Equus report on feeding all concentrates?

I used to read and trust articles in equus,but the last 18months or so has really gone downhill?I subscribe to thehorse.com now.Anyway,you can't draw ANY conclusions from such a limited test,what they were trying to prove is beyond me,we have 20-60 head at any given time where i am employed,and i oversee&formulate a feeding plan for all of them(with the aid of my vet&feed dealer)and less is more as far as i'm concerned.horses need not just the fiber content,but the bulk&something to be grazing on as much as possible.everyone is so concerned hay will make their horses fat or get a hay belly,but we feed free choice good quality grass hay to ALL the horses,yearlings,show horses,horses in training,p.g.mares& a specialized grain to fit each horses individual needs.I only have 5 different feed choices& I haven't had a vet out for health problems since I started here 6+yrs ago.Keep it simple&use your common sense,never mind the"fads"& you will be surprised how simple it can be.i was barn mgr@event/dressage barn before this& it was mind boggling all the suppl&smart-paks&different grains!I did a basic nutrition seminar for the boarders& once they understood the reasoning for free choice hay&1-2 feedsw/ the necessary suppl. in the feed,we cut back to 3 feeds& the boarders were satisfied,as well as less horses colicling,cribbing,etc.Take the time to go on line or talk to your feed co.rep,don't believe everything you read or hear!

I did read it. I think it is an interesting concept. The article didn't really discuss what the feed was though it alluded to the fact that it was complete feed rather than a highly concentrated feed (at least that was the impression I got but I was reading the article at about 1 am last night so I could be wrong).

There's been a lot of talk about TMR feeds lately but I don't think that was what the article was refering to .

http://www.squaremealfeeds.com/SquareMealHorseFeed...

http://www.aussielogickoolandkalm.com/questionspag...

I have always free choice fed my dogs and they all stay at a perfectly fine weight and nobody wolfs down their food and they don't eat any more than they would if I chose the amount and split it up into to feedings a day (totally against conventional wisdom) so I am open to the general idea of free choice feeding but I'm going to reserve judgement unitl I can learn more about exactly what they were feeding and how it works. I mean unless your at the track nobody's going to be feeding 22 lbs of grain a day. I'd like to see some real research on it before I tried on my own horses that's for sure.

As you say, one month is not anywhere near long enough to see what any results would be.

I have worked with racehorses, jumpers that generally get longer and harder exercise than flat horses.

These horse were on high concentrates in the form of oats and pellets, most on four feeds a day, Hay was ad lib but they never ate a lot.

The difficulty was to keep them all eating 14 lbs of hard feed a day. No problem for the first half of the season but the second half, when they were really fit and well, was another matter.

What sort of work were these horse under? Were they stabled or out?

I remember reading ages ago that a horse could not digest more than 14 lbs of hard feed day.

This cannot be called research, not enough horses, not long enough and no scientific reports on build up of lactic acids.

To my way of thinking the people who set up and do these researches are the feed companies. Most of their nutritionists are people who have studied at colleges and universities but have absolutely minimal experience of actually feeding a barn full of horses in different stages of fitness, temperaments and type of work they are doing.

That is where the skill of feeding comes in.

ADD ON

Well if they were only exercised three times a week then I would love to see them after a couple of months!

When I have horses on high hard rations then they are worked every day and when I say worked, I mean plenty of trotting and cantering for at least 90 minutes a day.

Horses that I have for hunting (going out with hounds at least once a week) do not get more than 8 - 10 lb of hard food a day, and they are well and fit on it but, again they are worked every day bar Sunday's when they get a turn out.

I feed my OTTB crazy hard keeper 13lbs of concentrates a day (grain and supplements) and 10ish lbs of alfalfa cubes (still haven't decided what to call this hay or concentrate). He doesn't eat much hay or grass. Its there and he'll munch on it sometimes but never any large intake. He looks great, better than ever. He's been on this diet for 6 month-ish. I have loved the results. I've hard it evaluated it by an nutritionist and she had no problem with it if it was working for him. No problems with behavior or health either.

Would I only feed concentrates, never. I'll always keep whatever he could want available but he just opts out of eating it.

I read the article.

I have one mare who would eat herself to death in less than 6 hours.

She has to wear a grazing muzzle while on pasture or she eats to much. I can not even imagine her on unlimited grain. We even have to limit her hay.

My old TB might have been able to do something like that with. Food was not a big thing for him. He nibbled most of the day but never ate everything in one sitting.

But from everything I have been taught and read horses were built to graze all day long and not to have large quantities of grain in one sitting. In nature they would never have been able to eat like that. So I prefer to keep my feeding plan closer to what they would have if in the wild.

I wouldn't go for that. I have a very hard keeping OTTB and I feed 3 scoops 2 times a day with a weight building supplement. I wouldn't risk making my horse colic with something like that. Take it slow and steady instead of rushing it on. And my horse LOVES to eat so he would hate that. :P

My opinion it could make a colic and I would stick with what I know :)

Charm, do you have a link to this article online? I'd love to read it! Sounds like it completely contradicts previous studies that show diets based primarily on concentrates increase the risks of health problems like colic. Doesn't sound very plausible to me, but I'd like to read it for myself.