Ridecamp: [RC] Horse Feed (from Barb Peck)

Barb Peck bpeck@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Bob:
  Yes, some horse people do look at the ingredients
of commercial horse feeds.  I'm one of them.
Since I live in a high iron area,  I use low iron
commerical grains.  I had to call all the grain companies
to get thier COA (certificate of analysis) and beleive me, the
undavertised iron in vaious grinas is astounding.
from 150mg/kg  to 750mg/kg.

 And, I've found that ALOT the nice smelling lovely green hay, may often be very imbalanced (looks are deceiving)..... and if that's all the horse is getting, then it's like you eating a good tasting, but nutritionally deficient bad meal every day for months (guaranteed you'll be lacking something with that diet).

  I balance to the iron, as that's the element out of whack in my hay. (my hay comes off our own property, and were in the NE with acid rain.. lots of iron overlaod here).
I do a hay analysis , $28.00
from Litchfiled Analytical (Michigan), then calculate what's in
the grian, then run it all thru a computer program i have which does the conversions and viola! I know what supplement to buy
in order to balance the macro and micro minerals.
So, I'm not shooting in the dark, or worse... imbalancing the diet MORE.
  From what I can see,  the daily requirements, and the
ratios bewteen the minerals is important, as some work synergistically and some are antagonists.

  I initially hired Dr. Elenor Kellon (Pa.) to go over my numbers and I used her ratios.

ANd like people.. somehorses can perform well on a deficient diet, but others will show vague symptoms.
But usually, not many people look at the diet first.

Barb





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