Question
I have been considering feeding my horse beet pulp instead of grain. He does not like to eat his supplements in his current grain, and it would be nice to reduce his intake of processed products. He would not be getting very much beet pulp, somewhere around 0.5-1 lb (0.23-0.45 kg) once a day. He gets a vitamin and mineral supplement right now. Could I just increase how much of that he gets to fill in the nutritional gaps of beet pulp? He gets unlimited forage—hay in the winter and grass in other seasons. He is a very healthy 11-year-old Andalusian gelding that is a very easy keeper. Any information concerning beet pulp would be greatly appreciated.
Answer
From your description, it seems your horse has access to plenty of forage year-round, and that is a great jumping-off point. Because he is an easy keeper and is able to maintain his weight on primarily forage, he simply needs a product to supply him with those essential vitamins and minerals missing from forage. The ration balancer you’re currently feeding him provides those nutrients. According to that manufacturer’s website, he is receiving the amount recommended for idle horses. If he is being worked regularly, that should be doubled, based on the manufacturer’s information. It is imperative to feed products per the recommendations, as only then will horses consume the quantity of nutrients guaranteed on the label.
You mentioned your horse’s Andalusian heritage and the fact that he’s an easy keeper. Many horses of this breeding and metabolic type are prone to metabolic disorders as they age. The nutritionists at Kentucky Equine Research (KER) formulated a vitamin and mineral supplement expressly for horses at risk for metabolic issues. The name of the product is Micro-Max, and it is a low-calorie, low-starch source of vitamins and minerals. Micro-Max includes yeast culture for enhanced digestion of fiber and other nutrients. Should you choose to use Micro-Max, this would replace the ration balancer completely. (Australian horse owners have access to these research-proven vitamin and mineral products.)
If you would like to feed beet pulp, a byproduct of sugar beet processing, to act as a carrier for supplements, there is no harm in that. Feeding 1-1.5 lb (0.45-0.68 kg) per day will cause no problems, as it is a readily fermentable fiber source and palatable to most horses.
Horsemen seem to be divided into two camps when it comes to feeding beet pulp: the “must soaks” and the “soaking optional.” Beet pulp has been implicated in some cases of choke, so many horsemen feel more comfortable soaking beet pulp before feeding it. Choke, though, often is a result of how horses consume their feed (usually in a greedy way without proper chewing) rather than the type of feed. If the beet pulp is coated with molasses, as many brands are, soaking will also remove some of the sugar from the product, and this is beneficial for horses that don’t need extra calories from molasses or for horses that are sensitive to sugar. It may be possible, of course, to purchase unmolassed or plain beet pulp, too.
