Feeding oil to horses.

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Silgram

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A friend of mine is thinking of feeding some oil to her horse. He is a thoroughbred and a very fussy eater. He could do with putting a little weight but she struggles to get him to eat the feed he has so it not really an option to give him any more hard feed. He is out in the day and in at night with ad lib hayladge. She wondered that if she added oil to his feed would it help him gain weight. He has been checked by the vet and had his teeth done a month ago. I have never fed oil so have no experience with it. Any advice would be great.
 
Yep just use any sort of veg, corn or sunflower oil and add a dollop to the feed. You can buils up to a mugful a day. Some fussies won't eat it though.

Instant linseed is a great conditioner too.

What feed does he get atm.
 
When I want a horse to put on weight I feed boiled barley, sugarbeet and a couple tablespoons of vegetable or linseed oil......fab feed, plus it's cheap and appetising
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Is your friend giving him 3 feeds a day? It doews help to give them one at lunch time.
 

Please don't use veg oil as it is made from rapeseed which is harder for horses to digest and use.

I would use corn/linseed or soya (corn is the cheapest).

actually to make a real difference to the diet (if you are feeding for weightgain) you do need to use quite a lot. If you are feeding just for coat condition etc then a little is fine
 
Thanks for the advice.

Thistle - He is currently on Baileys Top line conditining cubes, a mix (not sure which one), alpa A and blue chip.

Christmas_Clairy - he already has three meals a day.
 
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actually to make a real difference to the diet (if you are feeding for weightgain) you do need to use quite a lot. If you are feeding just for coat condition etc then a little is fine

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Absolutely, Beau gets 100ml of linseed oil per meal.
 
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Hi St_Bernard

Where do you get your linseed oil from. Supermarket or feed merchant? And how much does it cost?

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I buy it from my local feed merchants, I pay £3.50 a litre.
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you can safely feed up to 500ml of oil per feed.... but be careful as it can cause digestive upset if introduced to quickly.

a safer way would be to add full fat soya meal, baileys outshine or saracen equi-jewel and reduce his cereal based hard feed a bit.
these are all high oil/fat products that are easily digestible and are energy dense (2.5x energy from same weight of cereals) making it easier to put on and maintain weight.
 
If he already likes Alpha A, I would swap to Alpha A oil. It's great for condition/weight gain and contains the necessary vitamin E and selennium needed when feeding additional oil.
 
My vet recommended feeding vegetable oil to my older horse who looses weight in winter, starting with half a mug in each feed increasing it to two mugs a day, he hasn't lost any weight and he is a terribly fussy eater so it must be doing something!!
 
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Please don't use veg oil as it is made from rapeseed which is harder for horses to digest and use.

[/ QUOTE ] I've not heard that before - have you got any links or references?
 

Not off the top of my head - will have a look in my old nutrition notes from Uni later though. My Vet actually told me not to feed veg oil too though

The basic theory (IMO) is that you shouldn't feed a derivative of anything a horse wouldn't naturally eat. So they eat Corn, Soya, linseed etc but rapeseed isn't a natural feed for horses (hence why some bedding is made from it) as it is hard for them to digest. therefore It is not the easiest oil for them to digest - I would also def. not feed cod liver oil for that reason.

I'm not saying it is harmful by any means but it doesn't make sense to me and the horse cannot be getting 100% from it.
 
But surely the indigestibility of the rapeseed plant comes from the very fibrous nature of the stalks - whilst the oil comes from the seed. I can't see any reason why the oil should not be as easily digestible as any of the other vegetable-based oils. I have had my old girl on it for years and it definitely keeps her in great condition with a glossy coat, so she must be digesting it well!

Agree about the CLO though, I wouldn't want to feed animal products to horses.
 

hmm.. good point. Can't say 100% without looking it up as it was a while ago!
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Another angle though is that veg oil/blended oil/rapeseed oil can be thicker and thus less easily digested.

Will look it up tonight - for my own curiosity, if nothing else!
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Having fed corn oil to mine for years, I recently discovered that it is probably one of the worst oils that can be fed to them in term of doing them any good. As I discovered, this is because corn oil contains only the Omega 3 oil which, is paired with Omega 6 is absoutely fine but on its own can actually have an inflammatory response in horses (correct me if I am wrong anyone). Coupled with the Omega 6 which has anti inflam properties this is absolutely fine and indeed works in the way itis supposed to but corn oil on its own is in fact detrimental to horses health (supposedly)
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I am now using Omega Oils (from NAF) on mine and they are looking fab as it has made a big difference to their thick winter woolies (very glossy).

If you are thinking of an oil based feed for putting on condition though I would highly recommend Bailey's Outshine. You feed a coffe mug a day and it contains huge ammounts of oils to increase condition, coat health, etc.etc. Apparantly horses need up to 1 litre of oil a day for it to have an impact and the Outshine contains about half a litre of oil in each coffee mug serving....very very good stuff!
 
My Beau gets 100ml in his feed every night of Sunflower oil. I tried Corn oil but I ended up wearing it as he didnt like it and flung his bucket at me in disgust! I sometimes add it to the Sugar beet before I soak it in winter as its stops it freezing too much. It does make them shiny though, and since Beau has been on it a lot of old scabs have fallen off - eww!
 
As eventrider says, Baileys Outshine may be your best bet. I have just started feeding it to my mare. Its too early for me to comment on the results, but I chose this because it combines Omega 3 and 6 oils (linseed and soya), togehter with the additional vitamins E and A that should really be added to ensure that the system copes well with the oil. Since its added, I always know that I'm feeding the correct quantites. In addition, its totally mess free and the horse likes it
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