Hard Keepers

Feeding Rates

Feeding Problems

Feeding performance horses is dependent on what stage the training is in. Firstly, the growth of muscle mass and subsequent core strength is most important. To support the growth of muscle mass, a horse can require in excess of 20 pounds per day in the initial stages of training, and then a reduction to about 10 pounds per day during normal work associated with training.  During a break from competition, the amount fed can be reduced to 4 pounds per day and then increased if required.

Many performance horses are stalled in barns, much to the detriment of their performance potential. The most common reported issue regarding initial rejection of this feed by performance horses, is when they are stalled where horses are fed a ration containing molasses. The horses smell the sweetened ration and become reluctant to eat a non flavored or sweetened feed like Thrive Feed. The  acceptance to this product by your horse or horses is going to be governed by many factors.

Many times I hear people refer to their horses as "hard keepers". What they really mean without knowing it, is that their horse has either a lot of nervous energy that needs to be supported with extra calorific intake, and/or digestive inefficiency that won't allow the assimilation of sufficient calories to support the metabolism in its normal function. Either way, it's not normal.

Horses are designed to survive, we are the ones that compromise their digestive systems and stress them out with all sorts of unnatural environments and actions. We justify the actions we take as normal horse handling and continue on oblivious to the truth.

If you have a hard keeper, their are most likely two factors to consider.

1. 1.Hot adapted horses, (Thoroughbreds, Arabians, Running bred Quarter horses for instance) use a lot more energy to support the nervousness they exhibit than cold adapted horses like warmbloods and heavy horses. The brain uses more energy pound for pound, than any other organ in a mammals body, so it follows that the more the brain is used, the more energy it will burn. Also, the horses body uses more energy in movement associated with flight response than a more calm horse, but that is the thin edge of the wedge.
   

2. 2.Horses have two very separate forms of digestion, unlike humans.
   

Horses have a small intestine that is small in diameter, but not in length, it's nearly 50 foot long, that uses enzymes, acids, and bile salts, to break down components of what a horse eats susceptible to those processes. The balance of the bolus (the chewed material the horse swallows) continues on to the first stage of the "hind gut", the cecum. This very important component of digestion is a large sack, like a very overgrown human appendix. In a horse, the cecum is where the fermentation of grass fiber takes place. In a naturally grazed horse, there a two distinct types of microbes in this fermentation sack. Protozoa are the larger of the two, and are slimy, lazy converters of energy. They like an more acidic environment, and flourish and overpower their hardworking team members, the bacteria who thrive in a more alkaline. Intestinal parasites also like a more acidic environment. When I talk about acid and alkaline, these are not huge changes, and in fact it takes very little change to make a large difference in the protozoal/bacterial ratio.

The hard working, efficient, bacterial colonies in the cecum like a higher or more alkaline pH. Normal horse feeds containing unprocessed grains including starches support an acidic response in the hind gut. The more a horses cecum can be brought into the normal pH reference range, the more efficient it will be at fermenting and utilizing energy from grass and other fermentable fiber.