phosphorous ration of 1.5:1 or 2:1. Let’s keep it easy and shoot for 2:1, or twice as much calcium as phosphorous. It’s okay if you have more calcium than phosphorus because the horse tolerates it well. But it is not okay to have lots more phosphorous than calcium. For starters, it can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb calcium. Calcium is critical for bone growth, neuromuscular function, production of enzymes, blood function…again, we could go on for pages. But here’s the critical thing: a body that isn’t getting enough calcium in the diet will pull from calcium reserves within the bones, and that leads to a weakened skeleton. If you are set on feeding wheat bran to your horse daily, make sure that you are supplementing his calcium AT AN APPROPRIATE RATIO. That means that you are going to have to figure out how much phosphorous is in the bran and then supplement with calcium accordingly.

4. A coffee can holds a pound of feed. Well, it may, but you won’t know unless you weigh it. And that won’t be true for all feeds, or even for all coffee cans! First, let’s look at your can. Is it the one that used to hold 16 ounces of coffee, or is it the one that was downsized to hold 13 ounces of coffee and now only holds 12 ounces of coffee? Is it one of the plastic ones that holds eight ounces of coffee, or 48 ounces of coffee, or anything in between? Clearly there is no one size of coffee can. You may have noticed the frequent use of the term “of coffee” above. That’s because the net weight on coffee cans means the weight of coffee, not horse feed. Your feed has a different density than coffee, and feeds differ from each other. . In simple terms, when we use the term density, we mean the weight per volume. Extruded feed is less dense than and weighs less than textured feed, which weighs less than pelleted feed, which weighs less than alfalfa pellets.

Why does it even matter? Take a look at your feed bag. The recommendations are made in pounds, not coffee cans or handfuls or scoops. Let’s say that you should be feeding your horse five pounds per day of Perfect Pony Pellets, but in fact you are only feeding four pounds. Your horse is only getting 80% of the nutrients that the feed bag recommends. You may argue that he is getting the rest of his nutrients from hay…after all, we’ve talked about forage several times. Here’s the thing though: unless it’s a complete feed, he probably isn’t. Feeds that are not labeled as complete feeds are formulated to supplement hay. They provide the nutrients that hay doesn’t have. Over time, this will impact his health.

If you are giving your horse a complete feed, then it’s really important to know the weight of what you are feeding. Complete feeds can be fed two ways: either with forage, or without. They really do contain all that your horse needs (except for water and salt) but ONLY if you follow the feeding directions.

I’m going to suggest some homework this week. Measure out a sample meal of your horse’s feed, put it in a baggie, and take it to your feed store for weighing. (You could do this at your local post office too.) It might be a good idea to take along a few extra baggies, a marker, and a kitchen measuring cup too so that you can play around a bit and develop a good sense of your feed’s density. Better yet, ask your feed store if they have weighing cups for your feed. Not all feed companies offer these, but typically the high value feeds will have a cup that marks the weight of their feed, in half-pound and pound increments. Beware though- it needs to be specific for that feed. ABC’s cup for Perfect Pony pellets won’t work for XYZ’s Super Senior textured feed. Then use that weighing cup daily. If you find that you are feeding much more- or much less- than the bag recommends, you should have a talk with your feed store about other choices.

As we said last month, there are so many more feed beliefs that we could look at. When you go out to feed your horse tonight, take a moment to think about what you are doing. Why do you choose this particular feed? Why do you give this amount? Are you adding supplements, and if so, what is your reason for doing so? While you’re at it, pull handfuls of hay from several bales and put them in a bag. Take it to your feed store this week and ask them to send it in for a hay analysis. In a couple weeks’ time you could be on your way to a feeding program that is based on science and results, and not beliefs. Your horse will benefit!