Is there any reason why my daughter shouldn't give her pony a bran mash for breakfast

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billylula

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She is very keen to give him a bran mash because it is cold (she fusses over him). He's a sturdy NF and a good doer, we don't give him anything normally (he lives out 24/7) apart from a bit of hay recently and the odd happy hoof feed with a bit of turnip or swede at the weekends. She is planning to make him breakfast tomorrow - bran, flax oil, garlic, mint and honey. Any reason why she really shouldn't?
 
Can't see any reason why the occasional 'small' bran mash would do any harm.

If you do it regularly it can leach calcium from the bones, and you should include limestone four.

However I would use treacle rather than honey if you have it.
 
Yep, quite a few.
1) Bran has a calcium imbalance
2) Sudden changes to the diet are not good for horses
3)It doesn't have much nutritional content
4)Therefore its a bit pointless
5)Garlic isn't meant to be that good for horses- a little bit toxic, and can cause anemia
6)Honey is high in sugar

If you want to feed him something, just for the sake of it, and something warm, he will need it everyday, not just when its cold, and happy hoof with a bit of speedi beet soaked in warm water would be a lot healthier.
 
Thank you. I will suggest happy hoof mixed with warm water, plus a tiny bit of garlic, a spoonful of flaxoil and some black treacle?

I am aware that he doesn't really need it, and I don't want to mess around with his diet too much as he is fine as he is, but I can see that she wants to fuss a bit - just trying to balance the two!
 
I really wouldnt because it'd be a sudden shock to his digestive system. At worst it could risk colic or at best, give him a dose of the runs. Not nice.
 
Your daughter is presumably thinking a warm meal will make her pony feel warmer on a cold morning - she is thinking like a human. In fact eating any high fibre food - like a nice pile of hay will cause his digestive system to start working and make him feel warm. It is the process of digesting food that makes them warm, not the temperature of the dinner itself.
 
Mollichaff Calmer is a straw based chop, much better than bran which has absolutely no feed value at all, affects calcium uptake and can give your pony runny poohs!

Mollichaff Calmer looks and smells much nicer than bran, so I'm sure your daighter would like to feed it more than bran, which is Very Old Fashioned! A chopped apple and a couple of carrots would be more of a treat for your pony than garlic and honey.
 
A handful of high fibre nuts soaked for 5 minutes in hot water makes a lovely warm 'mash' feed for them, our little oldie loves it! :)
 
Messing about with his diet, esp in weather like this, is asking for colic I think. Simply not worth it, esp if he doesn't require the food anyway! Why you would add treacle or similar is beyond me too I'm afraid!

Best you can do for him is plenty of hay, if you are worried about him then I like to take the edge of the water with some hot water to ensure that they always drink what they need. Helps it stay unfrozen a little longer too! Not hot water, more just the freeze taken off! Only wet his feed if he will eat it straight away, otherwise you are just building up ice cubes for him to munch on!
 
We give bran mash (on vets' advice) with added molasses to mildly colicky horses. A bran mash with added sugar will give a 'normal' horse the runs. Not a good idea. I wouldn't give garlic either and if she does the pony might refuse to eat it, our wise old cob won't go anywhere near the stuff. She knows it's poisonous to horses. I wouldn't give a feed of any kind just at the weekends, it will upset the balance of gut flora.

Perhaps now is a good time to explain to your daughter that horses are not people. They have completely different digestive systems from us, that's why they don't eat meat, milk etc. Horses have really only evolved to eat grass and similar foods and they are very well adapted to use grass to keep warm. If he's a good doer, he really doesn't need anything extra and more food could put him at risk of laminitis.
Your daughter has the chance to find out about the real needs of horses and ponies now so that she doesn't grow up believing many of the myths, which seem to have come into being recently, which suggest that equines are fragile and humanoid.
 
First rule of feeding - make any changes to diet slowly. Your pony isn't a human and doesn't need Readibrek to warm him up. I presume he has hay in the field in the frosty conditions. That will give him all the warmth he needs. Explain to your daughter that horses and ponies don't need 3 square meals a day like us, or thick clothes to keep them warm. Nature has equipped him with everything he requires.
 
ThePony said:
Messing about with his diet, esp in weather like this, is asking for colic I think. Simply not worth it, esp if he doesn't require the food anyway! Why you would add treacle or similar is beyond me too I'm afraid!

Best you can do for him is plenty of hay, if you are worried about him then I like to take the edge of the water with some hot water to ensure that they always drink what they need. Helps it stay unfrozen a little longer too! Not hot water, more just the freeze taken off! Only wet his feed if he will eat it straight away, otherwise you are just building up ice cubes for him to munch on!
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ThePony - hot water loses heat faster than cold water to reach the same temperature. Something to do with thermodynamics and latent heat -dredged from my distant memory of O level physics 35 years ago!!
 
If she wants to give him a warm mash (which I think is a lovely idea, if a bit misplaced) could you just put some grass nuts in hot water for five minutes? Then she gets to fuss over him but you won't need to worry about his diet as grass nuts are what they say there are - grass!
 
fatpiggy said:
ThePony - hot water loses heat faster than cold water to reach the same temperature. Something to do with thermodynamics and latent heat -dredged from my distant memory of O level physics 35 years ago!!
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Ah well, that's my theory out the door then! OH mare is v v fussy about her water and turns her nose up when it is very cold which then drives me mad with worry! If I take the cold edge off then she will at least drink, which avoids the nothing/nothing/nothing... big cold drink - colic run of events!!
 
Because of the way that horses' digestive systems work (Agriculture GCSE there ;)) they don't receive any benefits from a warmed feed like we do. I say that, but when it comes to watering horses I definitely think they find tepid water easier to drink than freezng cold water - a pain in winter when they're unwilling to drink and can get dehydrated.
The bran mash can cause upset because it is disrupting the horse's feeding routine, which they aren't designed to do. Bran also has no nutritional value whatsoever, other than providing a bland and easily digestible, easily eaten compound for older or convalescing horses.
I agree with the others about making your daughter's horse's current feed more palatable, if she feels it's necessary, not by changing the compounds in it but by adding water to make it a mash or by adding a dash of mint or oil.
 
Just to say I wholeheartidly agree with all the advise!

One of the liveries I was on the yard with stopped leaving breakfast for me to feed when I got down because she too believed her horse would prefer a hot breakfast.

Her misguided ideas meant instead of appreciating the hot meal, her horse spent almost two hours going spare because everyone else was fed but him!

Or, that WOULD have been the case had I not been so upset at the thought that I fed him breakfast from my bins until the YO got the owner to understand that, as has been said before, horses are not human!!!!

All my hind gut fermentors (the rabbits and guineapigs!) get an abundance of hay over winter to keep warm because it's the digestion that does it, not what they eat!
 
Yes a very good reason. NEVER change you horse's diet on a whim! Their digestive system is delicate and they need very gradual changes to their diet. Also there is no value to the bran sold now, it is not the same as the bran sold years ago.Garlic is bad for horses it it anti-bacterial and kills the gut flora off. I would give hime his chaff and remember he is not human, he derives no comfort from a warm dinner, unless he has beet in which case I will often add a bit of warm water to beet that has stood soaking in freezing temps because I believe cold water can cause colic, that is my belief not a proven fact.

FDC
 
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ThePony said:
Ah well, that's my theory out the door then! OH mare is v v fussy about her water and turns her nose up when it is very cold which then drives me mad with worry! If I take the cold edge off then she will at least drink, which avoids the nothing/nothing/nothing... big cold drink - colic run of events!!
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I would still give the mare her warm water, your right if she doesn't drink she will get colic so making sure she drinks at least some of it is better than none at all
 
BigRed said:
Your daughter is presumably thinking a warm meal will make her pony feel warmer on a cold morning - she is thinking like a human. In fact eating any high fibre food - like a nice pile of hay will cause his digestive system to start working and make him feel warm. It is the process of digesting food that makes them warm, not the temperature of the dinner itself.
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Well said. I know your daughter has best intentions, but lots of roughage is the best way to keep equines warm.
 
Just wanted to highlight that Garlic supplements intended for horses are heat dried. The drying process kills of N-propyl disulfide, the chemical that causes problems for horses.

Also, the research done on garlic were fed at 450gms per day, that's 562% of the RDA (to coin a phrase) and done with pure garlic, not heat treated supplements that most people would/do use in their feeds.

During this study, the benefits of garlic were also recognised. I would be interested to see these results if they were to use heat treated garlic and a 'normal' level.

So, now lets look at humans. Chillies for example, contain capsaicin, in low levels, 1 or 2 everyday, are fine and our body deals with them. Eating a high qty. would kill you; bare in mind capsaicin is used as a paint stripper.

The green'ness on Potatoes, caused by glycoalkaloid, a poison.

Cheery pips and apple seeds, hydrogen cyanide, poisonous

Tomato leaves, used in cooking for flavour in some restaurants - VERY poisonous, chemical within used in pest control.


And according to the surgeon, hot feed is easier for them to digest.
 
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