Horse owners often get "in a tiz" about feeding their horse.  Often it is not as complicated as the feed companies make it seem.  There are also a lot of feeding myths floating around which confuse people even more.  Hopefully this article will help if you are one of the confused!

Firstly lets dispel some feeding myths.

1-"Feeds high in protien make my horse go mad"
Its not the protien in the feed that will heat up your horse, protien is used for the growth and repair of cells.  If anything it will be the energy content of the feed making your horse bonkers.  This myth comes from the olden days when the energy content wasnt listed on the feed bags.  Feeds high in energy are often high in protien too, so if someones horse went fizzy on a feed, they checked the label and blamed the protien.  If your horse gets fizzy try cutting down the energy level you are feeding him, or increase his workload.   Its not usually the type of feed that makes him fizzy it will more likely be the amount fed. Excess energy in any form will make a horse ‘hot’ and ‘above itself’. Overfeeding  a horse, especially with grain provides extra calories which arent needed.  Your horse will either use them up by messing about ect, or will store tham as fat.

2- "Horses need grain/commercial in their diet"
Feed companies might try to tell you that your horse needs bags and bags of feed but it is simply not true.  Horses have evolved to graze on forage foods such as grass/hay/herbs.  Feeding them lots of grain/commercial feed is just like feeding them cream cakes, sure they will love it but it wont do them any good! Only horses in very hard work should be fed any grains and by hard work I mean racehorses ect, riding your horse for an hour a few times a week isnt hard work although he might disagree. Feeding good quality, soluable fiber is a much healthier way to provide energy to the hard-working horse.  Feeding grain can cause all sorts of problems from tying up, obeisity,laminitis,insulin resistance and colic to name a few.  It would be much better for your horse to feed hay/grass and a vitamin and mineral suppliment. High fibre feeds like chop or unmollassed sugar beet can be fed if you horse needs extra calories.  Even grass is too much for most horses in summer so you may need to muzzle your horse or ristrict the grazing to stop him overindulging.


3-"Sugar beet is just to fill them up"
Sugar beet is a good source of fibre/energy and can be used as a hay/grass replacer.  Beware of the mollased type though as feeding your horse extra sugars in any form isnt good for him.  A pound of dry beet pulp provides the same amount of calories as a pound of oats though, so bare this in mind before you fill his feed bucket up!  Sugar beet will put weight on a horse very quickly so do not think of it as just a filler!


4-"If a horse eats unsoaked sugar beet it will cause choke and rupture his stomach" 
Sugar beet is usually soaked before being fed to horses but it isnt necessary.  It will not do any of the above, it simply isnt possible!  If your horse gets choke, it is because he bolts his feed and doesnt chew it.  He would choke on any feed.   Many studies have been done on unsoaked sugar beet and all have found that there is no danger specifically from eating dry beet pulp, in fact it is included in many feed mixes.  It is usually better to feed it soaked however as it will slow your horse down and get him to take in some water with his feed. 

5" Dont allow a hot horse to drink"
Many people have been told to cool a horse right down before offering water.  This isnt necessary and may be detrimental to the horses recovery and leave him dehydrated.  With the exception of hard galloping, you can offer the horse water at the beginning of the cooling down period.  This myth probably came from allowing hot hunting horses to drink from icey rivers.  The complications would have been caused by the icey water, not by the hot horse.

6. "A bran mash will act as a laxative"
One of the old traditional regimes is the feeding of a hot bran mash regularly once a week.It was believed that this had a laxative effect on horses that would cleanse their digestive system and as a result help to prevent an attack of colic. However studies have now shown this to be a myth and that feeding a bran mash to a horse does not have a laxative effect on horses or ponies