Re: Re: grain- too much? not enough? -long

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> Yeah, I have read her information on beetpulp, and nutrition.  As I
> understand it, she says the stomach cannot be overloaded with beetpulp
> because it empties when full and undigested beetpulp in the intestines
will
> not cause problems.  But I am concerned about the grain that passes with
the
> beetpulp.  It seems to me it could potentially cause problems.

The fiber in the beet pulp slows down gastric emptying, so once the stomach
is full, the horse will stop eating (actually, they'll normally stop eating
before the stomach is totally full, unless they're pigging out on a grain
binge or summat).  So the beet pulp and accompanying grain will sort of
trickle into the small intestine, not dump all at once.  So as long as the
proportion of beet pulp to grain is sufficient (say, 2-4 cups of soaked beet
pulp per cup of grain as a very rough guide), you're fine.  Given the
capacity of the equine stomach, that's probably only about a pound of grain
in the stomach per "load".

Susan G
>