Equine Nutrition: Is Consistancy Always the Best?

I am always open to learning more about equine nutrition. In doing so I keep certain principles in mind. Information provided by agribusiness complex funding is taken not merely with a grain, but with an entire truckload, of salt. Obesity is the number one health problem in horses and big agribusiness has been able to convince most horse owners that obesity is not only normal, but that it shows how much one loves one's horse. Horses thrive on a diverse collection of grasses, weeds, forbs, and brush and a monoculture pasture does not provide that diversity. However, the key principle that I keep in mind is that a horse's diet should, as closely as possible, micmic the diet that they evolved over the ages to eat.

 Like humans, most modern horses are fed perhaps the most unnatural of caloric sources, sugar. (This is a slow poison, plainly and simply and anyone who cannot understand that just as well stop reading right now.) I am keeping my eyes open to another possiblity right now--that it might not only matter what they eat, but when they eat.

 I have always adhered to the strong belief that due to the horse's small stomach a horse is best served when provided a free choice source of fiberous nutrition around the clock.  I believed that doing so mimics the horses' natural dietary situation. 

 But is that true?

 Unless the supply of grass is infinite, a wild band will consume calories until the grasses are reduced. They might be run off from the lush grass by a more aggressive band. Dry weather will reduce the caloric and nutritional value of the grass. Spring and fall grass will likely be higher in carbohydrates than midsummer forage. Winter forage will have fewer calories.

 In short, there are constant changes in caloric content in the forage of most wild bands. Yet the wild herd at Corolla maintains its weight even when eating the bleak forage of an Outer Banks winter. I had always attributed that to a low parasite load becuase some much of the forage consumed by the wild herd grows well above the ground and consumption is of forage that is at a distance from the parsite eggs left in the manure at ground level. 

 Now I am considering another possiblity. 

A quick note--Of course I am totally opposed to the intellectual weakness that underlies the projection of human feelings, desires, and health needs onto horses. For that reason I am not ready to endorse the hypothosis set out below yet. A further note, I have recently put contless hours into studying the efeects of what is popularely called "intermittent fasting" on humans. I have been following this health regimen for about six weeks and the positive impact that it is having on my physical and mental health has shocked me. I have never bumped into such a positive set of health changes. But that does not mean that I think that everyone should immediately begin to use that model to care for horses. I am not remotely suggesting that. I am suggesting that it might more accurelty mimic nutritional life in the wild than we might expect.)

 But here is the caloric kicker that really has my curiosity up. Our horses consume an average of 12,000 pounds of hay per week in the winter months. Our hay supplier has run into a shortage and to extend the hay into the spring we began putting out about half as much hay as we normally do. In addition to the hay we are providing all of the horses with a moderate amount of 12% protein feed with  minimal sugar  in its make up. The horses are given this feed every day. 

Hay arrives on Tuesday and the round bales are placed in the different paddocks. They hay has been generally eaten up by Sunday. Tuesday through Saturday the horses recieve many more calories than they were used to becuase they have all of the hay that they can eat in addition to the added feed. They also eat the most nutitious, least weathered hay first.  Sunday and Monday they recieve fewer calories than they were used to because they recieve only the feed. 

The result has greatly surprised me. All of the horse's but three have shown an increase in muscle mass with out appearing to have increased fat levels significantly. The horses have not shown the negative psycological effects of eating commercial feed that one normally finds in horses who are forced to survive in a world of stables, sugar, and shoes. 

Could the change merely be the result of a net increase in protein consumption as compared to past winters? I think that is most likely. I would not suggest trying this feeding pattern on horses who live in stables, without the solace of herd members, and without freedom to move around in paddocks large enough to accomadate them. Doing so would surely result in ulcers and increased develpment of sterotypical behaviors. 

But I think that maybe, just maybe, that roller coastering caloric intake, while maintaining a constant supply of salt, might be the healthiest way to take a horse though the winter.