Oats and weight gain

CobsaGooden

CobsaGooden

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I am just wondering what the effect of 1.5 Stubbs scoops of whole oats would be to a horses weight?

Sorry it's a bit random and cryptic!
 
CobsaGooden said:
I am just wondering what the effect of 1.5 Stubbs scoops of whole oats would be to a horses weight?

Sorry it's a bit random and cryptic!
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I ws always taught Oats are used to increase energy levels and barley is what increases weight gain but both are not balanced feeds. I’d be going for something like a conditioning cube or mix now with all the feeds that are on offer.
 
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It’s not my horse. It’s a woman on my yard who feeds this quantity of oats with a supplement (not sure what). The horse is very overweight and I want to say something but I’m not sure if that quantity of oats would do anything for weight? Horse is pretty chilled cob so she could be trying to get him a bit more lively I guess but then I’d imagine being less overweight may help the situation too!

I will probably keep my nose out but I am curious about the oats too
 
CobsaGooden said:
It’s not my horse. It’s a woman on my yard who feeds this quantity of oats with a supplement (not sure what). The horse is very overweight and I want to say something but I’m not sure if that quantity of oats would do anything for weight? Horse is pretty chilled cob so she could be trying to get him a bit more lively I guess but then I’d imagine being less overweight may help the situation too!

I will probably keep my nose out but I am curious about the oats too
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She is probably wanting to up his energy levels. They shouldn't make him fat.
 
The German lady on my yard feeds oats I asked her why she still fed like it was the 1970s…. She has added a vitamin/min this year so that is progress.

Anyway she didn’t really have an answer and the horse is retired so it’s not like ulcers etc are a concern
 
Oats are pretty calorific, but also have the reputation (possibly justified) of making them hotter/more energetic. Tbh I can't imagine that hard feed of any kind will be helping an overweight horse and getting him slim and fit would do more to make him a bit sharper or more lively IMO.
If she was only feeding a handful I'd say it probably wouldn't make much difference, but a scoop and a half is a lot of cereal to be feeding any horse in light to medium work.
 
SEL said:
Anything that adds energy will also make a horse fat if it isn't in enough work.
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Exactly.
I tried to ‘oat up’ my laid back cob years ago. She just got fatter.
If the horse isn’t one that is easily fizzed up with certain feeds (like humans, I guess some are more sensitive than others) then I suspect oats will just supply extra calories to pad the waistline.
 
Thank you for all your replies.

It seems a huge amount of oats for a very fat, minimally worked cob. I wanted to check I wasn't missing something.
 
And i hate to mention pssm but at it's most benign it can make cobs lazy. Adding oats will exacerbate the issue. I'd actually want to know a lazy cob is clear of type 1 before adding any starchy feeds.

My winter grass is proving more than enough oomph at the moment and I can see the weight going on too. Muzzles in November!
 
As a teenager I tried feeding racehorse cubes to liven up my staid cob. All it did was make him traffic shy. Once off the cubes he went back to being as safe as houses.
 
SEL said:
And i hate to mention pssm but at it's most benign it can make cobs lazy. Adding oats will exacerbate the issue. I'd actually want to know a lazy cob is clear of type 1 before adding any starchy feeds.

My winter grass is proving more than enough oomph at the moment and I can see the weight going on too. Muzzles in November!
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It was shortly after shovelling my driving pony full of carbs that the PSSM came to light!
 
The vast majority of whole oats shoved in the front end will come out of the back end as whole oats. Oats need a little milling to allow the horse to digest them properly or soaking for a little while.

Good quality slightly bruised oats mixed with linseed and sugar beet kept my golden oldie looking fab for a good while and I used them a lot in his competitive years. Feeding them to a fat lazy cob isn't a good idea. Fat lazy cob needs plenty of well soaked hay a decent balancer and plenty of miles on hills to turn him into a slim cob able to work.
 
1.5 Stubbs scoops of oats isn’t a lot weight wise though? You need to be feeding kgs for it to make a difference.

Oats are great for horses if they weren’t so expensive around here I’d still feed them.
 
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