Adice please

[dolphin]

How do you provide lipids and proteins in a horses diet? what sort of things can you feed?

[Horsey Bird]

Right, before I answer this, bear in mind I'm not an expert nutrionalist and this is just what I have learned (or think I have learned!!)

basically, lipids = fats. Any oil based food supplement would provide lipids but only feed according to need.

Protein is readily available in QUALITY hay/haylage/grass. I stress good quality; poor quality foodstuffs are low in most nutrients including protein.

Remember horses were designed to live on grasses, plants & trees...as domesticated animals their diet has changed somewhat because most grazing cannot offer the variety of grass plants that a horse living in the wild might find. But horses dont (to my knowledge) require oils to be added to their diet but you shoudl check this out.

If your horse is in low/medium work, most of its diet should come from grass based feeds. This also has the advantage of being full of fibre which is essential for your horses health.

My horse lives out 24/7 and probalby will do for most of the winter. She's not rugged yet and so I've started feeding her hard feed of Equilibra, chaff & a hoof supplement because she's not shod. She's also on additional hay. The additional feed is to help keep her warm (because horses convert food to heat)

Its important to feed according to need. Is the horse doing a lot of work? Is it outdoors in all weathers? Those are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself before adding anything "fancy" to your horses diet. My experience has been that people sometimes add various foods to their horses diet and its not always necessary. Its often wasted money. There are a lot of good books out there which could explain it a lot better than I can.
g
M

[dolphin]

thanks thats really useful i should probably have mentioned thought that i only need to know this info for an essay im writing so work load etc doesnt come into it thanks for the info

[dolphin]

anyone?

[Nerys]

There's a really good book you should get a copy of. Its called:

Beyond the Hay days

And it really is a simple explanation of nutrition requirements of the horse.

I will add a few things to Horsey Bird's posting.

1) oil does have its place in a horse's diet. This said, you need to look at the nutritional requirements of the horse. A maintenance horse (pasture ornament, or only ridden lightly every 1 or 2 weeks, or one of the delightful ones who gains weight at the sight of hay) doesn't need it. A horse who is in extremely strenuous activity (think grand prix dressage or jumping, or active breeding stallions) 6-7 days of the week will be unable to gain enough energy from concentrates and hay simply because of the limitation of stomach capacity.

2) lipids are fats/oils

I'll add more when i get time. Statistics awaits!

[dolphin]

all i want to know is what feeds are useful when you want to feed lipids i know what lipids are why they are needed how much a horse needs etc but what feedstuffs can you give that contain lipids

[Kerry's Partner]

I don't know...............but......................I think I understand why you asked the question. If I got this bit right and I were you I'd explain what I wanted to know by providing a copy of the essay question and I'd ask my local vet.

Hope this helps.