Re: New to Nutrition

Susan F. Evans (suendavid@worldnet.att.net)
Mon, 20 Jan 1997 13:04:20 -0800

Hi everyone,

A week or so ago Wendy put out a very good post regarding nutrition, and
of course you just know I have to throw in my two cents. For the most
part I definitely agree with Wendy, just a few comments here and
there...

> HAY
>
> A horse needs about 2-3 % of its body weight in hay each day.
> So, a 1000 pound horse needs 20 to 30 pounds of hay.

Well, I disagree just a bit. A horse is able to consume 2-3% of his
body weight daily in feed. This doesn't mean he requires that it all be
hay. Some horses cannot or will not eat 3%, either they're too busy
out working, or they just get bored with it and walk away, or they will
only eat enough to satisfy most of their hunger and then would rather go
goof around with their neighbor in the next pen. Cal Poly regularly
has horses that fall into one of these categories. Some horses will
consume a full 3%, especially horses that are pregnant, lactating, etc,
because their endocrine system is telling them to eat everything that
doesn't run away. However alot of horses, including endurance horses,
just won't eat much over 2 or 2.5%. That may not seem like a big
difference, but in a 1000 pound horse, that's an extra 5 pounds of
food he's not eating and that can make a big difference, especially if
the five pounds he's not eating is grain.

It is possible, and in some cases advisable, to balance a ration in
which the horse consumes only around 1-1.5% of his BW daily in the form
of hay---such as in the case of a horse that is really working hard and
is having difficulty maintaining weight on his present diet, and is
therefore requiring additional concentrated energy, like grain or fat.
In these cases, hay's role in the diet should be primarily to provide
sufficient bulk (fiber) to maintain gut integrity. In other words, to
keep the mail movin'. To be safe, a horse should get 1.5% of his body
weight in hay, but he certainly does not require 2-3% daily in the form
of hay.

Most horses are fed too much protein and not enough energy. Although
alfalfa is fairly high in energy (2.0 Mcal/kg) it is also very high in
protein. If you increase a horse's hay ration to put more weight on
him, you're also providing alot of protein, which isn't such a great
idea. If you're feeding 20 to 30 pounds of a grass hay, you're not
feeding excessive protein, but you're also not feeding enough energy and
you haven't left enough room for him to eat anything else which will
supply the extra energy he needs.

> No you don't need to know the exact weight of your horse. It's fun though.

I agree you don't have to know to the exact pound what your horse
weighs, but if you're going to try and figure out what 1, 2 or 3% of his
body weight is, knowing the body weight in the first place is a good
thing. Also, horses can lose or gain a fair amount of weight before it
shows up visually. Like knowing the horse's normal resting heart rate,
respiration and temperature, I think knowing where your horse's weight
is from week to week or at least on a monthly basis, is a good thing to
occasionally monitor. Also, worming dosages and other things like drugs
(though these are in the vet's realm) are based on weight and a visual
guess is very often pretty far off no matter how experienced you are.
Weight tapes are reasonably accurate, cheap and easy to use. Just
another part of management, but that's just me.

> * Increase the good grass hay till you find the horse is leaving
> some behind at each meal.
>
> * Add grain to the diet. Which one(s) depends on your horse and what
> is available locally. Start with a pound per feeding.

If you're already feeding enough hay at each feeding so that he's
leaving some behind, he may not eat the grain. I know, most horses
prefer grain over hay, but not all of them---I've had several (including
one right now who's driving me nuts) that will clean up every last scrap
of hay, then VERY grudgingly eat grain. The only way to put weight on
her is to limit the hay so that by the time she finishes her hay, she is
still hungry enough to eat the grain. If I fed her all the hay she
wanted, she would never touch the grain and would remain underweight, a
bad thing in a lactating broodmare.

Also, if your horse isn''t used to grain and you do start feeding it, I
think a pound per feeding at first is too much. Probably alot of horses
could get this much and have no problems, but others may get an upset
tummy or have other problems on this much of a change. Different types
of feed require different populations of bugs in the gut to digest it
and it takes some time for the digestive system to adapt to the new
diet. The recommended rule of thumb in the industry is not to increase
grain by more than 1/4 pound per DAY (not per feeding), with no more
than a one pound increase per week. That is, you can start out with a
1/4 pound per day and gradually increase it so that you're feeding one
pound a day by the end of the first week, two pounds by the end of the
second week and so on. Hay increases shouldn't be more than 1/2 - 3/4
pound increase per day, especially if you're feeding or adding a richer
hay, such as alfalfa or clover. I realize these are very conservative
increases, but it's much better to err on the side of caution,
especially since a bad case of colic or founder is a really lousy way of
finding out your horse doesn't tolerate dietary changes well. I used to
work in an equine surgery and it was really sad the numbers of horses
that showed up for colic surgery because their owners had innocently
made a sudden (often minor) change in the horse's diet, thinking it was
perfectly OK. You wouldn't suddenly increase a horse's exercise regimen
without allowing his system to adapt first, the same principle applies
to his digestive system.

These gradual changes should also apply whenever possible when changing
from one TYPE of feed to another---for example, you've decided you don't
like Bertha's Barnyard Delight anymore and now you want to feed
Grandma's Galloping Goodies. Instead of suddenly changing from one feed
to another---even though the feed labels may look fairly similar---you
should take a week or two to switch from one feed to the other by mixing
in a cup or so of the new feed to the old and gradually increasing the
percentage until you've phased out all of the old feed. I realize this
is sometimes difficult to do if you totally run out of grain, go to buy
a load and find out SURPRISE, the feed store doesn't carry Bertha's
Barnyard Delight anymore, but ideally, making changes gradually is a
very good management practice.

Finally, I agree totally with Wendy (and others on the list) that good
basic nutrition should be applied first before getting tricky with all
the fancy-shmancy stuff. There are plenty of good basic nutrition books
available, like Feeding to Win II, that cover the basic stuff and are
very worthwhile reading.

Good luck!

Susan Evans