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The Man Who Listens to Horses
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Diet and Nutrition
This is a very slippery slope, as anyone who has tried to make sense out of it can testify. We are just getting
into the concept of how we can ensure that our horses are getting, or have access to, the kind of options they would have available to them in the wild, which is the foundation for their genetic structure. We have begun the complex process of trying to determine not only the best, most natural feed combinations, but the best methods
to ensure that our horses have access to what they need, and, at least to some extent, can also pick and choose what they feel
they need based upon their individual conditions. As is highlighted throughout this site, for us,
it's not about what we humans think, or what is most convenient for us. It's about how we can
replicate as closely as possible the health and happiness our horses would have if they
were in the wild taking care of themselves. See how we're feeding today, below:
The Best Source of Information I've Found So Far!
http://www.naturalhorsetalk.com/documents/FeedingNaturally.pdf
http://www.naturalhorsetalk.com/documents/EquineNutritionMythsandFacts.pdf
http://www.naturalhorsetalk.com/documents/ReadingtheLabelswhatyouneedtoknow.pdf
These are three articles by Lisa Ross-Williams, editor of Equine Wellness, NaturalHorseTalk.com,
and host of the internet radio show IfYourHorseCouldTalk.com. I've been searching, searching,
searching and trying different things until I'm crazy! And Lisa has seriously put it all together! Diet and nutrition is her passion, her focus. No matter how you keep your
horses, you must
read these articles.
I feel we are now giant steps closer to my goal of seeing our horses live happily
and healthily into their thirties and forties.
How We Are Feeding
I’ve been researching, searching, digging, and asking whyyyy for months. We've moved this way
and that several times, but I think it’s finally coming together and I thought you might like to
know where we are as of April 1, 2008.
Not long after we first acquired horses, we were told the following:
1. Feed free-choice grass hay around the clock.
That's good advice, on the surface, because, in the wild, horses are moving and eating 12-18 hours a day. Their tiny tummies (comparatively speaking) need to be eating little bits at a time, pretty much all the time. The problem is that even the best farm-grown, fertilized grass hay will not give your horse all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients she needs and can acquire on her own in the wild, because of the way it's grown and fertilized, and the type of soil in which it's grown (re-cycled!). If you could feed three or four different types of grass hay (alfalfa is not a grass hay) from different parts of the country, every day, you could get much closer to the mixture of native grasses horses in the wild have access to, but who can afford the time, effort, and cost of doing that? So there are issues in feeding only one grass hay (in our case Bermuda). It does supply the needed virtually continuous roughage that a horse requires to keep his internal systems working properly, and gives the horse the continuous flow of food to that tiny tummy (as opposed to two huge tubs or grain or pellets morning and night), but if that's all she's getting, there are vitamins, nutrients, minerals, antioxidants, and EFAs (the omegas 3,6 & 9) that she could scrounge for herself in the wild but will be missing in the Bermuda we are feeding.
2. Feed a "condiment-sized" serving of alfalfa
Lisa Ross-Williams says think of alfalfa as a condiment, like salt, pepper, hot sauce, or salad dressing. Just a taste, for the variety, protein, and different nutrients. Only a taste because alfalfa is way higher in calcium than your horse needs and the calcium/phosphorous ratio is way out of whack. It's even worse here in the southwest quadrant of the United States because of the high alkalinity of the soil. I have a stone the size of a cantaloupe that Dr. Matt removed from a horse who was being fed 100% alfalfa. It's a terrific reminder to keep alfalfa in small portions. Our boys and girls get a total of four small flakes a day divided among six horses, scattered in maybe ten small piles, morning and evening, so everybody is assured of getting their fair share.
3. We were also told to feed a half scoop of Strategy for each horse, morning and evening
This was the vet's way of adding nutrients, minerals, and vitamins to the diet, but ultimately, as I dug deeper, it became apparent that this was not the best way because I have found that virtually all pelleted "total feeds" have things in them that horses would never have in the wild and shouldn't have (based upon all the reading I've done) in their domestic feed. Every natural "expert" I've read agrees that a horse's sugar intake (NSC, which means non-structured carbohydrate) should be 10% or less. Hay or feed that is higher than 10% sugar is setting your horse up for all sorts of potential problems. Oats and corn, once in the body, are very much like eating pure sugar. And molasses is pure sugar. Just Google "NSC Horse Feeds" and you'll find plenty to read on the subject. Then there is the issue of processed fats, which in a bag of feed must be processed to keep the fats from going rancid... BUT the processing, the heat processing and hydrogenation, mutates the fat causing all sorts of free radicals in the body, in effect "rusting" our horse's veins as Dr. Dan, the natural horse vet puts it. Those same mutated fats "rust" our veins as well, which is why neither our horses nor ourselves should eat processed fats. Fats, themselves, are not bad. In fact they're good. It's what the manufacturer does to them to "stabilize" them that is bad for our health. Kathleen and I stick to cold-pressed virgin olive oil.
So, when I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet, to start digging into nutrition, there we were, with our horses quite used to getting a treat every morning (the molasses/grain based Strategy) in order to intake some of the vitamins/minerals/nutrients not found in their farm-grown hay. These vitamins/minerals/nutrients are all available as supplements, but how were we to get these supplements down the horses (most of the supplements available for purchase are in powder form) without something to mix them with, something these powders will stick to and thus wind up willingly going down the gullets of our horses... without a bunch of NSCs and processed fats going down as well. This has been my problem, and my search, for quite some time now. Grains won't work. Too much sugar. And every processed feed I've found is either based heavily on grains, or has processed fats, or molasses, or all of the above.
But at last, I've found it. A brand new feed called Safe Starch from Triple Crown that is a complete feed. But it’s not a pellet, and has no grains or molasses, and is totally under the safe recommended 10% NSC (sugar). It’s a “chopped forage” in a bag. At first I was put off... too bulky... weird looking... and... well, not a pellet. But I finally opened the bag and tried it. A full scoop, loose, not packed, weighs only 13+ ounces. So even though it’s a complete balanced feed, it can also be a great base, or “carrier” for powdered supplements, which is what I’ve been looking for. The main base is chopped Orchard and Timothy, held loosely together with a touch of Soybean oil, and mixed with a vitamin/mineral premix and Triple Crown's Equimix nutrients. All guaranteed less than 10% NSC.
For folks who cannot feed hay plus the proper vitamins/minerals/etc., this looks like the best alternative I’ve seen. It’s real hay, thus the proper kind of chewing/roughage/etc... plus it contains all the stuff the horses would be nibbling for themselves if in the wild.
And for those of us who only want a small amount to use as a safe "carrier" to serve as an “appetizer” over which to sprinkle vitamins, Omega 3s, antioxidants and the like, it seems to me to be a terrific choice. No sugars, grains, or molasses. Only a bit of processed Soybean oil, the mutating of which can be countered with a good Omega 3 supplement, and/or a good antioxidant like grapeseed extract, or vitamin E, etc. And we can continue with whatever supplements we like the best for each of our boys and girls because, at less than a pound in the morning and evening, they aren’t getting enough of Triple Crown’s vitamin/mineral/etc to cause any concern or conflict with the supplements I prefer to tailor for each of our horses.
AND ALL SIX OF OURS LIKE IT! We have transitioned completely from Strategy pellets,
and all of our horses are making happy plates, left nothing in their tubs. Heretofore they have been
leaving at least some of the powders unless I gooped it all up with olive oil. Now I don’t need to do
that. I can use stabilized flax, or chia seeds, and powdered vitamins/minerals, etc and they all stick
to the chopped forage and get eaten. Yipee!
The recommended Safe Starch serving for a 1000 pound horse (as a complete feed) is between 10 to 20 pounds a day, with the norm being on the mid-high side of that “to keep horses in good shape.” So, figure 15 pounds as the average recommended serving per day (18-20 full scoops) if using as a complete feed. But, again, we are using less than a scoop, morning and night, or approximately 20 ounces for the day, approximately 8% of the vitamin/mineral mix the manufacturer recommends if using as as a complete feed; so I’m not at all concerned about over-dosing the vitamins/minerals/ etc. when my stuff is added. Only our old guy Skeeter, and young Miss Mouse get a bit more, with a little rice bran added.
Here’s the way we're feeding at the moment
Morning
For everyone except Skeeter and Mouse, a full scoop of Safe Starch chopped forage. I start with 1/2 scoop, put in all the supplements, then top off the scoop with Safe Starch.
Skeeter and Mouse get a couple of scoops of Safe Starch with maybe an ounce of extra virgin olive oil mixed in to ensure that the various supplements will adhere to the safe starch and for a bit of added fat (safe fat). Skeeter because he's twenty-one and has some arthritis issues, thus he's getting a glucosomine supplement in addition to everything else. Mouse because she's young and growing.
For everybody: A quarter cup of Omega Horseshine for omega 3 (for all the reasons we need omega 3, and to
balance the omega 6 in the sunflower seeds (see below), and to counter the mutated free radicals in
the processed soybean oil in the Safe Starch.
1/2 ounce of Dr. Dan’s Bug Check, which is primarily grapeseed extract and
garlic. Grapeseed extract is one of the best anti-oxidants around. Garlic helps repel
flies. And it works!
1/2 ounce of Dr. Dan's JAO vitamin/mineral supplement
1/2 cup black oil sunflower seeds per horse, morning and night. For variety and protein. Sunflower seeds are very high in Omega 6 whcih should be balanced no less than 4:1 with Omega 3 (4 Omega 6 to 1 Omega 3). I try to keep it 1:1 or better. I'm told that one can have as much omega 3 as desired, but too much unbalanced omega 6 can cause inflammation within the body.
Skeeter almost a pound of rice bran morning and night, for added weight control. And Mouse gets 1/4 pound of rice bran morning and night. Just topped onto the Safe Starch "chopped salad". Rice Bran seems to me to be a near-perfect supplement for weight becasue there is nothing at all wrong with it... EXCEPT it has way too much phosophorous throwing the calcium-phosphorous ration all out of balance. I'm told that when the ratio drops below 1:1 (with calcium on the lower side), then the body starts withdrawing calcium from the skeletal system to make up the difference. So we use Triiple Crown's "Calcium Added" Rice Bran and can therefore use as much or little as we choose without worrying about the calcium/phosphorous ratio getting out of whack.
And, of course, a “condiment-sized” serving of alfalfa... and free-choice Bermuda
scattered all the way around our entire pasture in 60-70 different piles. The way we determine free-choice
quantity
is: when they leave some, we put out a little less. When they
make happy plates,
we put out a little more.
In season, they all get one or two tangerines and a few twigs and
leaves from
our two tangerine trees.
Often they get a few pine branches, maybe once a week. And an
occasional dried tumble weed in season. They also like dandelions, which is good in the
Springtime as they grow everywhere!
Evening:
The same as morning except that the only supplements fed in the evening are the Omega Horseshine,
the sunflower seeds, and the rice bran for Skeeter and Mouse.
And, of course, the “condiment-sized” serving of alfalfa... and free-choice Bermuda
scattered over our entire pasture in 60-70 different piles.
In addition,we keep Dr. Dan's Red Cal free choice salt and mineral in a granular form. Horses cannot get enough of what they need from blocks. Their tongues do not have the "sand papper" quality of cows. Dr. Dan's is not affected by rain. Just pout off the water and the remainder in the bucket is as good as ever.
Whew!
I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes. So far so good.
Here’s the link to Triple Crown’s Safe Choice (and Rice Bran), if you’d like to check the ingredients and analysis: http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/safestarchfeeding.php
Omega Fields Stabilized Flax Supplement Omega Horseshine
Dr. Dan, the Natural Horse Vet's site is:
http://www.naturalhorsevet.net
This is where we get the Bug Check, JAO, and Joint Check products mentioned above:
Chia Seeds
The best source of Omega 3 on the planet. We might return to this product. Pretty expensive.
http://www.chiaseedandoil.com/faqs.htm
One other note. Emerging research regarding fat in a horse's diet is paralleling the studies for
humans with similar results. Fat is necessary for both of us... but only if it's unrefined,
unprocessed, un-hydrogenated fat. It's the processing that manufacturers do to "preserve"
the fat that is killing us and our horses, the chemically mutated fat. There are good articles
on this subject and on the need for antioxidants, and why, at Dr. Dan's The Natural Horse Vet website, link below.
http://www.naturalhorsevet.net
Stay tuned.
