Does your horse react to Molasses?????

soulfull

soulfull

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My friends normally docile cobby type turns into a nutter.

so far I've never had one react to it. But as I just switched to a chaff that includes it I'm curious.

If so what Breed is he/she?
 
Molasses is sugar. Plenty of parents will tell you that their kids turn into monsters if fed sugar. On top of that, horses are not designed by nature to eat sugar, they were evolved to eat scrub, not sugary filled green grass. Molasses in feeds causes huge problems with foot sensitivity in many barefoot horses.
 
None of mine have a problem with it at all, but I used to own an anglo arab that couldn't tolerate molasses or barley.
 
My tb/welshD could not tolerate any refined sugar at all, although she was fine with Spring grass. She could eat unmollassed sugarbeet with no ill effects. Because it took years for us to identify the cause she had a huge build-up and was completely unpredictable. She was usually ok to handle in the morning but as tea-time approached (when she was ready to be fed) she was almost unhandleable, it took 2 people, one very experienced, the other quite novice but a big rugby player, to lead her a few hundred yards. When we cut sugar out of her diet she was a completely different animal.
 
Yup, my tb mare!
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My welsh x TB reacts really badley too it. I have since found out that she has a really low tollerance too sugar and since cutting it out of her diet she is a changed horse.
 
I cannot feed anything with high energy values or sugar to my Ollie, he becomes dangerous to handle.

In Summer we have to really watch grazing as his own errm wind frightens the hell out of him and he gallops to the other side of the field in fright! If I sneeze when he is out on the spring grass he does the same, spring comes and we get a nutter of a horse.

Luckily he is a very very good doer, we keep him on a very short paddock in Summer and feed Spillers Cool Mix, H&P cubes and Dengie Lite in very small rations just to put his supplements with. Ols also must have low energy hay, if I feed him high energy haylage I am lucky if I can even get his tack on his back grrrr!

With a well managed diet he is a lovely horse with manners to burn and a laid back attititude but a few days of the wrong hay/grass and the wrong food ouch lol he is a nasty horse to handle, spooky and unpredictable to ride.
 
All of mine have been fed at some point on Bailey's High Fibre Cubes, Spiller's High Fibre Cubes and Alfa A Original, all of which are molassed, and also Spiller's Happy Hoof (which has either molasses or molasses extract) and have had no problems at all.

One of mine does get a bit lively on molassed sugarbeet though - but then that is 20% sugar!
 
Cut it out. It is a cheap feed ingredient which makes horses love the feed, but they don't need it. Like children don't need sugar puffs or Frosties, they become addicted to the sugar. Give them porridge. Or in the horse's case, everything unmolassed, there is enough natural sugar in grass/hay, too much sometimes.
 
Ermmm ... why should I cut it out - the horses concerned are doing very well on the feed they get. Fair enough, if your horse has an intolerance then you would want to avoid it, but otherwise I think it is a bit of an over-reaction to say nobody should ever feed anything with even the tiniest bit of molasses in it!
 
Mine both totally react to it - I won't feed them anything that knowingly has mollasses in- one goes hyperactive on it like a child that has eaten too many sweeties with e numbers, and he gets an upset tummy!!, and my other one is just much calmer and more focussed to ride when he doesn't have mollasses. one is I.D XT.B and the other similar breeding too.
 
My arab goes totally loony on it!! But trakhener it doesn't affect at all, don't feed it to her really tho as tend to try to feed similar feeds for convenience. So youngster (ISH x KWPN) hasn't ever had it and not sure I will try, don't need a loony 16.2hh 4 year old!
 
QR - Yes one of mine does. I couldn't fathom why my TB had suddenly turned into such a miserable git, when normally he was really chilled. He flew at me a couple of times across the stable taking mahoosive chunks out of me!!

I had changed him onto Alfa A original (have fed this with no problems before btw), and perhaps a bit niavely discounted the change in feed for the cause in the change in behaviour, partly because he had been on Alfa A oil previously. But someone on here mentioned that AA original has molasses in it and AA oil doesn't - switched him back and problem solved. So I'm 99% sure its the molasses!
 
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