The Stable Savvy Bran Mash

There's been a great deal of debate on bran mashes. Many people feed them weekly, some just because they like spoiling their horses, others claim benefits for colic prone horses, still others say bran mashes are at best unnecessary and at worst potentially harmful.

Personally I would tend to agree with all of the above in part. Bran mashes should never be fed to young horses or pregnant/nursing mares. The phosphorus content is far too high and could potentially cause skeletal issues. But for all other horses a weekly mash is far from dangerous. Current research has dis-proven bran mashes having any laxative effect on horses, however they are an excellent way to get additional fluid into a horse, which may be beneficial to a horse who tends to colic and certainly won't hurt anything. In addition, I don't know about you, but I love to spoil and pamper horses, and most clearly love mashes.

That said, my favorite way to make bran mash:

1 1/2 Pound Bran (Approximately 3 Quarts)
1/2 Pound Rolled Oats (Approximately 1 Quart)
1 Pound Crimped Corn (Approximately 1 Quart)
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1 Cup Molasses
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Lite Salt (Potassium Based)
1 Teaspoon Epsom Salt (Magnesium Based)
2 Carrots Grated/Chopped
1 Apple Grated/Chopped
Boiling Water

Mix all ingredients other than the apple and carrots together with just enough hot water to make a dough like consistency. Mix in apple and carrots once other ingredients and well mixed. If your horse gets a daily grain ration you will need to decrease your horse's normal grain ration by approximately 1-3 pounds on the day this mash is fed depending upon how rich his normal ration is.

Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 5 of 5

Guideline 7: Invest In Good Feeders

Good feeder prevent injuy to your horse, keep his food clean to avoid sand colic, and reduce waste to keep your feed bill affordable. What I like:

• For Hay: Tarter Hay Baskets hold a bunch of hay. They are sturdy, with no gaps likely to trap feet or heads, and easy to clean. They are also ground height. Horses are meant to eat with their heads down. It is better for their lungs. The full basket would be great for a small group of horses fed hay in a coral or pasture. It would easily hold an entire 50 pound bale. They also make a half size basket and a quarter size basket. I could easily see mounting a quarter basket in a stall. Check out the baskets at www.tarterfarmandranch.com

• For Grain: I love the good old fashioned rubber feed pans. They won't shatter into sharp pieces if stepped on, they can be easily cleaned and they alow the horse to eat with his head down. For the naughty ponies that like to throw theirs? Find a big rock or brick, scrub it carefully, put it in the middle of the pan and put the feed around it. It won't stop a determined pan thrower, but for those who seem to do so mostly out of excitement it works great. It also slows down feed bolters.

• Great Budget Combo Feeder: Small rubber feed troughs around 30-50 gallons are great combo feeders. Safe and cleanable. Also encourages horses to browse to find all the grain in the bottom with the hay on top.

Guideline 8: Fat is your friend.

Grains and mixed feeds get most of their calorie content from carbohydrates. These are great performance fuel for horses in their prime putting in an hour or more of moderate to intense work per day. But what about the 18 year old schooling pony? Or the OTTB in retraining?

Carbohydrates can trigger laminitis (founder) in many horses, particularly older horses; and contribute to hyperactivity and other behavioral issues in many younger horses. If the rest of the ration is balanced and the horse still needs more calories, adding additional carbohydrates is not always the best option. Protein is another calorie source, but we have to remember that horses are herbivores, there is a limit to the amount of protein their bodies can cope with. High protein diets fed over long periods can cause liver and kidney problems.

A safer and well tolerated calorie source is vegetable oil. Amounts up to 2 cups a day per 1000 lbs of ideal body weight can add valuable calories and fatty acids to horses who need a little boost to their condition without the founder and hyperactivity that can result from carbohydrates.

Guideline 9: Simplify your supplements.

We as horse owners have become addicted to the concept of adding those expensive powders, pellets, and potions to our horses' feed. I'm not saying supplements can't do amazing things for our horses. But some of us have gone overboard. Do your research and supplement based on known problems. Some guidelines I use:

• General Vitamins/Minerals: If your horse is getting good quality hay and the manufacturer recommended minimum of a mixed or pelleted feed your horse definitiely does not need a multivitamin/mineral product. If your horse is not getting these, then he may benefit from a supplement.

• The young horse (under 5): I wouldn't worry about supplements. Adding things at this point is more likely to throw the horse's diet out of balance than to help him. The only thing I would consider outside of something that has been recommended by your vet/farrier to treat a specific problem would be calcium if it is needed to adjust the calcium/phosphous balance of the diet. In young horses this should be 2:1 for proper bone growth.

• The adult horse (5-15 years old) in training/showing: I would potentially look at putting this horse on an anti-oxidant supplement. Anti-oxidants (Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium) help to slow the aging process by helping the body repair damage. This is well proven in people and animals. If the horse has issues with weak hooves you might consider a biotin supplement. If his hair or skin could use a little more shine I'd add some olive oil to his feed (see guideline 8). The only other thing I would consider is a Calcium supplement if the Calcium/Phosphorus balance of his diet were undesireable. I wouldn't waste my money on additional supplements for this horse. They are unlikely to help in anyway and could even add up to a toxic dose.

• The older horse (15+ years old): Now is the time to start looking at joint supplements. Most horses this age are starting to slow down a little and get a bit creaky. Chondroitin sulfates and glucosamines are amazing, but are better at slowing down the progress of joint issues than reversing them. So add them when the horse first starts being stiff/off, not when the horse is obviously lame. I would also continue the anti-oxidants and all others from above. Again, I wouldn't waste my money unless I was using a supplement to treat a specific condition.

Guideline 10: Remember to Reassess

Feeding horses is as much an art as a science. What works for one horse doesn't necessarily work for another. What works for one horse one season won't necessarily work the next. So even after we've done our best research and planned the optimal feed programs, we aren't done. We have to continue to watch our horses. Has their actual weight changed from the month before? Is it higher or lower than their ideal weight? Are they lacking for energy? Or are they bouncing off the walls? Have they colicked or foundered? Are we expecting an increase or decrease in their caloric requirements in the month ahead? Any of these things could be a good reason to go back and reassess a horse's feed program.

Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 4 of 5

Guideline 5: Roughage Is A Must, Type Is Flexible

While we would all ideally love to feed our horses perfect, leafy grass hay, such hay is getting more difficult to find and more expensive to buy every day. This is less of an issue if you have a 300 pound pony who needs 6 pounds a day. If you have a 1300 pound warmblood who needs 26 pounds a day, you're in for a headache or two.

Alfalfa hay/cubes/pellets, chopped oat straw, beet pulp, and bran are also roughages that can be used to supplement your horse's grass hay and concentrates to ensure that your horse gets enough bulk in his diet without breaking your pocket book. We as horse people simply have to be aware of the issues involved in each.

• Alfalfa hay and products made from it are well tolerated by most horses, provided they are slowly weaned onto it. It is also not acceptable as an unlimited feed for anything other than perhaps pregnant/lactating mares or horses under 2 years of age. Be aware that Alfalfa is much higher in protein and carbohydrate than Grass so you will need to adjust your horse's diet accordingly and it may not be acceptable for horses that are prone to founder. Also, alfalfa cubes have been linked to choke in some cases, so you may want to soak them in water first if your horse has choked in the past or if your horse has a tendency to bolt his feed.

• Beet pulp must be soaked prior to feeding because it absorbs water and expands as it does so. If a horse eats a large amount of dry beet pulp he will colic as a result. The plain pulp must be soaked in an equal volume of water until all water is absorbed, the pelleted kind must be soaked in 3 times the volume of water. It usually takes about 2 hours to soak beet pulp so plan ahead.

• Bran is high is phosphorus, so its feeding should be avoided in horses under two years of age, and in pregnant/lactating mares. Even then I would avoid feeding it in amounts greater than 1% of the daily diet unless you have calculated the calcium/phosphorus balance of the proposed diet and supplemented accordingly.

• Chopped Oat Straw (Chaff) is a commonly used forage in Europe, but sadly nearly impossible to find in the United States. Long stem straw straight out of a bale shouldn't be fed to horses as it has been linked to impaction colics. But chopped straw is a different story. If you can find it, without the mollasses coating, it is a great fiber addition to your horse's diet that adds very few calories and very little starch. I've also heard of pelleted hay products that contain straw, and these would likely be similar.
  

Guideline 6: Keep It Clean

We wouldn't eat off dirty plates or cook in a filthy kitchen, but often we seem to think our horse's don't care. Dirty feed rooms and filthy buckets do nothing but attract rodents and bugs. I'm not saying we ought to run our horses' feed buckets through the dishwasher or scrub the feed room floor with bleach (though that'd be really thorough). But a little soap and water goes a long way.

• Feed & Water Buckets: One thing that has worked for me in the past is to keep a small bottle of dish detergent and a bucket scrub brush hooked next to the hydrant closest to the feed storage. Then before I put fresh feed in the bucket I give it a quick scrub. For slimy water buckets try scrubbing with a splash of chlorine bleach. Just rinse extra carefully...and avoid wearing your best breaches when you do this (been there).

• Immobile Stall Feeders: Personally I loathe these, almost entirely because they are a chore to clean. Best method I've found? Get a wet dry vaccume. Vaccume out all the dust and dirt while the feeder is dry, then add a spot of soap and a cup or so of water and scrub away. Vaccume out the dirty water, add clean water and scrub again. Rinse and repeat until clean. Takes forever, and you'll never get them as clean as you would a bucket, but it's better than nothing.
  

• Feed Room: I've never been really together on cleaning, but what has worked for me is when I buy new grain, the bin gets dumped and the feed room floor gets swept. Then at least the floor doesn't build up too much filth, and the old feed dust doesn't spoil the new feed.

Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 3 of 5

Guideline 4: Understand the usefulness and drawbacks of mixed and pelleted feeds.

Mixed and pelleted feeds are often vitamin/mineral supplemented. This is a good and a bad thing. The good thing is that if fed according to the directions, they can save you money by providing balanced nutritional supplementation without the need for an additional supplement. The bad thing is when they are fed in quantities never intended by the manufacturer or the horse owner feels compelled to add an additional vitamin/mineral supplement to the already supplemented feed.

First of all the over-supplementation issue: Some is good, more is not always better. Read labels closely and discuss possible interactions with your vet before adding additional supplements that contain the same vitamins/minerals as your feed if your horse is already on a supplemented grain.

Second the amount fed issue: This is where choosing the right feed is important. Many feeds require about 3 lbs to be fed in order for your horse to get the full vitamin/mineral dose. If your horse will keep weight and maintain energy on less than this (or whatever the recommendation is) then you are effectively throwing money down the drain by paying for supplements your horse isn't getting. So choose feeds with care. You want to be able to feed the full amount to take advantage of the supplementation without extra weight gain or hyperactivity.

For the easy keepers that don't need 3 lbs of concentrates, you might assess why you want to give them grain in the first place. Not every horse needs grain; if your horse is in good health, recieves good quality forage and has no need for specialty supplements or medications, then perhaps you should put the bucket away. But sometimes there is a logical reason to find something you can put in that bucket without all the extra calories.

Maybe your hay is stemmy and otherwise less than ideal because of a bad drought in your area last year and you want to get a general vitamin/mineral supplement down him to help offset the poor hay. Maybe you have an older semi-retired school master who needs grain in which to hide the daily joint supplement and gram of powdered bute that keep him sound. Or maybe you have the one horse in the barn that doesn't get grain and he gets so distressed at feeding time from “bucket envy” you are worried he's going to injure himself.

In all these cases, finding something that you can put in that bucket may be the best solution. If you like the prepackaged and presupplemented convenience of mixed grains or pellets then try one of the newer products on the market meant for the easy keepers. Products like these are meant to be fed in the 1 pound kind of quantity and still give the horse all his vitamins/minerals without all the extra calories. Purina makes a line of these called under the name Enrich. As with all prepackaged feeds, please read and follow the directions on the package.

If you are more the DIY type, try my recipe below.

Lindsey's Daily Vitamin Mash:

1/2 Cup Mollasses (Can reduce or omit for founder prone horses.)

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1 Dose Vitamin/Mineral Supplement of Your Choice

Specialty Supplements or Medications As Needed

1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt

1/4 Pound (Approximately 1/2 Quart) Bran

1/4 Pound (Approximately 1/2 Quart) Rolled Oats

Add ingredients to feed bucket in order, stirring constantly, adding just a little water if necessary to form a stiff mash.

Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 2 of 5

Guideline 2: Never drop below 2%

The old standard has always been that your horse should be eating at least 1-3% of his body weight in food every day. I use 2-4% from personal experience because I believe strongly that horses without enough bulk to their diets are more prone to colic, ulcers, and behavioral issues like stable vices. Horses are physically and mentally intended to eat for most of the day. The more overall material we can give them, the better.

While sometimes 1% is necessary for founder prone easy keepers, I would rather try to cut calories and starches by making swaps in what they were eating than to cut the overall amount first. Seriously, have you ever tried to put a 1000 pound horse on a 10 pound a day feed plan? Trust me, it isn't pretty. You end up with a horse that is convinced they are starving and will likely start stall kicking or other undesireable behavior, which is likely to give you a bad case of rattled nerves. So, unless you have made all the swaps you can, and you absolutely must restrict intake further, I would stick with 2% or more.

I should say, that before calculating your 2%, you will need to remember that we need 2% of the horse's ideal weight, not their actual weight if there is a difference. This means that you will need to add or subtract approximately 50 lbs from your horse's actual weight for every BCS score other than 5. This is why it is necessary to know both those numbers. So if your horse's actual weight is 1250 pounds and his BCS is a 7, you will want to do your 2% calculation based on 1150 pounds (1150 = 1250 Actual Weight - 50 (BCS of 7 to BCS of 6) - 50 (BCS of 6 to BCS of 5)) When you calculate 2% a small 800 pound horse would need at least 16 pounds of total feed daily while a larger 1300 pound warmblood would need 26 pounds of total feed daily.

Guideline 3: Never more than 40% concentrates.

Research has shown time and time again that horses whose rations are 40% or more concentrates (grain, mixed and/or pelleted feeds) are much more likely to suffer from colic, ulcers, and behavioral issues. So after you do your 2% total feed calculation, take 40% of that, and make sure your concentrates never exceed that number. You will keep your horse physically and mentally healthier, and avoid wasting your money.

Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 1 of 5

Guideline 1: Stop guessing.

Do you know your horse's weight? What about his body condition score (BCS)? Do you know in pounds, rather than in quarts, flakes, or (gasp) scoops how much your horse is fed every day? You should, because accuracy is half the battle to ensuring your horse gets what he needs.

Know his real weight. While it would be nice if we all had access to platform scales that we could get perfect weights on all our horses say monthly, that isn't a reasonable option for all of us. What is reasonable is to mosey down to the tack shop and get yourself a weight tape. Check your horse's weight monthly. Not only will this help you accurately determine what he should be fed, it will be invaluable information when it comes time to deworm or medicate him.

Know his BCS. The BCS (Body Condition Score) is used as a way to describe how thin or fat a horse is in a standardized way. Pretty much anyone can obviously figure out that a horse is too thin if he scores a 1, and that he's too fat if he scores a 9. But sometimes we manage to lie to ourselves when it comes to deciding if our horse is just a little over or under weight. Using the BCS method helps take your emotions out of it and guide you to a more realistic assessment of your horse's condition. The BCS can be found at: http://www.thehorse.com/pdf/nutrition/bcs.pdf

Know how much you are feeding. Flakes, scoops, cans, quarts, armfuls, we use a lot of generalized measurements to describe how much we feed our horses. These work fine if you are aware of how much those measurements really are, but one person's scoop may not be the same size as someone else's, one flake of hay may be larger or smaller depending on the bale of hay and the person flaking it. Ideally you'd have a scale in your feed room and you would weigh absolutely all your horse's hay and grain. At the very least you should weigh each component of a new ration so that you know how many of your scoops or flakes make the necessary number of pounds. For example: If you get in a new load of hay, weigh a flake of it. If you have calculated that your horse needs 10 pounds of hay at each feeding, and your find out that your hay weighs 5 lbs per flake, then two flakes is great. But what about if you get a load of hay that only weighs 3 lbs per flake? If you don't check the weight and adjust accordingly, you might end up effectively cutting your horse's hay intake in half. Another example: If you switch pelleted feeds and your old feed was 1 quart per pound but your new feed is 3/4 quart per pound you could end up over feeding. If someone else feeds your horse(s), weigh/measure/flake with them so that you both agree on what the flake/scoop amounts should be on a day to day basis.

Can we get rid of horse feeding extremism please?

Many modern horse owners seem to fall into one of two extremist categories when it comes to horse feed. The first category seems to be those who have embraced the natural horse keeping ideal of unlimited pasture or grass hay and nothing else. Or they go buy a bag of mixed feed and feed a bucketful in the morning and a bucketful at night with a couple flakes of hay thrown in just for good measure.

Both will work fine in some cases for some horses. But lately I have run into several horse owners who refuse to deviate from their chosen extreme even when they are aware that it is not working for their horses. Not all horses are the same, not all situations are the same. If it works for the other 8 horses in the barn it doesn't mean it will work for your horse. If you expect to take good care of your horses you must be willing to change tactics when what you are doing isn't working. You also must be willing to do your research to find optimal solutions instead of just what is easy.