Question

I own a mature draft horse stallion. He consumes a five-gallon bucket of carrots in the morning and then another in the evening, split between two meals (5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.). I have fed carrots in this way for nearly seven decades, and my dad did so before me while owning over 100 head of Standardbreds and drafts. The carrots are a good water substitute in winter if pipes freeze, and they are a reasonably inexpensive feedstuff, as we live close to the marsh area where they are grown. These carrots are culls from those grown and harvested for human consumption and are discarded when they go through the assembly line. They are normally somewhat washed at least once. This stallion has eaten them since he arrived here as a yearling. The horses seem to do well on carrots, and they do put weight on with them. Carrots seem to change their coat color a little, their manure is loose, and they certainly enjoy them. My question is this: as I read more about nutrition, is there anything I should worry about in feeding this many carrots?

Answer

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of horses eating that many carrots. I knew a farm in California that fed 15 lb (6.8 kg) a day to all their horses. One can only afford to do that if they live near or on a carrot farm! Because the horse doesn’t have metabolic issues, there is probably no harm with feeding this many carrots. The biggest concern would be if the horse was not consuming enough forage with the carrots and coming up a bit short on certain nutrients. A complete ration evaluation would determine this. Without the other dietary components, we can only guess how the carrots figure into the stallion’s total diet.

Assuming a five-gallon bucket of carrots, weighs 12-15 lb (5.5-6.8 kg), let’s have a look at what a horse may be consuming nutritionally from a meal of carrots (12 lb or 5.5 kg).

Carrots are approximately 85-90% water, so the horse is only getting about 1.5 lb of dry matter. Of that, 25% is water-soluble carbohydrates, so that means there is about 0.36 lb (~6 oz) of sugar, and about half that amount of soluble fiber (~3 oz). Now, spread the intake out over the couple of hours it probably takes the horse to eat the 12 lb (5.5 kg), slowing the rate of glucose entry into the bloodstream. With this in mind, it is not a whole lot of sugar, but it is a lot of water. The high water intake could explain the loose manure. The calories, according to EquiAnalytical, are 1.3 Mcal/lb DM so if the horse is eating 12 lb (5.5 kg) per feeding that would be 2 Mcal, a total of 4 Mcal per day. That is a significant number of calories and could account for the excess weight on the horse.

I’m not surprised that there is some coat color change because of the high amount of beta-carotene consumed from the carrots per day. Not all beta-carotene will be converted to vitamin A; some will be absorbed as carotenes, which will be incorporated into body tissues, giving them an orangey tinge. Carrots do not contain significant amounts of other nutrients.

Interestingly, the cavalry used to feed large amounts of carrots to horses when forage and water were in short supply. Carrots were also commonly fed to their horses that were convalescing. From the book “The Horse and His Diseases” by Robert Jennings, published in 1860:

“The virtue of carrots are not sufficiently known, both as contributing to the strength and endurance of the sound horse, and to the rapid recovery of the sick one. To the healthy horses, they should be given sliced in his chaff. Will be a fair daily allowance. There is little in provender [food], of which the horse is more fond. There is none better, nor, perhaps is so good. When first given, it is slightly diuretic and laxative, but as the horse becomes accustomed to it, these effects cease to be produced. They also improve the state of the skin. They form a good substitute for grass, and an excellent alternative for horses out of condition. For sick and idle horses they render grain unnecessary. They are beneficial in all chronic diseases connected with breathing, and have a marked influence upon chronic cough and broken wind. They are serviceable in diseases of the skin, and in combination with oats they restore a worn horse much sooner than oats alone.”

All horses should be fed a diet that supplies the nutrients necessary for optimal health based on their stage of life and the work asked of them.