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What's in the Feed? Part II.
by David W. Ramey, D.V.M. |
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| Last month, we shared part of the chapter, "What's in the Feed" from Dr. Ramey's book, Horsefeathers: Facts Vs. Myths About Your Horse's Health. This time, we'll finish the chapter with Dr. Ramey's take on vitamins, minerals and water. |
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Vitamin is a broad term used to describe a number of unrelated organic substances that occur in many foods in small amounts. These are generally used by the body to help run the chemical reactions that go on as part of everyday living. It's pretty difficult to make a horse's diet deficient in vitamins.
Minerals are also useful in many of the chemical reactions of the body. Some minerals are essential components of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), hormones, and vitamins. They also are important in some of the body's tissues (for instance, bone needs calcium).
The rest of what makes up feed, like ash and fiber, is basically garbage. Ash is the residue you get when you burn feed during analysis. Fiber is fairly inert matter that is most obvious in the stems of the hay your horse eats. Neither has much nutritional value. Ash and fiber are like the cardboard box that your breakfast cereal comes in, without the good reading material. You can't get horse feed without the ash and fiber.
Water is necessary for all normal body functions. While water has no nutritional value, it is absolutely essential for life. The horse must restore the liquids that his body loses during the day, through breathing, sweating and eliminating waste products. Feed is a poor source of water, as you might imagine, since most horse feed is dried prior to feeding, so horses need to have unlimited access to all the water they want. Water should always be clean and fresh.
You're probably reading this thinking, "My horse gets a scientifically balanced formula of four grains with specific supplements added for coat, tail and hoof. What does all this have to do with anything, anyway?" Keep reading. Remember the "horses are like cars" analogy (from the Preface). You probably own a car (unless you own too many horses). Your car needs gas, oil and regular maintenance. Your horse needs enough feed to supply his energy and protein needs, and he also needs water. The rest is all fuzzy dice and little dolls that have bobbing heads. (Never act like one of those dolls when someone tells you something that you have to do, by the way.)
Since all feeds are packages containing varying amounts of the same things, it's not that one feed is better than another, it's that each feed is different from another. The differences make certain feeds more appropriate for some situations than others. For example, alfalfa hay has more calcium, more energy (from all sources) and more protein than grass-type hays. All hays have less energy than grains. Most grains have less protein in them than hays.
So if your horse is too fat (as many are) you should choose a feed that has less energy in it. A grass type of hay, for example, may be more suitable for your overweight horse than a higher-energy hay like alfalfa. The grass hay isn't better, it's just more appropriate. A high-energy feed, like a grain, would probably not be a great thing to feed him, either. See how easy this is? Keep It Simple, Silly.
This book cannot analyze all types of feed. Endless tables on this sort of thing, produced by animal nutritionists, are available and absolutely mind-numbing to read. They are informative, however. If you want to know all the particulars about a certain feed, look them up in nutrition books. Then go on to the next chapters to read about how (and how not) to apply the feeds that are available to your horse.
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Vet Talk with Dr. David Ramey
is a monthly column for tips on horse care. Dr. Ramey, author of numerous books and articles, is Dominion Saddlery's resident online vet. Dr. David Ramey is a 1983 graduate of Colorado State University. After completing an internship in equine medicine and surgery at Iowa State University in 1984, he moved to Southern California and began general equine practice, specializing in the care and treatment of performance horses from a variety of disciplines. Dr. Ramey is the author of numerous articles in the lay and professional press, as well as several books, including Horsefeathers: Facts vs. Myths about Your Horse's Health and the Concise Guide Series on equine health care. Look for them at Dominion Saddlery. |
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