Equine Nutrition
Selecting the
Right Horse Feed
W
A Horse Owner’s Checklist
ith so many horse feed options available to us today, it can seem like
a daunting task to pick the one that’s best for your horse. While
the decision of choosing a horse feed can sometimes feel difficult and
confusing, there are a few simple questions to ask in order to simplify the
process and ensure you choose the feed that is not only best suited for your
horse, but the highest quality as well.
Does the feed match my horse’s forage?
Forage, such as grass and hay, is the most important part of the horse’s diet. Horses
should consume about 2.0% of their bodyweight in high quality forage per day.
This means that a 1000 lb horse should eat at least 20 lb of grass/hay per day to stay
healthy. The type of forage your horse consumes will impact what kind of feed you
select. If you have access to high quality,
calorie rich forages, then your horse may
do best on a lower calorie commercial
feed or ration balancer (depending on the
Percentage of
horse’s activity level). Horses eating lower
bodyweight
calorie, more mature forages may need to
a horse should
be fed higher calorie, highly fortified grain
consume in forage
mixes to make up for the nutrition lacking
per day
in the forage.
2%
Does this horse feed support my horse’s physiological
state and activity level?
There are many different physiological states that a horse can be in, such as
pregnancy, lactation, growing, performance and maintenance. Horses that are
breeding, growing and performing will have different nutrient requirements than
horses at maintenance. They will require feeds
with higher calorie content, higher protein
and higher vitamin and mineral fortification.
In addition, a horse’s activity level will affect
how he needs to be fed. Performance horses
can be separated into activity levels of light,
moderate, heavy and very heavy. Energy
needs dramatically increase in proportion
with activity levels, so horses in the heavy and
very heavy activity levels will need higher calorie feeds than those working at light
or moderate levels.
Does my horse need a feed formulated for a special
age group?
Horse’s nutritional requirements are greatly affected
by age. Younger horses have much higher nutritional
needs than adult horses, as they are growing and
need a higher plane of nutrition to support bone,
tendon and muscle development. Typical growth
feeds are between 14% and 16% crude protein with
lysine levels of at least 0.8%. They will also have
increased vitamin and mineral fortification. Along
with growing horses, older horses will have special
nutritional needs. Since older horses cannot digest
nutrients as efficiently, senior feeds will often have
higher levels of protein, vitamins and minerals to ensure good senior horse health.
Senior feeds should also be easy to chew and higher in fiber, since many senior
horses have dental problems that lead to them not being able to properly chew and
digest forage.
Does this feed match my horse’s ability to maintain
weight?
Just like people, horses will have different metabolisms. Some horses seem to
stay plump on the air they breathe, while others struggle to maintain weight no
matter how much they are fed. It is vital that a horse’s feed support his individual
metabolism. Easy keepers, or those horses who have no trouble holding good
bodyweight (and may even be overweight), should be maintained on feeds that
are lower in calories so that they do not cause obesity. On the other hand, hard
keeping horses will require commercial feeds that are energy dense and provide
the calories needed to keep weight on these horses. Ideally, feeds for hard keepers
will be high in fats to provide calories that are safer than those from sugar and
starch.
Seminole Wellness® - Selecting the Right Horse Feed - A Horse Owner’s Checklist
Is this feed low starch and sugar?
It is well documented in equine research that diets low in starch and sugar are
safer for horses and reduce the risk of many physical problems. Too much sugar
and starch, or non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), is directly linked to laminits,
insulin resistance, ulcers, colic, diarrhea and behavior issues. Because of these
potential dangers, quality horse feeds will use energy sources coming from fat and
digestible fibers, as these calories are safer and do not bring the health hazards
that soluble carbohydrates do. In general, feeds that are higher in fat and fiber and
lower in sugar and starch are healthier options than those that are high in NSC.
Commercial feeds that have a high content of cereal grains will be much higher
in NSC than those that are based on ingredients such as beet pulp, soybean hulls
and rice bran.
Are the ingredients in the horse feed high quality?
It’s often been said that “you get what you pay for,” and this has never been
truer than in commercial horse feeds. In order to keep feed costs low, many
feed companies will use inferior ingredients in their formulations. An inferior
ingredient is one that is less digestible, which results in a feed that cannot maintain
a horse’s bodyweight or perform as expected. Examples of some lower quality
ingredients that you may find in commercial feeds are oat mill by-products and
distillers dried grains, as well as peanut and rice hulls. Oat mill by-product is
a lower quality fiber ingredient that is not entirely digestible. Distiller dried
grains are a lower quality protein source that is highly variable, so can create
problems with consistent amino acid content and palatability. Soybean meal, soy
hulls, beet pulp, and rice bran are some of the highest
quality ingredients we have for commercial horse feed
formulations, so it is best to choose feeds that have high
levels of these ingredients.
“Youyougetpaywhat
for
Is this feed fixed formula?
There are two methods that feed companies can use for product formulation: least
cost and fixed formula. Least cost horse feeds are those where the company takes
ingredient cost into account when formulating the feed, therefore producing a feed
using the least cost ingredients possible. The problem with least cost formulation
is that feed ingredient prices vary dramatically from week to week. As the cost
of basic ingredients change, so will the formula. While the nutrient guarantees
on the tag won’t change, the ingredient combination in the feed most certainly
will. The horse’s digestive system is very sensitive to abrupt changes, so least cost
formulations can result in the horse going off feed, gas and even colic. Fixed
formula feeds, on the other hand, are made from formulations that do not change
no matter what the ingredient market does. In general, fixed formula feeds are
those that do not have a sewn on tag on the feed bag – the ingredients are printed
directly on the feed bag itself. Also, fixed formulation feeds will not use general
terms such as “grain products” or “molasses products.” They will list each specific
ingredient individually.
Seminole Wellness® - Selecting the Right Horse Feed - A Horse Owner’s Checklist
Are the grains in this horse feed optimally processed?
One of the hallmarks of a good horse feed is that it will provide
the horse’s nutritional needs without creating digestive or
metabolic upset. Processing feeds, such as by pelleting
or extruding, has been consistently shown to decrease
digestive upset in horses while increasing nutrient
digestibility. During the pelleting process, feed
ingredients are ground into fine particles before
being heated by steam. The ingredients in a pelleted
feed are not cooked however, as that would destroy
vitamins and minerals. The steam used is just high
enough in temperature to break up complex starch
molecules, making them more digestible, but not damage any
other nutrients. Extrusion, on the other hand, uses high pressure temperatures
much higher than those used during the pelleting process. Extruded feeds look
very different than your typical horse feed in that they usually are in a kibble
form. Both pelleting and extrusion increase ingredient digestibility, especially
of starch. However, extruding a horse feed can create a few issues. For one,
the high heat used during extrusion tends to destroy some of the feed’s natural
vitamin content, forcing the feed company to add extra amounts of these vitamins
to compensate. This extra vitamin supplementation adds increased cost to the
end consumer. Additionally, extruded feeds have been shown to actually have
a negative effect on the horse by increasing the glycemic response to that feed.
The glycemic response is a measure of the rise in a horse’s blood glucose after a
meal. This can be detrimental to horses that are sensitive to changes in their blood
glucose levels, such as those suffering from insulin resistance, Cushing’s disease or
EPSM. Also, this high glycemic response can lead to behavior problems such
as hyperactivity. To further complicate matters, extruded feeds are less
dense than other feed types, so a scoop of an extruded feed
may be equal in weight to only half a scoop of a pelleted
feed. This means that you may need to feed more of an
extruded feed to get the same amount of nutrition.
While extruded feeds show promise, at
this current time no one has
shown that there are any
benefits that cannot be
found in a pelleted feed.
Beth Stelzleni, M.S., PAS
Seminole Feed®
For more information call Seminole Feed® Equine Nutrition Help Line
800-683-1881 or visit www.SeminoleFeed.com
Seminole Wellness® - Selecting the Right Horse Feed - A Horse Owner’s Checklist