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• Grains grown in
stress conditions
are susceptible to
development of
mycotoxins or to endophytes, such as in fescue hay.
Normal horses tend to be borderline ‘diabetic’ as compared to humans, dogs, and cats, likely as a survival response to handle feast or famine in the wild. Calorie abundance in warm months carried wild horses through lean times in fall and winter. The problem for many domesticated horses is that it is ‘feast’ all the time without working off the calories. When muscle cells contain an abundance of sugar stored as glycogen, the body turns to storing it as fat.
Insulin resistance (IR) is a big problem created by obesity even in horses that are not genetically predisposed to this condition. The more sugar consumed, the more insulin is produced, yet despite ample glucose circulating in the bloodstream, IR causes cells to ‘starve’ with a response to lay down more fat. Insulin resistance is not necessarily a “disease” as much as it is a result of an inappropriate diet.
The effects of obesity in horses are just being understood. As in humans, fat is no longer considered an inert tissue, but one that actively releases inflammatory mediators that affect other body systems. An overabundance of dietary starch and sugar is especially dangerous to a horse with a low-calorie requirement, or those fed large, NSC-rich meals twice daily with long intervening fasting intervals.
HI-CALORIE ALTERNATIVES
Many riders complain about dealing with “too much horse” when on a grain diet, and then the horse intimidates the rider and potentially receives less exercise, creating a vicious cycle.
Try eliminating all grain to see if your horse is more relaxed and better mannered with a longer attention span.
However, it’s an oversimplification to think that all horse diets should eliminate “high” sugar feeds – some horses need relatively high NSC levels to fuel their type and level of performance. Individual horses vary in their blood sugar and insulin responses to a meal. Many recreational horses don’t need the sweet in their feed, yet feeding low NSC is not a ‘one size fits all’ situation. Choice of a commercial low- NSC product should account for more than the just presence or absence of sugars. It is important to evaluate the nutrient content of the total diet rather than only a single ingredient. Converse with your veterinarian to tailor a diet specific for an individual horse.
Alternative supplements are available to keep your exercising horse in good body condition. Fat is a safe and concentrated energy source, well digested by horses. Fat is supplemented in the form of vegetable oil, rice bran, or as a blended component in a commercially formulated high- fat feed. It can be fed in amounts up to 15% of the total diet. Two cups of oil is equivalent to the calories of 3.3 pounds of oats, 2.6 pounds
of corn, or 2.5 pounds of sweet feed. It takes at least three weeks for a horse’s intestinal tract to adjust to the benefits of a high-fat diet.
Complete feed pellets are about one-quarter grain products mixed in a concentrated, readily digestible form of fiber. Such complete feed
supplements are safe to feed in addition to or substituted for some hay.
Beet pulp is a fiber-based energy food to substitute for a portion of hay. Beet pulp, without added molasses, maintains a horse’s glycemic response in a safe range. Up to a pound of beet pulp (dry weight then soaked to volume) can
be fed daily with no adjustments made to the amount of hay fed. Each additional pound of dry beet pulp fed can substitute for 1.5 pounds of hay.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Overfeeding or imbalanced diets are just as serious malnutritional problems as starvation.
It is not necessary to ‘love’ your horse with a feed scoop. Confining a horse to a stall and feeding large meals twice daily while only riding occasionally is not in a horse’s best interest. Horses evolved to graze and nibble rather than stand in front of a feed trough consuming easy- serve meals. Sedentary lifestyles are harder on horses than an individual dietary constituent
– turnout is important for musculoskeletal and mental health. A horse roaming on free-range pasture may travel at least three miles a day while grazing; given the space, a horse may range at least 6-7 miles. The equine digestive system is more motile and functional when a horse moves around as he evolved to do in search of forage.
Body condition of every horse on your property should be observed on a regular basis, with adjustments in feed programs tailored to each individual. Photographs are helpful to compare condition over time. Maintaining your horse as near to a body condition score of 5, on a scale of 1-9, is essential to long-term health and excellence in performance.
Grains grown in stress conditions are susceptible to development of mycotoxins or to endophytes, such as in fescue hay.
VETERINARY VIEWS
Fat is a safe and concentrated energy source. Two cups of oil is equivalent to the calories of 3.3 pounds of oats, 2.6 pounds of corn, or 2.5 pounds of sweet feed.
Beet pulp, without added molasses, is a fiber-based energy food to substitute for a portion of hay and helps maintains a horse’s glycemic response in a safe range.
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