FEEDING BELIEFS 

Don’t believe everything you think, especially when it comes to feeding horses! Today we’re going to look at some long-held beliefs, break them down, and talk about why they don’t work, or don’t do what you think they do. You may or may not decide to change your feeding routine based on this article, but I hope you will think about what you feed your horse, why you choose those products, and understand a bit more about how equine nutrition works.

First, though, I’m not a veterinarian. I won’t be diagnosing medical problems. I encourage you to contact your veterinarian if you have questions about equine nutrition, if you have concerns about your horse’s health, and if you notice changes in your horse’s eating habits, health, or behavior. Your vet is a great resource as far as helping you diagnose feeding problems. If your vet recommends a certain feed, ask why. If your feed store doesn’t carry that particular feed, they may be able to help you match it up with something similar if you can explain why your veterinarian suggested that feed.

Your feed store experts are a good resource too. Not only do they have knowledge of many different types of feed, they can also help if you have questions to ask of the manufacturer. Feed stores generally carry feeds from several different companies so they can help you compare products.

Let’s look at a few beliefs. Some of these you may have heard, some may be new to you. There are a few that we’ve touched on before but are worth repeating. Some may have made sense “back in the day” but no longer apply. It’s hard to let go of old beliefs though. That’s why I encourage you to not believe everything you think.

1. The best feed for horses is oats. Not anymore. At one time, oats made sense because they are easy to grow, horses like them, and horses worked differently than they do now. Oats are high in fiber, which is good, but also high in sugar, which isn’t so good for today’s pleasure horses. Although they can be considered an energy source for hard working horses, they lack the full balance of vitamins, minerals, and protein that horses also need. They typically contain more phosphorus than calcium, which is the opposite of what we want to see in a horse’s diet. The quality of the protein can vary considerably, which has ramifications if you are feeding young/growing horses or those who do heavy work. We now have many more choices. We have feeds that are suitable for performance horses or those with a heavy workload, feeds for horses that are pasture ornaments, and everything in between. This is a good conversation to have with your feed store. They can help you determine a suitably nutritious feed for your horse’s activity level. If you still want to feed oats, consider adding a ration balancer for the protein, vitamins, and minerals that the oats lack. It’s a good idea too to have your hay analyzed so you get an idea of how much sugars and starches your horse is consuming.

2. All sweet feeds/pellets/senior feeds are the same. Nope. There are SO many varieties now. Feeds can vary in the amount of protein, fat, fiber, calories, and vitamin/mineral package. We see the biggest variation now in senior feeds, which may be low fat, high fat, low NSC (non-structural carbohydrates) and more. This is why your feed store cashiers may put you through twenty questions if you ask for a bag of sweet feed. They aren’t trying to be difficult or put you on the spot. They recognize that there are different textured feeds, pellets, and senior feeds, and they want to make sure you go home with the right product.

3. To complicate things, feeds may be considered complete feeds, which means that they have contain a high amount of fiber, or non-complete feeds. Complete feeds can be used to provide everything that a horse needs in his diet if he is unable to eat long-stem forage. Non-complete feeds don’t have as high an amount of fiber as the complete feeds. Of course, in addition to the complete feed, you still need to provide water and free-choice salt!

   1. Certain breeds such as ponies and Morgans shouldn’t have sweet feed. I think this belief came about because traditional sweet feeds had a large amount of molasses. Our modern feeds are formulated differently. Of course, there are still feeds that contain a significant amount of molasses, but most sweet feeds now have been sprayed with molasses instead of having it mixed in with the dry ingredients. A more important question to ask is what is most suitable for your pony or Morgan. While certain breeds have the reputation of being easy keepers, or more sensitive to sugars, or seem to be prone to medical issues that could be related to feeding, it is more important to remember that each horse is an individual and should be fed as such. Keep in mind too that your hay is a huge part of your horse’s diet. You should probably be more concerned about how much sugar is in your horse’s hay. How do you determine that? Take a sample from several bales to your feed store and ask if they will send it out for analysis. It’s usually free, and the information is very valuable for all the horses in your barn. (One year we labeled the three hay sections in our barn as 1^st crop, 2^nd crop, and Morgan hay.)

   2. My horse needs a no carb diet. Not true. Your horse needs carbs. Why? Carbs provide energy, not just for the tasks you ask him to do, but for daily activities like…everything. Such as breathing. And the horse’s brain requires glucose, a simple sugar, to function properly. Remember too that fiber is a carbohydrate. A horse’s diet should be forage-based as much as possible. Clearly, a no-carb diet isn’t going to work. When people express concern about carbs in their horse’s diet, they generally mean the amount of NSCs or non-structural carbohydrates. These are sugars and starches. Excessive sugars and starches consumed by horses can have effects similar to what happens to us when we eat too many sweets. Weight gain, development of metabolic issues such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome, and exacerbation of existing conditions such as PPID (Cushings) can all be related to eating too many sugars and starches. So, what can you do? Talk with your veterinarian if you have concerns about your horse’s health and talk with your feed store about feeds that are low in NSCs. And have your hay analyzed! Analysis will tell you the amount of NSCs in your hay and help you plan a safe diet.

   3. Even the NSCs in ration balancer are too much for my horse. Sorry, you’re going to have a very hard time convincing me that there is even a kernel of truth in this! Let’s talk math for a moment. Ration balancers supply protein, vitamins, and minerals. They are perfect for supplementing a hay diet to make sure that your horse gets the nutrients that he needs. They are also used in addition to concentrated feeds when you aren’t feeding as much as the bag recommends. Again, this is to provide the protein, vitamins, and minerals that your horse isn’t getting in his feed because you aren’t feeding to the bag’s specifications. Nowhere does it say that ration balancers provide energy or calories for weight gain, because they don’t. Here comes the math part: ration balancers are fed at a very LOW rate of one to two pounds per day. Depending on the brand, they typically contain about 9%-14% NSCs. Now that means 9%-14% of the TOTAL bag. If you’re feeding one pound per day of a balancer that averages 10%, then 10% of that pound, or 1.6 ounces, is your NSC level. That’s not much at all.

   So, let’s look at the other things your horse is eating. Does he have access to pasture? There are lots of sugars in grasses, and the levels fluctuate hourly, daily, weekly, and seasonally, all due to sun, stress, water, and other environmental conditions. And how about your hay? What is the NSC level of that? While it’s really hard to get a good reading on your horse’s pasture, you can have your hay analyzed. Let’s do some more math and say that it’s winter (so that we take grass out of the equation), and your horse is eating just hay for his forage. You take a sample to your feed store for analysis, and it comes back as 15% NSC. He’s eating 20 pounds per day (and you weigh it, so you’re sure.) What is 15% of 20 pounds? Three pounds. Three pounds of your horse’s hay can be considered NSCs. That sure is a lot more than the 1.6 ounces that your horse is getting from his ratio balancer!

   4. Hay is enough. While this may be true in some parts of the country, it isn’t a given here in our area. Think about the past three summers: we’ve had drought, another year of drought, followed by excessive rain. The grass was stressed, which in turn affected the hay. We’ve seen hay that is low in protein, high in sugars, low in sugars, and with calorie counts all over the board! Add to that the fact that our soils are deficient in some minerals, and you have hay that is lacking some of the nutrients that your horse needs. You won’t be able to discern the nutritional value of your hay just by looking at it. Take a handful from several bales, put them in a baggie, and take it to your feed store. Ask them to send it out for analysis, and when the results come back, ask for help interpreting it. And then ask for recommendations on how you can improve your horse’s diet.

   5. Feeding corn in the winter helps to keep your horse warm. You have probably notice that I’ve mentioned this frequently. That’s because it is such a prevalent belief, and it’s so wrong. Corn does not keep your horse warm in winter. If you are worried about his ability to keep warm, throw him extra hay. Corn does contain a lot of energy, but it isn’t the kind of energy that keeps horses warm. In fact, oats produce more heating energy than corn, because oats are higher in fiber. But I’m not suggesting that you feed oats to keep your horse warm in winter either, because there is a much better choice. And, as you recall from above, oats are high in sugar. Hay is best for keeping your horse warm because of its high fiber content. Fiber is fermented in the horse’s cecum, not digested in the small intestine, and it is this fermentation process that produces metabolic heat, or heat from within. Skip the corn and throw your horse another flake instead.

   The corn as heat myth is so pervasive that I’ve had to dissuade people from believing that their chickens and goats will keep warmer if fed corn too. I don’t know what the effects are in chickens (other than lowering the overall protein content in the chicken’s diet and decreasing egg production) but it can have serious consequences for goats. I’m not a goat nutritionist so I’ll stop there!

   6. He’s just a picky eater. Is he really, or is there something else going on? Yes, I believe that some horses are picky eaters. They will eat hay from this bale but not that bale. They may prefer textured feed over pellets. But as a whole, most horses enjoy eating. They are prey animals, and all prey animals know the value of eating when food is available. Their ancestors (and their current feral cousin) survived because they ate when they could. When someone tells me that their horse is picky or not a good eater, I start asking questions. First, are there health issues that you know of? Have his teeth been checked and attended to recently? Is there a loose tooth, or an infected tooth, or is he losing teeth? Remember, digestion begins in the mouth, so good dental health is a must. Have your vet or a qualified equine dentist evaluate and treat any issues.

   Next, what are his feeding conditions? Are his buckets clean? Horses have an amazing sense of smell, on par with dogs, and some are put off by rancid smells from dirty buckets. Is it easy for him to reach his feed? If he has to contort his neck to pull hay out of a manger or hay bag, or he can’t reach the bottom of his feed bucket, then he may be easily discouraged. Is he worried about getting a shock from an electric fence if his feed is close to the wires? Does he have competition from herd mates, or is he driven away by his pasture buddies? Some horses learn to stay away from food when others are there so that they don’t get hurt.

   Spend some time watching him eat. Is he concerned about his surroundings? We once boarded a Mustang and her domestic friend. She was adamant about keeping her friend safe. She wouldn’t even let him approach the water tank for the first few days. We finally had to separate them until she settled in.

   Does he take a bite, then move around his stall? Does he go to the hay before eating his concentrated feed? Is he always girthy, even about blanketing, or object when you touch his abdomen? These may be signs of ulcers. Again, I’m not a veterinarian, so I’m not saying this as a diagnosis. If you see troubling or unusual signs though, or if your horse’s eating habits change, talk with your vet.

   We’ve talked about several different beliefs here, but by no means does this cover all of them. You can probably come up with a few things yourself. But here’s the tricky part- you may not even realize that you hold these beliefs. I’d like to give you a challenge: for the next week, think about what you feed your horse and why you feed it. If you can’t come up with answers, it may be that your thinking needs an overhaul. Be willing to ask questions and explore options. Even if you don’t make changes, you will hopefully have a better understanding of the equine diet.