For more information or advice, e-mail jspears@mfa-inc.com.

Perils of the Horse Pasture
Dr. Martin Adams, Equine Nutritionist for Southern States

Spring is here and it brings the opportunity for horses to enjoy fresh pasture. While pasture affords a nutritious and economical way to provide forage for your horses, there are some general and specific management concerns that need to be kept in mind to assure the health and safety of your pasture pals.

A general concern for horses in the spring is the risk of founder or laminitis from excessive consumption of soluble carbohydrates (starch and sugar) found in pasture. Laminitis is inflammation of the laminae in the hooves of the horse, and can result in temporary to permanent lameness. Care must be taken to introduce the horse to pasture slowly in the spring, gradually increasing the amount of grazing time to allow the intestinal microbes to adjust to the new diet and prevent a large intake of soluble carbohydrates.

The greatest danger of laminitis occurs with cool season pasture grasses, like fescue, orchard grass, timothy, etc., as they contain large amounts of fructans. Fructans are sugars that are not digested in the small intestine, but are fermented in the large intestine to produce lactic acid and increase the risk of colic and laminitis. Researchers have induced laminitis in the horse experimentally by overdosing the horse with fructans, so horse owners must be especially cautious with cool season grass pastures. Research has also shown that cool season pasture grasses are less stressed and produce less sugar, including fructans, when they are well fertilized. So a good management practice to provide safer pasture for your horses is to have regular soil sampling and analysis with proper fertilizer application.

Another general concern for the horse on pasture is excessive consumption of calories. While many horse owners don’t have enough pasture for the number of horses they own, others may have too much. A mature horse on good pasture of two to three acres or more can easily consume more calories than it needs to meet daily maintenance energy requirements and can become obese. Obesity can result in a condition known as insulin resistance, which causes abnormally high levels of blood glucose and insulin. Equine nutrition research has shown that horses with a history of grass or grain founder are insulin resistant and have higher blood levels of insulin. Insulin has been used to cause laminitis experimentally in the horse and high blood levels of insulin are now considered a predictor of laminitis. So prevention of obesity with good pasture management can reduce the risk of laminitis in your horses.

A specific concern for pastured horses is management of horses that are known to have insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome (which may be a pre-Cushing’s Disease problem) and Cushing’s Disease. Most pony breeds and certain horse breeds (Morgans and Paso Finos) are more likely to have insulin resistance, but any horse of any breed can develop it. Older horses are more likely to have Cushing’s Disease (over 20 years of age) and horses with metabolic syndrome tend to be intermediate in age (8 to 18 years of age). One of the biggest problems with all three of these conditions is that they are associated with an increased occurrence of laminitis. Management of pasture grazing must be very limited to reduce the risk of obesity and intake of soluble carbohydrates that might trigger laminitis in horses with these problems.

Following are some guidelines to use to properly manage pasture for your horses and keep them safe from a colic and laminitis:

• Introduce horses gradually to pasture in the spring, only allowing one to two hours of grazing the first day and slowly increasing the time by an hour per day until a full day of pasture grazing is allowed.

• Perform regular soil sampling and analysis of your horse pastures and use it to determine proper rates of fertilizer application (limestone for pH control as well as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) for proper growth and persistence.

• Body condition score your horses and limit the time on pasture for any horse that has a body condition score of greater than 6.0 (on a scale of 1.0 to 9.0). For horses with an existing metabolic problem, such as Cushing’s Disease, you may want to maintain them at a lower body condition score than 6.0. Other methods to limit pasture intake would be to use a grazing muzzle on any obese or problem horse on the pasture, or to move an obese or problem horse to an exercise paddock or sacrifice lot with minimal pasture availability.

• Severely limit or abstain from grazing horses that are known to be insulin resistant or have metabolic syndrome or Cushing’s Disease. This is especially a concern in the spring or fall when pastures can be lush with new growth and high sugar content, in the afternoon when sugar content of grasses is higher than in the morning due to increased photosynthesis, or higher sugar content from poorly fertilized or cold- or drought-stressed pasture grasses.

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Electrolytes and Your Horse
Dr. Martin Adams, Equine Nutritionist for Southern States

Electrolytes are minerals in the horse’s body fluids and tissues that are involved in muscle contraction, thirst regulation, nerve function and maintenance of blood pH. Commercial horse feeds, hay and pasture also contain electrolytes, but horses involved in performance, trail and show events, especially when travel is involved, need additional electrolytes to maintain good health and performance.

Horses use sweating as their major means of evaporative cooling due to the effects of hot weather and exercise. Electrolytes are needed to replace the minerals lost from sweat and to increase the thirst response due to water loss. There must be sufficient water and minerals in the horse’s body to allow sweating to occur at the proper rate and amount to keep the horse’s body temperature regulated. Heat stress from dehydration reduces muscular performance, and can result in heat stroke or exhaustion, which can be fatal. Also, sweat and urine losses can be great enough due to exercise, heat and stress to result in impaction colic.

Depletion of electrolytes in the horse interferes with muscle contraction and causes fatigue or poor performance, and severe loss of potassium results in symptoms similar to tying up disease. Electrolyte deficiency can produce nerve irritability that causes synchronous diaphragmatic flutter or “thumps”, a condition where the diaphragm contracts in rhythm with the beating of the heart. Lack of electrolytes and/or dehydration is also responsible for an exercise-related syndrome that causes reduced intestinal motility (a common reason why endurance horses are pulled from competitive rides at vet checks).

Horse sweat contains the electrolytes chloride, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and a few other trace minerals. The two electrolytes lost in the greatest amounts are sodium and chloride, which is salt, so a proper electrolyte should be salt-based to meet the horse’s needs. Five pounds of horse feed will contain about an ounce of salt and ten pounds of hay contains virtually no salt but will supply the potassium needs for all but a working horse in hot weather.

Most show, trail or performance horses receiving a normal daily diet of ten to fifteen pounds of hay and five to ten pounds of fortified horse feed will only require one or two ounces of additional salt per day. This means providing two to four ounces of electrolyte daily, as the composition of a proper electrolyte for horses should be about 50% salt, so four ounces of an electrolyte will provide two ounces of salt.

When looking for an electrolyte for your horse, sodium chloride should be listed first on the ingredient list, followed by potassium chloride as the second ingredient. Electrolytes can be sugar-based instead of salt-based. Horses like the sugar-based electrolytes, but you won’t meet the salt requirements without feeding a lot of it. Keep the following recommendations in mind when looking for a good electrolyte:

Recommended Composition of a Good Equine Electrolyte

45-55% Chloride
20-25% Sodium
15-20% Potassium
1% Calcium & 0.5% Magnesium
5-10% Sugar (Dextrose)

Methods to administer electrolytes include adding water and oral dosing with a syringe, providing them in water for the horse to drink, and mixing them in a dry or wet form into the horse’s feed. Oral dosing with a syringe would be similar to dosing your horse with an oral deworming paste, and it can be difficult to be successful getting the electrolytes into the horse as some will try to avoid it or spit it out. When providing electrolytes in drinking water, always provide additional water without electrolytes, as one of the reasons you are providing electrolytes is to make the horse drink more water. A problem with providing water with electrolytes is that many horses are not used to the taste, and it takes time for them to get accustomed to it. Mixing electrolytes into the feed is the most popular way of getting the horse to consume them.

A good recipe for providing electrolytes to the horse is to add two ounces of electrolytes to a cup (6 ounces) of shredded beet pulp in a quart-sized container or plastic bag. Then add a cup of water to the electrolyte/beet pulp mixture. Let the mixture soak for at least fifteen minutes and then add it to the horse’s grain meal or feed separately. If you need to provide electrolytes often throughout the day, or the horse has mouth lacerations or stomach ulcers, add a tablespoon of corn oil to the electrolyte-beet pulp mixture. This will make the electrolyte mix less caustic and prevent or reduce any irritation to the mouth, esophagus or stomach due to frequent electrolyte administration.

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Organizing Your Feed Room

With fall weather, there is an increase of rodents, so now is a good time to do a fall cleaning of the feed room.

Feed should be kept in a separate, secure room. A solid hinged door that fits tightly enough that mice and other rodents can’t wiggle their way in is the best. Make sure that whatever latch you use for securing the door, it’s one your horse’s lips can’t flip, wiggle or somehow open.

The same goes for the container you use to store your feed. Make sure it is rodent-proof, horse-proof, and waterproof. Grain bins and garbage cans keep feed secure and fresh. (Be sure to rotate your bagged product!)

A scale is a nice feature to use when measuring grain to each horse.

Add a dry erase board on each horse’s door with clear instructions on feeding rations. Be sure to change the instructions if you switch horses to different stalls.

A cabinet with secure doors provides additional storage space for overflow blankets, out-of-season items, veterinary supplies, or small items.

Set your feed containers on a platform to minimize the amount of bending needed to scoop out feed.

Wooden pallets help keep grain bags off the ground to minimize mold.

Keep a broom and dustpan handy to sweep up any spilled grain.

Also, a large trash bin will help keep the whole barn cleaner!

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Raising Baby

If you underfeed, you risk problems stemming from malnutrition. If you overfeed, there is the risk of developmental orthopedic disease (DOD) that can affect bones and joints. Somewhere in between the two extremes there is a correct balance that results in growth and development as the young horse reaches its genetic potential.

Because the horse’s digestive system is designed for grazing with the horse consuming small quantities of food frequently throughout a 24-hour period, trying to change Mother Nature’s plan by attempting to stuff large quantities of feed into a rather delicate digestive system a couple of times per day can be tricky!

This is where creep feeding can actually cut into the potential for post-weaning developmental problems and help the foal grow to its optimum potential and reduce a spurt of growth after weaning that contributes to DOD. Creep feeding before weaning allows the youngsters time to eat at their own pace, develop a taste for feed/hay, and become accustomed to spending time away from mom.

An excellent creep ration is MFA Strut N-Shine. It is a 16% protein textured feed for stronger bodies and healthier foals. 16% protein will build strong body tissues during growth when nutrient demands are toughest to satisfy. MFA Strut N-Shine contains chelated Zinc to maintain good skin and steamed flaked corn and oats for energy. Feed up to one pound per month of age for best results. Pasture or quality hay and water should be available at all times. You would then use MFA Strut N-Shine as you wean and on into the tough yearling year. Be sure to feed a quality hay source or have access to good pasture. Too much poor quality hay will result in a “hay belly”. Your weanling will also need lots of exercise and plenty of water. Allowing access to MFA 5% Horse Mineral free choice will ensure your mineral requirements are meet. Don’t forget to deworm on a regular basis.

A well developed, athletic yearling will normally sell for more money in the sale ring and will win more prizes in the show ring than the similarly bred youngster that is less developed.

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How Fat Is Too Fat?

Fat ponies/horses are more likely to founder again, but even thin or normal-weight animals can founder. An excellent way to monitor the pony’s weight is to get a weight tape and check his weight every 10 days to two weeks. (Write it down and refer back to your chart!)

Check the fat around the top of his tail and through his lumbar area. If that fat gets lumpy or hard, founder or laminitis could be in the near future. The crest of his neck is one of the best places to tell if you are in for trouble. If it increases in size, thickness or lumpiness – WARNING!!!

Any horse/pony that has foundered should be restricted to the amount of grass consumed. A dry lot (a small paddock near the other horses that has most of the grass eaten out of it) is by far the best choice. There are grazing muzzles available, but they can be rubbed off by those that hate to wear them!

Some ponies/horses can tolerate small amounts of grass; others can’t. You will have to watch carefully for any signs of soreness any time he gets turned out where there is a lot of grass.

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