14/08/2024
🍴𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐔𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞?
🎢 Strap in for another one of Karly's pet peeve articles boys and girls. Today the topic at hand is "complete" feeds.
🔍 By definition, a complete feed should be able to be fed to horses at the recommended daily feed rate with nothing other than roughage to achieve a balanced diet that meets ALL daily nutrient requirements. A complete feed is NOT a ration balancer (balancer pellet or powdered supplement) and typically has a recommended daily feed rate that is high enough to offer digestible energy (calories) alongside vitamins, minerals, amino acids etc. Can you already see my eye twitching?
🎨 Let me paint a picture for you. Someone is asking for a recommendation on a complete feed for their horse that will balance the diet and is easy to feed out. This is the only information available and everyone who is about to make a recommendation is doing so without knowing the horse's weight, age, breed, body condition score, workload, pasture/hay species, or if there are any underlying health issues such as tender footedness (a gentle way of saying the horse has thin soles or inflammation of the laminae) or a history of gastric ulcers.
🐴 Would any one of these "complete" feed recommendations suit every single one of the following horses?
1. A mare who is still being lightly ridden throughout the later stages of her pregnancy.
2. A three-year-old gelding who is being started under saddle and being ridden or exercised 5 days a week.
3. A mature-aged stallion who is still lightly ridden in between breeding season duties.
4. An overweight mare with fat deposits and a cresty neck.
5. A gelding who is grazing on predominantly high oxalate grass species such as Kikuyu or Setaria.
6. A gelding who receives 5kg of lucerne hay per day because there is no other species available due to hay shortages.
7. A mare who receives only oaten hay because there is no other species available due to hay shortages.
8. A senior-aged gelding who is semi-retired but still enjoys the occasional trail ride.
9. A mare who is competitively showjumping and is ridden 5-6 days per week.
10. A gelding who is a children's mount and only ridden on weekends.
👁️ Now both of my eyes are twitching. There is NO such thing as a complete feed for any and all horses. I could not formulate something that balances all diets no matter how hard I tried. It is impossible and the root of SO many of the issues we see in our equines today because we expect them to fit the mould of what is convenient for US rather than focusing on what is appropriate for THEM.
⚖️ I have assessed thousands of equine intakes and the sad truth is that a good 80-90% of the diets I look at that are based on complete feeds (regardless of whether the recommended daily feed rate is being provided or not) are deficient in a few if not several nutrients and/or have imbalanced nutrients ratios; the most common being inadequate copper and zinc relevant to the amount of iron in the diet. Heck, half of these complete feeds have added iron which, if you were actually up to speed on what is and isn't necessary, you should know is highly counterproductive.
💭 I could go on and on about this topic, and you don't need to pay an Equine Nutritionist to learn or better your understanding of ration balancing, it just takes a little more commitment and a little less ignorance. I'd like to further indulge this artic-rant (article x rant) with an insight into how things could go SO wrong for any of the abovementioned horses should their caretaker decide to implement a complete feed for them without exercising due diligence.
1. A mare who is still being lightly ridden throughout the later stages of her pregnancy.
➖ Pregnant mares have a significantly higher requirement for nutrients once they enter their third trimester of pregnancy and especially into lactation.
➖ Would any of the recommended complete feeds be able to guarantee that she was receiving enough digestible energy, calcium, phosphorus, and essential amino acids to not only address her workload requirements but also ensure her unborn foal was developing well in utero?
➖ What if this mare started dropping weight but was already being fed the recommended daily feed rate of a complete feed? Should she not be in perfect health and condition if it were balancing her diet as suggested?
2. A three-year-old gelding who is being started under saddle and being ridden or exercised 5 days a week.
➖ Just like breeding stock, young and developing horses have significantly higher nutrient requirements when compared to mature horses. This is without even considering if there are also workload pressures further increasing their requirements.
➖ With the stress and unfamiliarity of this horse being started under saddle, is it possible he has developed gastric ulcers or maybe some hindgut acidosis? Would a grain-based complete feed marketed toward breeding and growing horses be the most appropriate choice or would he perhaps feel better on a feeding regime that was higher in digestible fibre and lower in sugar and starch?
➖ Would a highly processed and/or sugar and starch dense complete feed contribute to any long-term digestive or metabolic issues if this gelding happened to have a genetic predisposition to say... Equine Metabolic Syndrome?
3. A mature-aged stallion who is still lightly ridden in between breeding season duties.
➖ Breeding stallions are often overlooked and it is forgotten that just like broodmares, they too have increased nutrient requirements to not only maintain their health but also support aspects such as libido and fertility.
➖ Would a complete feed with a daily feeding rate of only a kilogram provide enough digestible energy and protein for this stallion to fulfill his riding and breeding duties?
➖ Does the chosen complete feed undoubtedly provide enough zinc so this stallion has normal sperm production? Is the zinc in this premixed appropriately balanced alongside other competing trace elements such as copper and iron so that secondary deficiencies aren't observed?
4. An overweight mare with fat deposits and a cresty neck.
➖ Overweight horses do not need complete feeds. Period. Regardless of how low in sugar and starch it is, an overweight horse does not need a complete feed with a feeding rate of 500g, 800g, 2kg per day.
➖ What if the caretaker of this mare was told to feed her a grain-free complete feed because it was "low calorie" but they needed to feed her a kilogram per day to meet her nutrient requirements? Would this potentially be counterproductive to her waistline?
➖ What if it was obvious that this mare did not need the calories provided by a kilogram of this feed daily, so her caretaker only fed her 500g. Would this potentially result in nutrient deficiencies?
5. A gelding who is grazing on predominantly high oxalate grass species such as Kikuyu or Setaria.
➖ Horses who are grazing on high oxalate pasture species typically have a higher requirement for not only calcium, but they also need increased concentrations of phosphorus and magnesium so that secondary deficiencies do not occur. There are optimal calcium:oxalate, calcium:phosphorous, and calcium:magnesium ratios that should be aimed for.
➖ Would any of the recommended complete feeds cater for a horse with a moderate to high intake of oxalates? What species of grass is this horse grazing on? What grass species does he take preference to if there is more than one present throughout his paddock?
➖ What if this gelding also receives 5kg of lucerne hay per day? Would this influence how much calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium (if any) needs to be added to his diet to achieve optimal balance? Would the chosen complete feed factor this in?
6. A gelding who receives 5kg of lucerne hay per day because there is no other species available due to hay shortages.
➖ What pasture species is this horse grazing on? Are there any moderate or high oxalate species present?
➖ 5kg of lucerne would provide quite a lot of calcium per day, so would this horse need a complete feed with added calcium as well?
➖ Maybe this horse needs a feed or supplement with a decent phosphorus and magnesium concentration to balance out all of the calcium he is receiving from his lucerne hay?
7. A mare who receives only oaten hay because there is no other species available due to hay shortages.
➖ What pasture species is this horse grazing on? Are there any moderate or high oxalate species present? Would the oxalate value of the pasture make the higher phosphorus levels in the oaten hay even more of an issue for a horse at risk of bone resorption?
➖ Oaten hay is generally higher in phosphorus, so would this horse need extra calcium so that an optimal calcium:phosphorus ratio is achieved? Maybe their complete feed needs to have significantly more calcium than phosphorus, or no phosphorus at all?
➖ Oaten hay can be high in sodium, so how much salt is added to the chosen complete feed and how does this influence how much loose salt needs to be added to the diet?
8. A senior-aged gelding who is semi-retired but still enjoys the occasional trail ride.
➖ Senior-aged horses have a significantly higher requirement for some nutrients (calcium and phosphorus for example) than other horses do.
➖ In his older years, has this horse's body condition score begun to slightly decline? Does he need more protein or fibre than what the complete feed provides to enhance microbial fermentation through winter?
➖ Is this gelding's digestive efficacy influenced by his age? How are the ingredients in the chosen complete feed processed? Are they raw or extruded?
9. A mare who is competitively showjumping and is ridden 5-6 days per week.
➖ How well does this mare currently perform during competition? How well does she recover?
➖ Is this mare lacking in energy and experiencing fatigue during her recovery? Does the complete feed chosen for her provide enough quick-release energy to support her workload requirements and replenish her glycogen stores?
➖ Perhaps this mare is lacking focus and is rushing her showjumping rounds? What if she's being overloaded with starch because the complete feed is based on corn or barley? Undigested starch could be making its way to her hindgut and causing hindgut acidosis.
10. A gelding who is a children's mount and only ridden on weekends.
➖ What is this gelding's body condition score looking like? Is he underweight, overweight, or just right? The complete feed he is being fed is marketed toward pleasure horses but the recommended feeding rate is still 1.5kg per day. Does he need this much food if only being ridden by children? What does the ingredient profile look like and does it match the advertising of being a cool feed?
➖ What if it was spring and there was a sudden flush of pasture growth resulting in some uncharacteristic behavioural changes. Does the complete feed being fed provide enough magnesium to support sugar metabolism during this seasonal adjustment?
➖ This gelding can be a little stiff when being ridden. Is the complete feed providing enough sodium and chloride to support fluid balance, or perhaps it is falling short of vitamin E because his pasture quality hasn’t been fantastic?
🐎 Many dietary deficiencies and imbalances are considered SEVERE by the time we begin seeing clinical symptoms. I am certainly not insinuating that SOME complete feeds are not great choices for SOME horses, however I find it frustrating how often a feed is assumed complete simply because that word is printed on the bag. There are far too many horses with digestive, immune, metabolic, weight, hoof, skin, coat, and behavioural issues that are caused by US because we are a society of convenience.
