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Supplements, are they needed?

Supplements

You may have noticed how it seems a lot of horses that have free access to hay have either hay bellies or just don't gain weight, in other words they don't have much muscle tone. They may look pregnant, even if they are a gelding or their hips protrude. Either way the assumption is the horse is not getting much excersise. This however, I learned is due to more with a horse not getting enough balanced nutrition from they hay alone. The horse with a hay belly eats excessively in order to make up for the lack of nutrition the hay is missing. The horse that is overly thin is just not getting enough nutrition that their body needs.

Hay in general is usually the safest form of feed for horses. They can eat a lot and have less problems compared to eating excessive alfalfa or grain. If the hay has come from a field or pasture that was fertilized and had the proper sun and water needed for optimal growth then hay will usually have the desired nutrients. Hay is typically one of the best sources of fiber too. Hay in general doesn't digest quickly and so if the hay is lacking nutrients the horse keeps eating more hay than he can absorb as he tries to bring up what his body is needing, thus you get the “hay belly”. If the hay is nutritious enough you typically won't get the hay belly.

As a side note. The type of hay and when it was cut can cause problems with horses that are susceptible to laminitis. Hay that looks great and has all the nutrients needed can also have excess sugars and carbohydrates which causes insulin reactions in some horses no different than if they were fed excessive sweet feed. Check out http://www.safergrass.org/articles/index.html for more information. This is why one doesn't normally feed premium hay all the time in a free feeding environment. You want something that is high in fiber to keep the flow of the gut going but with only the proper amount of nutrients. Not too much and not too little.

We have been getting a positive response from the 2 horses that have been getting supplements after 2 months time. Some clients have made general comments on how well all the horses look from just getting a small daily ration of grain. We are supplementing the hay diet of the herd as a whole from now on. We are using Dynamite pellets which focuses mainly on feeding vitamins and some minerals that hay is lacking. Horse vitamin blocks (Purina 12:12) which is generally used in herd situations where feeding grains is not practical, and or a diet/ration balancer which is used when horses are not getting enough protein from hay alone but normal grain causes the horses to gain too much weight due to higher calories, sugars and fat are other options too. A ration balancer is basically vitamins with added proteins. Purina envision 32 is one type of ration balancer.

 

Minerals & Salt

I was told several years ago that most horses in Colorado don't need extra minerals because Colorado's soil is high in minerals. I'm sharing with you an update to this. Yes Colorado has higher mineral levels compared to several other states but it doesn't have all the minerals that a horse needs. Horses in the wild can find pockets of the types of minerals they need where horses kept in captivity are limited to what is in their pens. Because of this a horses health may not be as good as it can or even should be. I also learned that soils in general have less minerals than they used to due to us humans over farming the land. Another reason why it is necessary for us to provide salt and minerals to our horses.

Minerals are just as important as vitamins. Just providing a mineral salt block designed for cows is not enough due to horses not being able to get enough minerals out of it because their tongues are not as coarse. It is best to use a block specifically designed for horses or use loose minerals and let the horse decide which mineral they need. To view one source of the importance of minerals see http://www.understanding-horse-nutrition.com/minerals.html Note the difference between macrominerals and microminerals.

As of Oct 20, 2010 we are giving the herd either free access to granular minerals or a horse mineral block. Of 4 types of salt and mineral combinations, 2 are being eaten more compared to the other 2, a good indicator that the horses have been lacking in some minerals. Happily we will continue offering them minerals. It takes roughly 60 days of a particular diet of vitamin and minerals before a horses body shows the signs of how well the diet is for the horse. By 120 days the blood supply is near 100% of the vitamin and mineral combinations that the horse has been consuming. Ironically it takes less time to deplete the blood of these vitamin and minerals because they are used in maintaining the health of the horse and so any injuries, infections, and diseases will deplete them more quicker.

Vitamins, minerals, and supplemental feed are things we are doing to improve and maintain your horses health. They'll get improved muscle tone; clear eyes; shiny and soft coat; strong hooves; a mindset that is calm, responsive and stable; along with improved agility and stamina. We encourage you to form your own opinion of using the vitamins and minerals in your horses diet which is why we started giving the horses them now at our cost. In January 2011 we will have new rates for most of our services. The decision to use supplements as part of our feeding program will make a difference on the rates. By giving you, our clients, a choice in using them, we want it to be an informed and experienced one.