Feeding To Win With Less Grain
By Mike Flarida, 2 Time NRHA Futurity & USET Winner
As
a young man of 14, I was given a piece of advice about horses by a
very wise old man. I didn’t pay attention to his advice at the time,
but his words would come back to haunt me nearly thirty years later.
At that time in my life, I had a mare that was a little hot and
pretty aggressive. One day she came up lame, and our local
veterinarian, who was 70 years old, treated her for a bowed tendon.
Not long after that, she got sore again.
After the vet tended to my mare again, he said, “I want to give you
some advice, young man. Nature designed horses to be grazers. If
you’ll reduce the amount of sweet feed and corn you’re feeding her
and give her some good hay and supplements and let her be a horse,
she should stay sound and feel better, too.” In other words, I was
giving her too much of what her body didn’t need and not enough of
what it did need, thus causing the problems. Of course, when you’re
a kid you think anyone over 30 doesn’t know what they’re talking
about. So, I didn’t take his advice. But, for some reason, I did
store it away in my memory.
Years later, after hearing about a feeding program called NEW
GENERATION NUTRITION® (now known as FORAGE FIRST®), I found out just
how smart that veterinarian was. Like anyone in the competitive
world of reining, I have always wanted to make sure my horses were
well nourished and stayed sound. And, like most, my feeding program
had always consisted of ten to twelve pounds of grain per day and
more good-quality hay. However, a few years ago I began experiencing
injuries to some of my horses and became dissatisfied with my
feeding program.
At about the same time, a MoorMan’s® representative approached me
about trying a new feeding program, created by MoorMan’s, Inc. (now
known as ADM Alliance Nutrition®) and Wolcott Farms Inc., called
FORAGE FIRST. He explained to me that this program was designed to
work in harmony with the way nature designed a horse’s digestive
system to work while also providing the proper amounts of nutrients.
This breakthrough feeding program consists stabilized rice bran and MoorMan’s brand GROSTRONG® vitamins
and minerals.
The MoorMan’s representative also claimed that, when fed together
with high-quality hay, the results would be improved performance,
endurance and/or appearance within three to four weeks. Then, he
left me stunned when he explained that, for my horses in training, I
only needed to feed a pound and a half of stabilized
rice bran a day along with the MoorMan’s GROSTRONG Minerals and
little, if any, grain plus high-quality hay to get these results.
That was all the feed necessary to keep my horses healthy and sound.
Somewhere, I had heard this all before. Then I recalled the advice
the old veterinarian had given me so many years earlier. I was still
somewhat skeptical but, at that point I was ready to try something
new and decided that sometimes a person just has to take a leap of
faith.
That’s exactly what I did, and the results have been phenomenal! I
instantly saw shinier hair coats and improved body weight and muscle
structure. Suddenly, I saw FORAGE FIRST as the answer to many of my
problems. Now, instead of feeding 10-12 pounds of grain, I feed 1
1/2 pounds of
HEALTY GLO™ stabilized rice bran - flax blends and place a GROSTRONG
QuadBLOCK® in each stall. I like the convenience of the QuadBLOCKs,
because it is easier for the people who do the feeding for me.
Because of FORAGE FIRST, not only do my horses look better, but
their performance in the arena and stamina on the road have
increased as well.
On my old feeding program, a major concern was “tying up” (muscle
fatigue) and kidney problems on Monday morning after returning from
grueling weekend reining events. To prevent this from happening, I
would have to be very careful how much I worked my horses
immediately after each competition. Since starting on this feeding
program, this is no longer a concern. Also, the horses really like
this feed. Therefore, I never have to worry about them going off
feed while I’m on the road.
During the summer months, when it’s especially hot, my two-year-old
futurity prospects have always become a little gaunt and experienced
shrinkage through the hips and back after a hard workout. In the
past, I was always on the lookout for colic, too. Ten to twelve
pounds of grain is a lot for a horse to digest, especially when
you’re in the middle of a heat wave where it’s so easy for them to
overheat. I’ve always known that a horse’s digestive tract is very
sensitive, but I still thought it was necessary to feed that amount
of grain to put the proper nutrients into their system. With FORAGE
FIRST, I no longer worry about any of these problems.
Physically, I’ve noticed that FORAGE FIRST puts a bloom on my horses
like nothing I’ve ever seen before. My horses have gained weight
through the back and hips and have a beautiful hair coat. I also
believe that, in order to achieve optimum results with your horses,
it should all begin with the broodmare. That’s why I have my
broodmares on FORAGE FIRST as well. This ensures that the foals
they’re carrying will get the proper balance of nutrients; thus,
giving them a stronger start in life. And, when I consider futurity
prospects, I prefer colts that have been fed properly from
conception on. I believe they have a better chance of withstanding
the rigors of futurity preparation. The most significant difference
I’ve noticed with this feeding program is that it tends to keep a
horse’s personality, or mind, on a more even keel.
On my former feeding program, with heavy grain rations, there were
severe physical and mental highs and lows. A horse might have a big
burst of energy at the beginning of his workout, yet be somewhat
fatigued at the end. On FORAGE FIRST, I have horses whose
willingness to work is the same at the end of an hour’s workout as
it was at the beginning. I might also add, the majority of the
horses in my barn are stallions that are now more of a pleasure to
ride. I can now take any horse in my barn right out of the stall and
go to work within a few minutes with much less ride-down time
required. I’ve also experienced fewer injuries resulting in lower
vet bills. Now that is a definite added bonus!
These are all a lot of the little benefits for a training program
that combined add up to great successes in the show arena. In my years
of showing reining horses, one of the highlights has been winning
the 1996 NRHA Futurity with Whizard Jac. This horse has beauty,
power, strength, agility, heart, and willingness. He is a FORAGE
FIRST horse. Feeding to win with less grain was once a totally
foreign concept to me. Now, with FORAGE FIRST, it makes perfect
sense. And, finally, I want to give credit to my veterinarian who
first told me this over thirty years ago, and to ADM Alliance
Nutrition for making it a reality for me today.
January 1999
NOTE: In 1999, reining became the sixth United States
Equestrian Team (USET) discipline, meaning that reining was well on
its way to being an Olympic Equestrian sport. In the first half of
the year, there were seven qualifying events where a long list of
386 competitors (compiled by the USET) vied for 21 finalist
positions in reining at the USET Festival of Champions. In June, at
Gladstone, NJ, Mike Flarida and Whizard Jac (six year old Quarter
Horse stallion) tied for first place with a score of 226.5 in the
first go-round of the finals. The pair then returned with a 230.5 in
the second go-round to win the competition by an astonishing 2½
points with a total of 457 points. Whizard Jac’s win in Gladstone
put him at the top of the NRHA’s Leading Lifetime Money Earners
List. Reining was not part of the Olympics in 2000, therefore,
Whizard Jac was retired, for the second time, during the USET awards
ceremony, and currently stands at stud in Ohio, USA.
