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[RC] [RC] Feed question - PattiFrom: "Barbara McCrary" < bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Horses were designed to digest fiber, increasing forage is the base to maintain/add weight - some need "extra" when we ask them to do more. I just don't see where it is necessary to fill them full of = This can be true if it was grown in virgin or well maintained fields but when growers try to cut costs or place "yield" over "quality" the result is, more often than not, forage that is deficient or excessive in specific nutrients.
I think supplements are a great way for ="">the manufacturers to make money. They've led us to believe that if we = I totally agree with this - especially the "disease of the month" targeted supplements. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be supplemented.
The best (and often cheapest) supplements are those mixed to correct deficiencies or excesses identified from hay analysis results based on known requirements; next best is learning the regional profiles of your area and correcting to that; simplest is just supplying the known basic requirements (
http://nrc88.nas.edu/nrh/ ).
Horses are marvelously tolerant of wide ranges of deficiency/excess as long as they only need to survive. But when we stress them with our expectations, those tolerances begin to narrow - which shows up as poor metabolic recovery and becoming more susceptible to injury. Hay/pasture analysis is cheap insurance ($26-$29 depending where it's done) to protect your horse and it doesn't need to be expensive to correct the major imbalances (and, if you have Excel, you don't need to be a math genius to figure it out - I'll send the spreadsheets to anyone who asks).
Patti K
Vail AZ
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