Question
I have worked with horses for 40 years, and I have noticed that the health and appearance of the average horse has degraded in the last two decades. I believe this is directly related to the quality of feed. In the past, horses were fed cereal grains and hay. Now, they are fed leftovers or by-products of low-quality feedstuffs. In order to get our horses to be healthy, we must add supplements, and still we search for holes in our nutrition program. I offer my horses a high-quality feed, balancer pellet, and good-quality grass hay almost round-the-clock, but they do not look as good as they did 10 years ago. I cannot find a feed that is not full of wheat middlings, soy hulls, rice byproducts, and so on. All I can figure is that the protein quality is low. Are these ingredients capable of making horses fit and healthy like oats, corn, and soybean meal? What ingredients should I look for in a feed?
Answer
Significant advances in equine nutrition have been made over the last half century, including fine-tuning nutrient requirements, identifying and sourcing novel ingredients, and more fully understanding how horses use different substrates to fuel performance. On top of this, so much has been uncovered about feeding management, such as how best to nourish horses diagnosed with certain diseases, like common forms of tying-up and metabolic challenges.
Oats and corn remain excellent energy sources for horses that cannot maintain weight or performance on forage alone, but these cereal grains provide calories predominately from starch. Many horses cannot handle the starch content of these grains. Some become too excitable or unmanageable when fed high-starch diets; others have medical conditions exacerbated by starch. Considering this, nutrition experts identified and researched alternative energy sources, so these horses could perform on equal footing with their starch-tolerant peers.
Let us take a closer look at some of these alternative energy sources. Multiple research trials have found beet pulp and soy hulls to be outstanding energy sources for horses as they contain highly fermentable neutral detergent fiber. Stabilized rice bran, a byproduct of rice milling, is an excellent energy source for horses due to its nutritional profile, namely high in fat with minimal starch. Other rice byproducts, such as rice hulls, are not considered high-quality ingredients due to the low digestibility of their fiber.
Other byproducts have become useful in the manufacture of feeds in certain forms. Wheat middlings, for example, a byproduct of wheat milling, is a valuable feed ingredient for pelleted feeds and is often included in formulas for its protein, phosphorus, starch, and fiber. Based on amino acid profile, the protein quality of wheat middlings falls below that of soybean meal, but the use of synthetic essential amino acids is becoming a more popular way of delivering quality protein and meeting amino acid requirements.
In many ways, ration balancers revolutionized horse feeding, as they feature concentrated protein, vitamin, and mineral sources in a low-calorie product—perfect for horses that can maintain their weight on all-forage diets but do not consume the nutrients necessary for optimal health. Most ration balancers designed to be fed with a grass-based diet feature soybean meal as the protein source and main ingredient. Aside from protein source, other factors should be considered, such as mineral source (oxides vs. sulfates vs. organic minerals) and feeding level necessary to provide optimal nutrition. Ration balancers will be more expensive per 40-50 lb (18-23 kg) bag but, due to the minimal feeding rate, the cost per day is low and provides complete nutrition compared to feeding a less expensive performance feed below the recommended minimum amount.
The onus of selecting a high-quality feed depends on the horse owner. Care should be taken to study the elements of the feed tag or bag. The ingredient list, as you pointed out, is a reasonable place to start. Choosing feeds that list individual feed ingredients is recommended and provides transparency for the buyer. Some feed manufacturers use nonspecific “collective terms” to describe ingredients. While “cracked corn” and “steam-flaked barley” would be considered specific, individual ingredients, a collective term for these two may be the far more general “cereal grains.” This is just one example. As you compare more and more feeds, you may identify other potential nuances in labeling that separate high-quality feeds from less expensive ones.
In summary, forward-thinking feed manufacturers of today are mixing high-quality feeds based on peer-reviewed research, ingredient technology, feedback from owners and trainers, and anecdotal evidence. Many of these feeds contain novel ingredients that would have been met with skepticism 30 or 40 years ago. Modern performance feeds often feature alternative energy sources—beet pulp, soy hulls, stabilized rice bran, vegetable oil—but many other high-quality feeds still contain more traditional ingredients—oats and corn. Different situations call for different feeds based on the individual horse and what is being asked of the horse.
I agree with you: the horse industry has changed significantly since the early 1980s. By and far, these changes have benefitted horses. These days, we deworm based on fecal egg counts to avoid drug resistance; we depend on skilled professionals and high-tech tools to diagnose and treat lamenesses, even death-defying fractures; we employ teams of professional caretakers to keep teeth in fine fettle, to keep hoofs balanced and sound, to keep joints and tissues unlocked and unknotted; and we feed scientifically formulated feeds and appropriate forages to meet individual nutritional needs. All things considered, it is a better life for horses now than it was in our parents’ or grandparents’ day.
