Recently,
my sister called me asking how to add weight to one of our horses that she
has with her in Missouri. She told me she
is feeding free choice hay and 3 lbs. of 14% CP/5% Fat pelleted grain twice a
day along with access to grazing. This
particular horse is an 8 year old 16.3 hh Appendix Quarter Horse gelding used
for barrel racing competitions. We have
owned him since he was a 4 year old and he has always been a thinner type of
horse. He is very lean and muscular and most
of that comes from his bloodlines and the work he is doing.
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| This is a photo of the gelding mentioned in this article. I am shown here barrel racing him in a competition. |
We
know that horses can utilize up to 20% fat in its diet where we typically feed
3-5% fat. Horses that are candidates for
increased fat consumption are older horses that cannot keep weight on,
frequently exercised/competition horses, and horses that have foundered in the
past. So, if we want to increase fat in
his diet to add weight (especially going into the winter) what are our
options? We can select feedstuffs that are naturally higher in fat
content e.g., rice bran or flax seed or we can add supplemental fats, e.g.,
vegetable oils, hydrolyzed animal fats or dry granular fats. Feedstuffs that
are naturally higher in fat contribute other nutrients that must be taken into
account. In contrast, the supplemental fats are greater than 98% fat and do not
contribute other nutrients. The vegetable oils tend to be more palatable than
animal fats and have less likelihood of containing impurities. Probably the
most common method of increasing the fat content is to top dress the grain with
corn oil or soybean oil.
So, what did I recommend to my sister in her
given situation? I recommended top
dressing grain with a vegetable oil. I
felt that she was already feeding enough grain per day at the cost she could
afford, so the oil was a great low cost option to help increase weight. I also suggested that she deworm the horse in
case he has a load of internal parasites preventing him from keeping on weight. Remember, increasing the fat content of a
horse’s diet should be done gradually.
Also, careful attention should be paid to not providing excess energy as
this can result in an overweight horse.
Reference: http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/nutrition/feeding-fat-to-horses/
