I’ve got a confession to make; While on vacation, my spare minutes were spent pouring over various articles and books on feeding the endurance horse. While still in college, I was always fascinated with equine nutrition and now with endurance , it is a fairly important piece of the puzzle.While JB appears to be a relatively easy keeper, he isn't quite as easy as Rebel is (pictured above) and I want to be certain I am giving him optimal feed ratios.
Time to pick up the books again.
For the last several weeks I have been spending quite a bit of time studying equine nutrition , trying to determine the correct ratio of between fats, protein, fiber etc, the right amount Mcal for JB’s body size and the conditioning levels I hope to have him working at. I have found there are several complicated formulas out there to determine all these things. While I don’t want to get caught up in the minutia of scientific formulas, I think it’s important to have concrete understanding of what I am putting into my horse and how it fuels him. As a horse owner I want to make sure that I accurately account for the conditioning demands I place on JB this coming year, and a proper feeding program is essential.
This past year, I fed JB a cereal grain called Running Horse Cut & Slide. It came recommended by the local feed dealer and my vet. When I looked into it , I liked many things about it. I like that the energy is derived from vegetable oils rather than sugar and starch to keep the sugar spikes down. I liked that it had a beet pulp base and it was highly digestable with a good fiber percentage.
The recommended feeding amount found on the bag is broken out between work load levels as is the case on most feeds. For a horse that is in light to moderate work . the recommendation is .30 to .50 per 100 lb of weight of horse, based on the average sized horse in the range of 800-1000 lbs. JB is about 850 give or take. I took the middle of the road figure, .40, and multiplied it 8.5 (850) which gives me 3.4 lbs of feed per day. Since the protein is at 15% which is a bit higher than I need or want, I cut him back to just under 3 l lbs of feed per day. In addition he is given plenty of good grass hay (with minimal alfalfa). Doesn’t seem like much…
This is all pretty basic calculation but my next step is determine whether he is truly getting the right amount of Protein, fats, fiber, calcium , etc with that ration. Do I need to up his intake or decrease it with a light to moderate level of work, and if so how much? JB seems to have held his weight fairly well last summer with this feed but he is not a hard keeper either. Overall I think it’s probably one of the better horse feeds on the market today but I need to determine if it will provider JB with the nutrition he will need to perform his best this upcoming season.
I have copied below the breakdown of nutritive value below.
Crude Protein (min.).................................................15.00%
Lysine (min.)..............................................................0.60%
Crude Fat (min.).........................................................9.00%
Crude Fiber (max.).....................................................14.0%
Calcium (CA) (Min.)....................................................0.85%
Calcium (CA) (Max.)...................................................1.02%
Phosphorous (P) (Min.)...............................................0.70%
Copper (Min.).............................................................50 ppm
Selenium (Min.)..........................................................0.3 ppm
Zinc (Min.)..................................................................250 ppm
Vitamin A (Min.).......................................................3750 IU/IB
Ingredients: Wheat Middings, Distillers Grain With Solubles, Pearled Barley, Soybean Hulls, RIce Bran, Soybean Oil, Beet Pulp, Dicalcium Phosphate, Whole Flax, Whole Canola, Calcium Carbonate, Brewers Yeast, Salt, Yeast Extract, Dlmothionine, Calcium Propionate, L-Lysine, Choline Chloride, Threonine, Beta Carotine, Ascorbic Acid, Bentonite, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Methonine Complex, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacinamide, Copper Lysine Complex, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Managanese Methionine Complex, Manganous Oxide, Vitamine B 12 Supplement, Vitamine A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Vitamine D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Cobalt Glucoheptonate, Cobalt Carbonate
Do any of you experienced in feeding the endurance horse have any helpful hints?
By the way; I did have a good vacation overall, even though my sister and I did spend several of those days with the stomach flu and the Thanksgiving feast never did quite happen as a result.
Time to pick up the books again.
For the last several weeks I have been spending quite a bit of time studying equine nutrition , trying to determine the correct ratio of between fats, protein, fiber etc, the right amount Mcal for JB’s body size and the conditioning levels I hope to have him working at. I have found there are several complicated formulas out there to determine all these things. While I don’t want to get caught up in the minutia of scientific formulas, I think it’s important to have concrete understanding of what I am putting into my horse and how it fuels him. As a horse owner I want to make sure that I accurately account for the conditioning demands I place on JB this coming year, and a proper feeding program is essential.
This past year, I fed JB a cereal grain called Running Horse Cut & Slide. It came recommended by the local feed dealer and my vet. When I looked into it , I liked many things about it. I like that the energy is derived from vegetable oils rather than sugar and starch to keep the sugar spikes down. I liked that it had a beet pulp base and it was highly digestable with a good fiber percentage.
The recommended feeding amount found on the bag is broken out between work load levels as is the case on most feeds. For a horse that is in light to moderate work . the recommendation is .30 to .50 per 100 lb of weight of horse, based on the average sized horse in the range of 800-1000 lbs. JB is about 850 give or take. I took the middle of the road figure, .40, and multiplied it 8.5 (850) which gives me 3.4 lbs of feed per day. Since the protein is at 15% which is a bit higher than I need or want, I cut him back to just under 3 l lbs of feed per day. In addition he is given plenty of good grass hay (with minimal alfalfa). Doesn’t seem like much…
This is all pretty basic calculation but my next step is determine whether he is truly getting the right amount of Protein, fats, fiber, calcium , etc with that ration. Do I need to up his intake or decrease it with a light to moderate level of work, and if so how much? JB seems to have held his weight fairly well last summer with this feed but he is not a hard keeper either. Overall I think it’s probably one of the better horse feeds on the market today but I need to determine if it will provider JB with the nutrition he will need to perform his best this upcoming season.
I have copied below the breakdown of nutritive value below.
Crude Protein (min.).................................................15.00%
Lysine (min.)..............................................................0.60%
Crude Fat (min.).........................................................9.00%
Crude Fiber (max.).....................................................14.0%
Calcium (CA) (Min.)....................................................0.85%
Calcium (CA) (Max.)...................................................1.02%
Phosphorous (P) (Min.)...............................................0.70%
Copper (Min.).............................................................50 ppm
Selenium (Min.)..........................................................0.3 ppm
Zinc (Min.)..................................................................250 ppm
Vitamin A (Min.).......................................................3750 IU/IB
Ingredients: Wheat Middings, Distillers Grain With Solubles, Pearled Barley, Soybean Hulls, RIce Bran, Soybean Oil, Beet Pulp, Dicalcium Phosphate, Whole Flax, Whole Canola, Calcium Carbonate, Brewers Yeast, Salt, Yeast Extract, Dlmothionine, Calcium Propionate, L-Lysine, Choline Chloride, Threonine, Beta Carotine, Ascorbic Acid, Bentonite, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Methonine Complex, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacinamide, Copper Lysine Complex, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Managanese Methionine Complex, Manganous Oxide, Vitamine B 12 Supplement, Vitamine A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Vitamine D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Cobalt Glucoheptonate, Cobalt Carbonate
Do any of you experienced in feeding the endurance horse have any helpful hints?
By the way; I did have a good vacation overall, even though my sister and I did spend several of those days with the stomach flu and the Thanksgiving feast never did quite happen as a result.
We did get to go shopping a couple times, in fact we even visited the Coach purse outlet store. I watched as excited women would come and go in the store, most walking out with a big smile, a few hundred dollars lighter but happy nonetheless that they had their new fashion accutrament at what they thought was a good deal. All the while, the only thing I could think about was how many of those Renegade boots I could buy for what these women just spent on a purse; a purse that would soon be tossed into the corner of their closet with the passing of the season. (by the way, I don’t recommend going into a Coach store with a $20 Shopko clearance black leather purse strapped to your side, unless your willing to withstand to scoffs!) Unless it’s horse related, shopping is not my thing, especially for a Coach Purse!
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