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The rice bran you were feeding is an excellent sourse of energy (fat!).
Perhaps your horse learned to mobilize fat for energy (as opposed to
carbohydrate or protein) and when you took him off it he had to re-learn
how to utilize the other energy sources. Incidentally, protein is the
"least productive" energy source, and the most expensive in the long run.
I'm not a nutritionist, this is just what I have learned over time ... I
also have a hard- keeper who is a nutritional challenge!
If this were my horse, I would start by having my veterinarian pull a
chemistry profile, and a CBC to look for imbalances or abnormalities in the
blood that would make your horse poop out so quickly. It can tell you a
lot and is a good way to begin.
Good luck and happy riding!
Shannon Weston L.V.T.
Laingsburg, MI
----------
> Me again:}
>
> Next question is about high protein for high performance horses. Blue
> started running low on energy when I started working him on getting his
> heart rate up and such. So I increased his feed and it helped for a
while,
> but once again he hit a plateu, this is a very fit horse with resting
heart
> rate of 27-28 and great P&R's after a big mountain pass. None of the
other
> horses heart rates are ever near him at our little P&R checks at the top
of
> the mountains and I have a hard time getting him over 44 bpm. Anyway, I
> decided that since I don't feed alfalfa much, less the 50% of his ration,
> that maybe I should get a better feed for him so I found some sweet feed
> with a 16% protein ratio. He was a little spooky today, which is rare for
> him since he is very bomb proof, so the new feed may be doing that to him,
> but I didn't see a remarkable improvement in his energy level. He gets
the
> following 2x's a day, about 5lbs of hay, 5 lbs of lite pellets and 3 lbs
of
> the sweet feed I mentioned with about a 3/4's cup of corn oil added. His
> weight is good, though I just got it up to where I like to see my horses
in
> the past month. He tends to be a hard keeper and was thin when we bought
> him last january. I put the weight on him with rice bran and come to
think
> of it his engergy level was pretty good on the rice bran also. But the
> stuff is so expensive.
>
> His work schedule is 4 days a week or every other day, with 2 days back to
> back. He does about 6 miles each work day with about 2 miles of it in
> mountain and hill climbing. We are currently trotting at a slow jog
about 3
> miles of the trail also, walking the hills and short breaks at the walk.
He
> recovers great too. I started conditioning him seriously in June but he
had
> a lot of kid base miles on him before that (kid base miles means a lot of
> long walking trail rides and gymkhanas). I am planning on doing his first
15
> miler this weekend. He did it before I was seriously conditioning him (we
> got sorta lost:}) and he really ran out of gas that time. He is 10 years
> old and in good weight, well cared for and healthy looking.
>
> Any ideas gang?
>
>
>
>
> Cheryl Newbanks
> ~~^** Just In Time Ranch
> ~~}_ _~~ /\| Buckeye, AZ
> ( )__, ) ~ horsetrails@inficad.com
> // \\
> \\ //
> ** **
>
>
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