How many times have you read advertisements for commercial grain mixes that claim they provide everything your horse needs, can balance virtually any hay, eliminate the need for other supplements, avoid over supplementation? Can they really do that?
If you're going to put blind faith in your favorite company's assurances, turn the page. This article isn't for you.
Put It To Use
- Start with your hay and determine what minerals are low and what ratios (calcium:phosphorus, magnesium:zinc, zinc:copper) need supplementing.
If you want to take a hard look at what feeds can and can't do for your horse-and possibly understand why you're not getting the optimal results you hoped for from your feeding program-read on.
We've been conditioned by advertising to think of a horse's diet in terms of his grain mix. If asked what they feed, most people automatically say Brand X, Y% protein. This is fine, but it ignores a large part of the horse's diet, his hay and/or pasture. Hay and pasture are much more than just fiber, fillers or something to chew on. A significant proportion of your horse's nutrition, if not most of it, comes from this source.
In past issues, we've looked at many of the most readily available vitamin and mineral supplements to see how they fared against hay analyses from across the country. There were a few supplements and grain mixes that stood out as outperforming the others, but not one could correct all the deficiencies and imbalances in every hay. Fact is, there's simply so much variation between hays that it's impossible for any single supplement or commercial grain to do it all.
What's in There?
There's no way to tell if your feeding program is adequate in protein/calories and balanced in minerals unless you actually know what those levels are. For the hay and pasture, you have to actually analyze or, second best, contact your local agricultural extension agent or state university to see if regional analysis figures are available. For the grain, unless you analyze it, you have to rely on the label information and there are many pitfalls here.
Some feeds, even those claiming to be "premium," list only the minimum information, which means fiber, fat, crude protein, calcium and phosphorus. The ingredients list may be much longer, including the various base ingredients as well as added vitamins and minerals, but without knowing how much is in there you are totally in the dark as to whether or not it is appropriate for your situation.
The Intelligent Use Of Grains
The hype about supplemental grain mixes being essential to providing the horse the nutrition he needs has led to far too many horses being fed grain than actually need it. This in turn has created a significant problem with obesity with associated foot problems, joint overload and developmental problems in young horses.
There's also a problem with how people view their horse's "body image." Overweight horses have become so commonplace, many think that's how they're supposed to look. While the "hot" breeds, as well as hard-keeper individuals in other breeds, may need some grain to hold their weight even when not in work, for most horses, high-calorie grain mixes should be fed in extremely limited amounts, if at all. Below are some general guidelines, starting points to help you keep your horse properly nourished but without risking excess body weight.
- Maintenance: 1.5 to 2.0% of body weight (16.5 to 22 lbs. for an 1,100-lb. horse) of an 8.7+% protein hay for the lower rate of feeding, or a 6.5% protein hay for the higher rate, plus a mineral supplement to match the hay with 5 to 7 grams/day of additional lysine
- Light Work: Free-choice hay or miniumum of 2 to 2.5% of body weight, depending on how easily the horse holds his condition. Minimum hay protein 8.2%. Mineral supplement to match. If hay protein is less than 8.2%, feed a combination protein and mineral supplement, 28 to 30% protein with 2 to 3% lysine.
- Moderate-To-Heavy Work: When horses are working too hard to hold their weight with even free-choice, properly supplemented hay, begin adding a high-quality commercial mix, beginning at 1 to 2 lbs. twice a day, increase as needed to hold a good weight.
Is Your Horse A Good Weight?
Except for pregnant mares, who should be carrying a little extra body fat going into the last stages of pregnancy, the healthiest weight for your horse is a body condition score of 5 to 5.5 on the Heineke scale. The criteria for this body condition are:
When a nutrient is listed on the label under guaranteed analysis, the manufacturer must make sure the feed actually measures up to that number because state feed officials will be checking.
The longer the list of guaranteed nutrients, the higher the manufacturer's commitment to quality likely is, and the better you will be able to tell if the feed is going to fulfill all your needs. Unfortunately, there are still a few problems. One is that labels only list minimum amounts in the feed (both minimum and maximum for calcium), not the actual amounts.
With minerals, these minimum amounts represent primarily the amount of added mineral plus an average analysis fudge factor for lowest likely level in the base grains and other ingredients. Actual analysis figures have been as much as 100% higher (double the label amount), and mineral ratios may also be considerably different when actual analysis figures deviate significantly from the minimum guarantees.
We looked at the guaranteed-analysis figures for eight premium performance feeds from across the country, some nationwide brands, some regional. The minimum calcium varied from 0.3% to 0.85%, maximums from 0.6% to 1.25%; phosphorus 0.5 to 0.7%; copper 30 to 55 ppm; zinc 100 to 220 ppm; selenium 0.4 to 0.7 ppm and one feed didn't specify selenium.
The information on iron content was only available for one feed, and only two of the eight specified magnesium and manganese. Therefore, the first stumbling block when trying to determine if a feed matches your hay/pasture is that you won't have information on all the important minerals, and the information you do have is in minimums, not actual amounts.
Actual amounts can vary from year to year even if sources of ingredients are kept the same, as well as from formula to formula for feeds that vary the relative proportions of grains and other feed ingredients in their product.
How Much?
Obviously how much of any given nutrient-protein, vitamin, mineral, etc.-your horse gets from his feed will depend on how much of it you feed. A horse on lay-up or turn-out getting only a pound or two of grain a day is vastly different from one in heavy work getting five to 10 pounds or more. This should be common sense, but a surprisingly number of people think they have their nutritional bases covered when they feed a commercial feed regardless of the amount the horse eats.
With some notable exceptions for feeds that are formulated to be a better match for regional hays, especially in areas where alfalfa feeding is common, most commercial feeds adhere more or less to a "One-A-Day" philosophy, where they contain (at least on minimum guarantee figures) a mineral profile that is fairly well-balanced for a horse. So far so good but, again, how much good this does the horse depends on how much of it he is eating and how well-balanced the hay/pasture are.
