Whole Oats

Too much protein in the feed makes horses lazy, and too little protein in the feed, makes them retain water.

People say,  ”Won’t oats heat my horse?” and the answer is no. Oats are the lowest in Energy out of all the grains, have less Protein and are the most readily digested and utilised of all the grains. This is why the oat was such a popular horse feed until more recently when people learnt they could make a lot of money from producing horse feed.

It has also been show that feeding whole oats to brood mares can increase milk production.

Whole oats are ideal because they have a:

• • high proportion of husks
• • high starch digestibility even before breakdown
• • high fat content
• • ideal to chew taking into account the horse’s dentition
• • very high palatability
•  high proportion of mucilaginous substances (Mucilage can be used in gastrointestinal inflammatory processes; associated to topical irritation agents. The mechanism of action is that mucilages cover the mucous membranes and prevent irritation of the nerve endings. Def. from Wikipedia)

Oats have 90% starch digestibility, compared to around 30-35% for barley and corn. So when oats are fed (in appropriate amounts), they are easily broken down in the small intestine.

Another reason for whole oats (instead of crushed) is that you need the intact kernel in order to receive the fat content of the whole grain. The husk of the whole oat is very important for correct chewing and digestive processes. A horse with good teeth and proper dental care will chew and digest the whole oat, leaving only husks in the manure. If oats are coming out undigested, there could be a tooth or digestion problem going on, so be sure to investigate that.

It is recommended that oats be fed broken up into many small meals, with a maximum of up to 2.4 kg per meal for a 600 kg gram horse.  Also, the oats should be introduced gradually, of course.  If oats are fed alone, they must be supplemented with a good vitamin/mineral mix and hay.

A problem with sport horses today is that they often do not have a sufficient supply of the fatty acids to fulfill their energy requirements, and actually panic from the feeling that they do not have the energy they need, and take refuge in flight. Therefore, some horses may appear hyper and uncontrollable (and then the owner cuts down on the oats!) when what they really need are more oats to give them enough energy to do their job, and they won’t be so hyper.

Quote from one farrier: “ I’ve had 5 particularly bad laminitic ponies to trim this past summer, and I told all their owners to start using whole oats. They were a bit worried, as most vets would keel over at this idea, but they trusted and fed them. The healing has gone so much faster and easier for them since the oats. They’ve all had crests and fat deposits, which are softening and disappearing.”

“In a book on human nutrition, by John Gray, he states that beer bellies are actually a sign of liver problems/toxicity. The reason they are also known as “middle-age spread” is that it takes until middle age for the liver to start causing this bloated appearance. I’ve noticed masses of horses in their teens who appear to be fat, but on second look actually just have a pot belly. John Gray states that no amount of exercise gets rid of this—only detoxing the liver will!”

How much whole oats?

Based on Peter Speckmaier’s (SHP, Germany) info, here are some whole oat feeding guidelines for a typical horse, with natural living conditions, and receiving a little bit of exercise (but could use more):

Feed less oats when horses are on varied, unimproved pasture with a wide variety of plants.

If it is only possible to feed one time per day, you should NEVER exceed 2.4kgs per meal for a 600kg horse, or 1.5kg per meal for smaller horses. Feeding more per meal than this can lead to undigested starch passing though to the large intestine and disrupting the digestive system (gas, colic, acid feces).

Older horses with poor teeth that can’t chew whole oats properly can still reap the benefits if you can cook the oats before feeding. This can be accomplished simply by pouring boiling water over the bucket and letting it sit, covered, for a while.

Calcium/Phosphorous Balance

When adding oats, the calcium/phosphorous balance of the overall diet needs some attention. Many nutritionists recommend the optimum ratio for a mature horse to be between 1.5-1 and 2-1 calcium to phosphorous. Oats are higher in phosphorous, and can have an inverted calcium to phosphorous ratio of 1 to 5 (1 part calcium to 5 parts phosphorous)—so if you feed a lot of oats, you will need to balance this out with the correct amount of calcium.

Most grass hays have only a 1-1 or 2-1 ratio, while legume hays can have very high calcium, with a 5-1 or higher ratio. You can feed a small amount of lucerne as a “supplement” to increase calcium. Many people also feed beet pulp because of its high calcium ratio (6-1). Another solution is to provide a free choice calcium mineral supplement. Some h horsemen offer calcium carbonate, limestone, or bone meal, but the source and purity should be evaluated. Any free choice mineral mixes should have a 2-1 calcium to phosphorous ratio.

Remember that grain does not cause laminitis or founder—poor hoof form does.

]]> http://ingridchester.com.au/whole-oats-to-feed-or-not-to-feed/feed 0 http://ingridchester.com.au/warm-up-routine http://ingridchester.com.au/warm-up-routine#comments Sat, 30 Mar 2013 10:34:53 +0000 admin http://ingridchester.com.au/?p=782 One of the most beneficial warm-up routines is to lightly massage the neck, shoulder and hind quarter muscles for 10-15 seconds on each side, then walk the horse on a lead (already geared up) over 3 parallel jumping poles spaced 4 metres apart on a flat surface, at an angle of 45 degrees to the poles, in a figure 8 pattern for 4-5 laps.  This exercise helps to flex the upper body and spine, strengthen the sacroiliac and lower back area, stretch muscles on both sides on the figure ’8′ turns and encourages the horse to lift its legs and lightly flex the tendons.

Then a walk to the arena, mount and walk 60 metres up the centre line in a zig-zag pattern, turn at C and lightly trot in a zig-zag, shoulder-in movement back to A to warm and limber up the day’s training exercises.

The growth rate of a foal at foot is relative to milk yield of the mare.

Once a mare foals and begins to produce milk to feed her foal, she must be provided with an increased intake of energy, protein, calcium, Vitamin A and other vitamins and minerals to meet her needs.  A lactating mare requires more of these nutrients than a racing or performance horse in medium-heavy work.

This is not correct.

During storage, hay doesn’t reduce in sugar (or protein) content as it ages as is commonly believed.  The content of certain essential vitamins, such as vitamin A  - up to 80% reduction of vitamin A  over a 6 month period is lost.  Vitamin E – up to 60% or more is lost during 6 months storage.  Dry Lucerne hay is high in sugars.

Moreover, the sugars which can trigger laminitis and founder don’t reduce when hay is ‘shedded’ .   The best way to reduce the sugar content is to soak the hay in double its volume of warm water in a big tub, and then lift it out to drain for at least 15-30 minutes and to air dry before feeding it to your horse or pony.

Soaking  grass hay (especially rye-grass hay) will make it less ‘heating’ from its high sugar energy content and help make your pony less energetic or ‘hot’ to handle.

It is the timing of your aids, not the strength of your aids, that gets results.  You want your horse to react to the lightest aid possible.

You must expect 100% sensitivity to your aids every time you ask your horse for something.  Accepting less than that will create a dull horse in the long term.

Never compromise the quality of the gaits just to complete a movement.  If you feel you are losing the quality of the gait, you must get out of the movement and re-establish a correct connection to the mouth and sensitivity to your legs; then you can try the movement again.

Use a quick ‘bump’ of your leg or a tap with the whip to create a quicker stride.  Use a longer squeezing of your leg to create a longer stride.

When you half halt, you must feel the horse’s hind legs get quicker and feel the energy bubbling underneath you.

Repeat your half halts as often as you need, but never hold strong on the reins for longer than an brief moment.

The release (softening of the hand) after every half halt is just as important as the half halt itself.  The horse must go in self carriage after a half halt.  If not, the half halt was not effective, and it must be repeated or reinforced by making a downward transition.

You must be able to regulate the tempo of your horse’s stride to maintain the same rhythm throughout all the movements.  That is what gives a horse the beautiful effect of flowing through a test.

Our horses are athletes and must be maintained through the best possible vet care, feeding and grooming in order for them to perform at their best.

The horse’s welfare must always come first.  Never drill a horse or overdo your training sessions, or you will not have an enthusiastic happy horse underneath you.

Selling Your Horse

What you say on the phone can make or break the sale.  It will also leave the caller with an impression of you, whether they buy from you or not…..

If you are in the business of selling horses or stallion services, sooner or later you’re going to have to make a sale.  There are generally a few ways your customer will contact you and these include:

1. Talking to you at a show or seeing your horse somewhere in public.
2. Through an advertisement you placed either in a magazine, newspaper or on a notice board.
3. Through your website.
4. Word of mouth.
5. Signage on your gate.
6. Business cards, brochures etc.

Most of the above will have your phone number attached, so a good starting point for people to contact you is via the phone.

This is where a lot of people will make up their minds as to whether they should have any further dealings with you.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  As much as this saying has been repeated over and over, it is so true.  So how are you going to come across on the phone?  The impression you leave will mostly likely stay with the caller for a very long time.

Do you fall into one of the following categories?

• The Professional, one who knows what they are talking about?
• The Amateur, someone who knows very little.
• The Lecturer, just tells the customer what they should and shouldn’t be buying.
• The Spruiker, rants and raves about their horses, not interested in listening.
• The Horse Trader, who deals only in numbers or the hard-sell type?
• The Critic – who constantly puts down other people’s horses?
• The Arguer (you’ll never win a sale this way) or someone who is honest and friendly!
• The Best Friend, someone who seems more interested in making friends than selling horses.

It’s your choice.

You have just received a copy of the magazine you advertised in, and you quickly look through to find your ad.  Yes, it’s there and everything is just the way you ordered it.  Great, all you have to do now is waiting for the phone to ring.

Wrong!

If you think your advertisement alone will sell your horse or stallion service, you’re mistaken.  There is a lot of preparation to do before the phone rings.

Preparing for the call.

Know your Product

Product knowledge is a powerful selling tool.  More than likely you know your horse very well, but are you prepared for all the questions people might ask about the horse?  Write a list of all the possible questions you think a caller could come up with, and then ask others to add more questions.  You will need to prepare the answers.

The more questions a caller asks, the more interest they have in the horse.  They will want to know more than just height, colour, age and show records.  Could you answer the following questions?

1. 1.      When the horse was last immunised against tetanus?
2. 2.      Can you give me a list of previous owners?
3. 3.      Can you tell me anything about his/her dam?
4. 4.      What age was the horse broken in?
5. 5.      Are you prepared to negotiate?  If you are, know your parameters before negotiating starts and don’t stray from them.
6. 6.      What height is the horse?  Don’t guess this.  Lots of people tend to state their horses are actually taller than they are; this is disappointing for the buyer if height is an issue for them.

If you don’t know the answer, be honest, don’t make things up along the way, you could find yourself in court.  Have your horse’s pedigree and other relevant information on hand.

Don’t discuss other people and their horses.  Words can be misinterpreted and before you know it, what you said has gone back to the person you were talking about.

Telephone Behaviour

Do you….give your name?  This encourages the caller to give theirs.

Do you….respond to the client’s statements?

Do you….speak clearly and not mumble?

Do you….interrupt the client?

Do you….establish rapport?

Do you….use the client’s name?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, then you are on the way to sales success.

You need to know what the person wants to buy.  If you haven’t asked the right questions you could be wasting your time.  The customer might want a horse with endurance potential and you are trying to sell them an old broodmare.

Listen carefully to the objections you are getting.  You will find you can easily create a list of most frequent objections.  Practise some standard responses to these objections.  You can’t change the colour of a horse, but you can change someone’s opinion on colour or perhaps you have a horse of another colour for sale.  The biggest rule with objections is not to ignore them.  Address the issues the customer raises.

The Close

Asking for the sale can be the hardest part, but not asking could be disaster.  You have spoken beautifully, the customer is convinced you have what they need, yet you can’t bring yourself to ask them if they will buy it.  There are a couple of ways you can close.

Direct – just ask.

Soft sell – “If you were to buy this horse when could we expect you to pick it up?”

You’ve put a lot of energy and money into your horse so don’t let bad selling practices ruin your chances of a successful sale.

Some people will use the following methods to predict how tall their young horses will grow to be. While it’s not always accurate, it does give a good estimate, and its fun to do!

Method #1: Elbow/Fetlock

Because the distance from a horse’s point of elbow to its fetlock is approximately the same as the point of elbow to the withers, you can use this method to predict height in young horses. Take a lead rope and stretch it from the point of the elbow down to the fetlock. Now that you’ve got the distance, keep your hand on where the fetlock measurement is (leave the other end on the point of elbow) and bring the lead rope up to the withers. That’s about where your horse should mature to.

Method #2 to predict foal growth:

Take a soft cloth measuring tape (like the kind used for sewing) and measure from the middle of the knee to the coronet band. However many inches, is how tall in hands the horse will grow.

Each 1/4 of an inch is equal to .1 hand.

So if you get 14 3/4 inches, the horse will be about 14.3

15 1/2 inches, the horse will grow about 15.2

16 1/4 inches, the horse will be about 16.1

Feedyour horse a whole pumpkin – seeds skin stalk and all boiled, with a touch of water and wizzed through the food processor, once a week.  The advice is that the pumpkin will break up the sand and it can move through.

The bushy who recommended said to feed the whole pumpkin including the seeds. Dry roast it in the oven then mash. His suggestion was 1kg for each 100kg of horse.

One extra note…the skin and pits must removed from mangoes…

SAFE

~ Apples
~ Apricots
~ Bananas
~ Beets
~ Blackberries
~ Blueberries
~ Carrots
~ Celery
~ Cherries
~ Coconut
~ Corn
~ Dates
~ Figs
~ Grapes
~ Grapefruit
~ Horseradish
~ Lettuce
~ Mangoes
~ Oranges
~ Peaches
~ Pears
~ Pineapple
~ Plums
~ Pumpkin
~ Raisins
~ Rutabagas
~ Squash
~ Strawberries
~ Sweet Potatoes
~ Turnips
~ Watermelon (both rind and pulp)

UNSAFE

~ Avocado
~ Onions
~ Potatoes
~ Persimmons
~ Rhubarb
~ Tomatoes
~ Any other members of the nightshade family which includes peppers
~ Broccoli or Cauliflower (may cause gas, which in turn may cause gas colic)

Three different flavours are:-    regular salted…another is garlic salted…and one is herb salted.