It's About The Horse

Clarissa · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:02 pm Post subject:

I just read an article about Omega3 in the latest Kentucky Equine Research Nutritional & Health Quarterly ‘EquiNEWS'.

You may be able to find the article if you go to the website but incase it’s not there I’ll just give a brief account since it is 3 pages long.

Horses can make their own O3 because they eat plants containing ALA that grew in soil fertilized by rotted algae at some stage. The ALA is converted in the horse to EPA & DHA but it’s not a very efficient process. That would be because horses in the wild are not expected to be top notch athletes so they don’t need that much!

EPA & DHA originate from fish mostly whereas ALA comes from leafy green plants & seeds like flaxseed (linseed). Omega6 comes from seeds & grains like corn, sunflower & safflower. This means most domesticated horses get a diet way too high in O6 & the balance between O3 & O6 is way out of whack, particularly in horses that are performing at high levels & eating high grain diets.

The interesting thing about buffering the normal grain diet of performance horses with extra O3 is that it takes 28days for the O3 to filter through the body & begin to work. O3 significantly decreases the plasma concentrations of prostaglandin E2 which is the inflammatory mediator & also has same effect on white blood cells in joint fluid.

They stop at mentioning the exact ratio of supplementation but do say work is continuing at KER.

From what I see when reading the analysis panels of most produced ‘complete’ horses feeds is that the better ones do seem to be adding at least some O3 & O6 in what is thought to be a reasonable ratio here. Also there are a few ‘complete’ omega oil supplements on the market now. For example Dr Kohnke supplements now sells a 1 or 5gal drum of Omega3,6&9 combo oil (called Omega Gold I think) in what they say is the correct ratio. So if you fed mostly hay & some plain grain you could just add that but I do think it you fed a ‘complete’ feed you would have to be careful not to throw everything out of balance by adding yet another source of supplementation to the horse’s diet.

When I asked the Dr Kohnke nutritionist how much to feed, she said 15ml O3 oil like canola per 3cups whole Sunflower Seed or BOSS. The thing about canola is that it is a man made high yielding seed oil. I wonder if I should change to another source of O3 oil. Flax is out of the question since none for sale here is fresh enough to be free from rancidity & all is buffered with ‘stuff’ to stop that happening. Best to find another oil perhaps?
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learningthedance · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:35 pm Post subject:

I buy whole brown flax seed from our feed store in 50 pound bags for about $30.00. I grind it fresh each day with a coffee bean grinder. The whole seed is the cheapest way to go, easiest to store and has the longest shelf life. A 50 pound bag will last a LONG time!! LOL You should not be feeding more then 8 oz at a time, so that's about 5 oz of whole seed before you grind it cause it fluffs up so much.

Great stuff!!
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"Some people are always grumbling
because roses have thorns;
I am thankful
that thorns have roses."
Alphonse Karr

Horsemama · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14 pm Post subject: sfs

Whenever you change a horse's diet it should be done slowly, I didn't see you mention if you just started out feeding a whole bag or did you start with say 1/3 of a bag and over a week or two work your way up to more. I was feeding 1-2 cups a day to a Boarder's Horses and they didn't seem to have any issues. It was mixed in their regular horse feed.
I also have heard latley discusion about corn, and corn oil making causing joint inflamation. Sounds wierd to me, horses have always eaten corn in their diets.
One thing you need to consider is the vitamin and mineral balance your horses are getting, SFS alone are probably lacking some nutrients they need and may have too much of others if its all your feeding. In the US you can buy mineral blocks and powders to be added to feed or put out free choice. They are relatively cheep.

Hope this helped

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Clarissa · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:45 pm Post subject: Re: sfs