Fructans.

[KathyZ1@aol.com]

My understanding is that growing grass produces the sugar sucrose and in warm 
summer weather when grass growth is rapid it uses the sucrose (a sugar easily 
digested by horses) as quickly as it's produced.  However in spring and fall, 
when days warm up nicely but nights remain chilly, grass growth is slower and 
plants store the sucrose in the form of fructans.  Fructans are a form of 
sugar (one of the few sugars) not easily digested by the enzyme amylase in 
the horse's small intestine and so are shoved into the hind gut where they 
ferment in the form of starch and you all know what can happen then.

I'm new in the horsy world and I've written this from memory, so if I'm wrong 
in any way, please correct me.  
I read voraciously---used to read anything and everything--but since Jan. '99 
 I don't think I've picked up a book or magazine that didn't have the word 
'Horse' somewhere on the cover.  :-)

Kathy Z and Bitsy    ("Thanks anyway Mom, but no fructans or burgers for me, 
please.")