Ask Dr Nerenberg | Health and Fitness

Equine nutrition?

Appreciate the two answers, here’s a little more background, none of the North American grasses are conventional here in Panama, example Timothy, Alfalfa, Brome, Clover. Some grasses are being imported from Africa. As mentioned before we have high heat in 30 celsius range and also high levels of humidity. Also grains such as oats do not grow here, or sugar beets. Of course we have sugar cane,mangos, lots of corn and rice Prepackaged supplements that come out of Europe and North America are far and in between. But the prices on the ones I saw, are dictated by some extent to the oat content. I would like to put on about 100 to 150 pounds on four year old stallion, but safely. It seems that we have high incidences of colic here. Which I would like to investigate a little more closely.

Rice bran is exactly what it says “BRAN” and basically a laxative. For a colic preventative, I feed red wheat flakey bran twice a week and “knock on wood” haven’t had a colic issue in nearly 40 years (Last colicy horse I had was in 1970.). I mix about 1.5 LBS of bran with enough hot water to allow it to swell with the barley corn.

Okay, now you’ve got corn, that is a definate HEAT/weight feed. Can you get it in a rolled corn? I feed barley corn (rolled) so that it’s easier to digest for the horse, whole kernels aren’t.

I also feed a 1/2 Cup of Corn Oil and Apple cider vinegar. The corn oil for coat and the vinegar to dissolve the minerals that horses pick up in water and I’ve been told it also helps with flies, but haven’t really seen any difference myself.

Oats are for ENERGY, NOT weight. I would start at a pound of rolled corn with the oil and vinegar, then gradually increase it to 3 lbs.

Horse Feed End of Run on Wenger X-20

Understanding Equine Nutrition $9.99 Understanding Equine Nutrition helps horse owners sift through all the ingredients and decide on the best nutritional plan for their horse, whether it’s a growing yearling, a high-performance athlete, a weekend pleasure mount, or an in-foal mare. Respected equine nutritionist Karen Briggs discusses the different equine food groups in an easy-to-understand manner and provides the most up-to-date nu…