Supplementing horses

[meg09]

When should and shouldnt you supplement your horse? Heres a bit of backround, I started seriously riding horses when I was 12. I got a job as a caretaker at 13. Took care of 30-40 horses feed, watered, treated and medicated horses- upon vets orders; trained horses upon trainers instructions as she did not ( could not not actually) at the time ride. Im turning 24 soon and since I was roughly 16/17 questioned the people that mentored me; their ability to properly feed horses- my reasons: the foals she bred were a good size at birth then tiny growing up. Several of the yearlings look like the 6 month old foals Ive seen at other stables. As adults, its almost as if they arent filled out, I thought at first it was genetics. Maybe I should describe what is fed. I understand horses need different things at different stages of life. The foals are weaned at 4mos; where in my opinion I would keep them there for six. After they are weaned (4mos) they are on to hay: forage or oat and alfalfa, but most times poor quality. Thats what they get until they are into their 20's then they get alfalfa cubes or pellets, rice brand and senior- which keeps weight on very nicely. My biggest concern was the foals though. When do you and when should you supplement. I currently have a 23 yr old Arab mare, 20 yr old Arab gelding soon to be 21, a 17 yr old draft/ quarter cross, and a soon to be 16 yr old quarter horse mare. They get: alfalfa in the morning and either forage at night usually in summer and oat hay in winter then I also will get grass hay instead of alfalfa in summer- since its so hot and the alfalfa is really rich. I also feed a mix of senior or a&m( alfalfa molasses) and rice brand, as well as carrots sugar cubes and apples- again as treats lol. So when should I supplement and I would like to know how to properly feed a foal? ( the foals at other ranches just look so much better than my former trainers- former because I moved) Thanks you guys I really appreciate it.

 

[sawfish99]

Wow. There is a lot going on in those questions.

First, I will applaud you for questioning things for yourself. I would strongly encourage you to look at http://www.equinesciencesacademy.com/ It could help you a lot in your endeavor to gain more knowledge about horses. However, if you just wanted to know more about nutrition, you could just audit the Nutrition course without taking all of them.

It sounds like the feeding is very complicated already. First, eliminate ALL the sugars - sugar cubes, molasses, sweet feeds, etc. Then stop the alfalfa and stick with grass hay. Use timothy hay pellets to feed the Rice Bran if needed. Eliminate all processed feeds. Once you have done all that, figure out what you are trying to target with supplements. I feed flax seed (bought whole and ground each feeding) for additional oil in the diet.

For the foals, longer time nursing will improve rate of growth through life. That is true for many species.

 

[meg09]

Thankyou! I will get reading that article/ site. I should have clarified the alfalfa molasses and sugar cubes are only a once in while treat, I mean very once in a while. Now why is it best to feed rice bran With alfalfa pellets/cubes. And can you tell my why grass hay is better than alfalfa? Im just wondering and am going to read up on the link you sent. I would like to be more knowledgeable overall, so thank you very much.

 

[sawfish99]

To clarify, I recommend feeding the rice bran with Timothy hay pellets, not alfalfa. My horses will eat rice bran by itself, but are much more likely to eat rice bran with the hay pellets.

As for the alfalfa, there is a lot of contradictory evidence for and against feeding alfalfa. The real question with any feed is, why are you feeding it. What do you think the horse is getting from it and how did you determine that?

Here is a link supporting alfalfa: http://blog.feedxl.com/alfalfa-a-low-sugar-forage

While here is an article against:
8. Lechtenberg, V.L., D.A. Holt, and H.W. Youngberg. 1971. Diurnal
variation in nonstructural carbohydrates, In Vitro digestibility, and
leaf to stem ratio of Alfalfa. Agron. J. 63:719.
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was sampled four times daily during
first and second growths and eight times daily for three days durin
g third growth in order to detect diurnal changes in carbohydrate
constituency, in vitro digestibility, and leaf to stem ratio. The
implications of these changes with regard to forage yield and
nutritional value were considered. Reducing sugars and sucrose were
removed from freeze-dried, ground material by alcohol extraction.
Starch in the residue was hydrolyzed by takadiastase. Ferricyanide,
resorcinol, and phenol-sulfuric acid procedures were used to
quantitatively assay sugars in the extracts. Glucose and fructose
percentages increased lightly but significantly from 6:00am to 12:00
noon and declined to 6:00pm in second and third growth alfalfa. About
three times as much glucose as fructose was present. Sucrose comprised
less than 3% of the dry matter, but varied considerably diurnally,
generally increasing from 6:00am to 6:00pm. Leaf starch increased
from 10.2 to 20.3% of the dry matter during daylight hours, most of
the icnrease occurring between 9:00am and 3:00pm. Stem starch
remained between 4 and 5% of the stem dry matter. In general, all
nonstructural carbohydrates studied began to accumulate after 6:00am.
Hexoses peaked first in leaves followed by sucrose and then starch.
These were depleted in the ame order in the afternoon and at night.
Peak levels of glucose and sucrose occurred In stems later than in
leaves. Leaf stem ratio increased from 1.1 to 1.5 between morning and
evening and declined at night. In vitro dry matter digestibility
averaged 1.6% higher at 6:00 pm than at 6:00am.

==========================

If we knock off the 3% sucrose just to make math easier, and figure
alfalfa has 75% glucose, 25% fructose, an average kg of 10% sugar
alfalfa is providing 75 grams of pure glucose. A kg of fescue with
the same % sugar (10%) would have on the average 14% glucose, 40%
sucrose. The sucrose is only 50% glucose, other half fructose, so
total potential glucose yield is 30% vs the 75% in alfalfa. This
means you would have to feed a 25% sugar fescue to get the same
glucose load as a 10% sugar alfalfa!

Obviously these are only averages, there may be methodology problems,
the numbers aren't written in stone, etc, etc, etc, but differences
in exactly what the sugars are that are reported as "sugar" is very
important and may very well explain why some hays that shouldn't be a
problem based on their sugar content do turn out to cause problems
unless they are soaked.