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FEEDING HORSES - SOME THOUGHTS
Why do we spend billions trying to get ourselves to be thin,
while we spend millions to make our horses fat?
The other day I saw something discussing a low-sugar (lowcarb)
grain product. First of all, grain is mostly sugar in the
form of digestible simple sugars. What holds it together is the
non-digestible complex sugar called fiber. With this low-carb
product, the horse owner is spending money buying grain that
the horse gets less energy out of. It's like chewing cardboard.
Spending more for less! Hey here's an idea&& feed less
grain, get the same result, and save money! In other words,
the BEST low-carb grain is NO grain.
Three thoughts about feeding horses: 1) Grain is a
supplement and should be fed to horses plowing fields,
running the Pony Express, or pulling the buckboard 10 miles
into town daily for supplies. 2) Horses are continual eaters
and NOT meal takers. 3) Feed grass hay using the hay net
from http://busyhorse.com/ to reduce the amount they eat and
stretch it out over the day.
All grains are known as "concentrate rations" because they
concentrate calories into a small space. It was developed for
the working horse that used more calories than it could
consume through pasture and hay. It was not available to
most horse owners until after 1950 when gas tractors made
harvesting easier and the interstate road system made
distribution possible. So graining your horse is a relatively
new concept in the thousands of years we have worked
together. While there are exceptions, most horses today
need no grain.
Horses have no gall bladder to store bile, a necessary
digestive juice made in the liver. Most animals you know
including man, cat, dog, cow, pig, and goat have a gall
bladder. When they take a meal, the stored bile in the
bladder is expressed into the digestive system. The
continuously eating horse is constantly secreting the bile
into the intestine and therefore needs no gall bladder.
Want proof? If your horse is off feed for 24 hours, look at
his gums or the white part of the eye. They will be yellow
with bile (jaundice).
Hay has sugar content too (another discussion) and is
often inhaled by the horse. With nothing left to do, he will
chew the barn down. So he is given more hay and gets
fat. The hay net produced by the owner of
http://busyhorse.com/ makes the horse work at getting
the hay. The horse stay busy, less hay is fed and little
hay is left on the ground (both saving money). The horse
loses weight and actually appears happier.
Have you noticed that a thin and fit horse has few
veterinary problems while the overweight and unfit horse
has several medical conditions?
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