RE: [RC] was red cells, now green cells - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.
The chlorophyll that makes green things
green isn’t well absorbed in the small intestine, so that’s why it’s
still more or less green on the back end. Plus, horses don’t
produce as much bile as other omnivore or carnivore species, and so have less ‘additives’
that turn poop brown. Color is important for judging the quality of the
forage---if the plant at top quality is supposed to be green, then probably a
sample that’s brown and musty looking isn’t all that great a
sample. But you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) compare one “really
green” forage (ie, alfalfa) to another species that isn’t naturally
all that green (ie, grain hay) and decide the alfalfa must be better because it’s
the greener of the two. You have to compare apples to apples and oranges
to oranges. Even then, greener isn’t always better---the ideal
grain hay is a nice lightish greeny gold color with nice, plump grain
heads. Too green and it’s too immature.
I realize this isn’t much take-home
info to answer your question. I guess the best answer is to establish for
each type of forage what the ideal sample looks like (fresh smelling, clean,
plump, not too mature, not too much infiltration with Other Bad Stuff) and try
not to wander too far from that ideal. Kinda like choosing horses, for
that matter.
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS
From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ed Kilpatrick Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006
6:03 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] was red cells, now
green cells
ok, lets talk about green cells and what they mean, if
anything. i am talking about the green in grass, hay, and alfalfa,
chlorophyll (sp?) i have noticed that most of what a horse eats
comes out about as green as it went in, so what does that say about the
nutritional value of forages? most of you probably want hay that
looks green and fresh, but just how important is color in relation to
nutrition? cowboy ed
