Feed Regime

Note is continuing to make good progress with riding training going slowly at the walk and trot.  Today was his third successful slow ride in a row.  I think I've finally gotten around the corner with him and now we are really on our way to a well behaved quiet horse.

Note has been a tricky one to work with for several reasons.  First he is smart and knew all the ins and outs of being a racehorse, including what was right and wrong behavior in that job.  Second he has a temper, and when he thought I was doing something the wrong way (and I was from a racehorse's point of view!) he would get mad at me.  This included things like standing at the mounting block and riding on a loose rein because he was used to being mounted while moving, and riding with strong contact with the bit.  Third he is dramatically changing physically as he develops different muscling, so tack changes have been frequent.  Fourth I have had to get quite specific with his feed.

While there are many facets of retraining a racehorse, the feed is what I want to focus on this evening because I'm counting it as my latest victory in unraveling Note's behavior.  Just like people are affected differently by different types of food, horses can react differently to different feeds.  For example, I have a good friend who basically lives on Diet Coke.  She drinks it all day long, and even right before bed and has no trouble getting to sleep.  I, on the other hand, drink a half a can of Coke at 1pm and I'm up all night.  We react very differently to caffeine! 

All my horses are free-fed extremely high quality timothy hay as the basis of their diet.  Along these lines of our caffeine example, I have had horses, including hot-blooded breeds like Arabians and Thoroughbreds, eating a lower starch feed brand for years and I've never had a horse get hot on it.  I have had great success with this recipe when mixed with beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, Platinum Performance Equine vitamin supplement, with stabilized ground rice bran and soybean oil for added fat.  Occasionally I do have a horse come through the barn who gets hot and excitable with the alfalfa pellets, but that's a simple one to eliminate. 

I was suspicious that Note was reacting to something in his feed because the horse NEVER ran out of steam.  I could have lunged him for hours and he would get extremely sweaty and lathered, but he never acted tired.  Normally when I see a horse who is struggling with his diet I see more of a "can't think" behavior.  The horse can't focus or process what I'm asking of him, he simply reacts and exhibits flighty behavior.  Note manifested this a little differently.  He could think just fine, though he had temper tantrums when things didn't go his way.  He would accurately think through and perform every tricky footwork exercise I would give him.  These included poles, tires, jumps, and cones, but he would be terribly frustrated when I wanted him to do it slowly.  He also DESPISED standing tied at the horse trailer, even with a hay bag, if he had gotten wound up.

After a few weeks in a regular work schedule, I had gotten Note so fit that no amount of lunging would tire him out.  He was like an energizer bunny, he never ever decided to stop on his own.  While he didn't seem to have any trouble focusing, I wondered if I could make some changes in his feed to help him settle.  First I took him off the alfalfa pellets because that's a usual suspect in these situations.  I didn't notice any difference in him after two weeks, which is usually enough time to notice some sort of change.  The actual complete impact can take six to eight weeks for full effect, but I can usually see some sort of difference in the first two weeks.  However, Note had no change with removing the alfalfa from his diet.  I couldn't remove all of his supplemental feed and keep him just on the hay, because even free-feeding he needed more calories to keep a good body weight with the work load he has in training.

Next I started researching non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) levels.  For the sake of this discussion NSC's are basically simple starches and sugars.  Just as a human would do better to eat whole grains (complex carbohydrates) rather than pixie sticks (straight sugar), horses also generally do better eating foods with lower NSC levels. 

I discovered that the commercial feed I was using had an NSC level of 38%.  This is okay compared to straight oats often fed at the track to racehorses, which can be up to 67%.  However, it could still be enough to make Note hot.  I began the process of switching him over to a feed that is specifically designed for horses sensitive to sugars, even horses who have metabolic disorders whose bodies can't process them and get sick with too much NSC.  This new feed has a 9.5% NSC.  I don't think Note has a metabolic disorder, but I do think he is as sensitive to NSCs as I am to caffeine! 

I made the change gradually.  The first week I split the old feed and the new feed half and half.  He was still getting his hay, beet pulp, and fats as usual.  The second week I took him off the old feed completely and fed exclusively the new feed with his usual beet pulp and fats.  It was a little hard for him, he didn't like the new feed as much.  I can't say I blame him, I don't like to eat broccoli as much as cookies, either.  We are now in our third week of the food experiment, and the proof is in our rides this week.  Note has not bucked at all this week, even on the lunge line.  He has not bolted, and has only startled a few times when a dog unexpectedly darts into the arena through the tall grass outside the fence.  He is now happily eating the new feed mixture, which means I'm going to vote success on this experiment! 

This is my feed room.  The white buckets on the floor are each horse's mash all dished up.  The really full one is Highboy's, he has the metabolism of a hummingbird and eats pounds and pounds of feed every day in addition to free choice hay.  The black plastic cans are filled with each type of feed:  beet pulp, Purina Strategy, Ranch Way's Sound Starch, alfalfa pellets. 

I am careful to keep track of each horse's feed by weight, not by volume.  For this reason I have a scale in the feed room as well.

I use different sized scoops depending on how much each horse needs, but I weigh each scoop of each feed.  For example, the beet pulp pellets are more dense than the strategy pellets, so the scoop of beet pulp weighs more than the same size scoop of strategy.  In addition to as much hay as he can eat, Note is now getting 3 lbs of beet pulp, 3 lbs of Ranch Way's Sound Starch, ground rice bran, ulcer prevention supplement, and soybean oil, all divided into two feedings.  If he continues to do well with this recipe I may try to reintroduce the alfalfa pellets because it is a great source of calcium and good for the gut to fend off ulcers, but one thing at a time.