The type and amount of grass and hay should be selected to provide as much of a horse's energy requirement as possible. But, when forage alone will not meet energy needs, fats and/or grains should be fed.

Even though grains are the traditional sources of extra energy in horse rations, there are many reasons to choose fats over grains. Fats provide 2¼ times as much energy per pound as grains, allowing you to supplement forages with fats, rather than replacing forages with grains. Also, horses fed fats are less likely to suffer from digestive and metabolic disorders, such as colic, founder, tying-up and gastric ulcers than horses fed large amounts of grains.

Typical forages contain about 1% fat and grains contain about 3 to 5% fat. However, research has shown that fats and oils can be fed at up to 15% of the total ration or 3 to 4.5 pounds of pure fat per day.

It is very unlikely you will ever need to feed that much fat in order to meet your horse’s energy needs. Corn oil, soybean oil, and stabilized rice bran, which contains over 20% fat, are efficiently digested by horses and are excellent sources of energy.
 

Pure vegetable oils are not water-soluble. They mix better with other digestive contents when included in a grain mix or pelleted feed than when top-dressed over feed. Stabilized rice bran is water soluble and very digestible, so it can be fed alone, top-dressed, or mixed into texturized or pelleted feeds.

So remember, fats are beneficial sources of energy that allow you to feed more forage and also reduce your horse’s risk of colic and founder. Choose forage and fats for your horse’s health.

For More Information e-mail at AN_EquineHelp@admworld.com

or call toll free
EQUINE NUTRITION HELPLINE
1-800-680-8254
7:30 AM to 4:30 PM Central Time
ADM Alliance Nutrition, Inc. 1000 North 30th Street P.O. Box C1 Quincy, IL USA 62305-3155