Oats

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JCGiamoonah

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My mare struggles with weight in winter, she is fit and ridden hard 4/5 times a week; she has a very sensitive digestive system and frequently has diarrhoea, although the vet tells me its nothing to worry about as she looks well, drinks a lot and is not getting dehydrated. Ive been trying to change her feed concentrates back to straights. Ive been considering moving her onto crushed oats instead of the conditioning mix that i currently use, however my yard are worried that this will make her massively difficult to handle when I'm not there. She is also fed on the Dengie Alpha A oil, Topspec cool balancer, linseed and a squirt of Propel Plus.

So my question is... how true is it that oats send horses nuts? some people say it makes no difference but others say it does. I know every horse is different but I was hoping to get some answers from people that have tried moving to oats and what effect it had on your horse?

TIA
 
I think that more energy is best through fibre and oil rather than cereal or sugars. Both cereal and sugars tend to make them giddy, that wold include oats.

I have known horses react to oats more than other cereals, but also I fed naked oats once and they did not. These days I tend to stick with low starch, low sugar feeds though.
 
Why on earth do they think it will make her difficult to handle, there is every possibility the mix she is on is the cause of her weight issues so in theory once she is more comfortable she should be far happier and that should not mean she is hard to handle or "nuts" if you get rid of the mix and introduce the oats slowly you will soon know how she is but I suspect her condition may improve once she is off the high starch diet and while oats may not be the answer you have a starting point to a new diet.
 
Her diet now is horribly unbalanced and much more likely to send her nuts!

I'd review the whole thing, stop the propell plus, its the worst thing I can think of for a horse. Look at feeding oats with either a chaff or sugar beet etc depending what her and your preference is. Add a decent mineral balancer to correct the imbalances almost certainly caused by the PP and add a big dose of salt. You will find you have a much healthier and happier horse on your hands.

I will say that oats did send one of mine absolutely off his rocker. Its the one and only time its happened and it was very extreme. But if I had so much as let him sniff competition mix he would have also gone mental. He was very, very reactive to feed. Most horses arent.
 
Another vote for naked oats. Higher protein and fat, not as hard as oats so better digested. It can be difficult to source though (they are not oats without the chaff nor are they groats, they are a different plant). I get mine from a feed merchant who stocks bird foods. My horse' s behaviour does not change at all when it becomes included in his winter feed every year.
 
BTW - linseed upsets my mare's stomach. I've had it in / out of her diet a few times just to check it was absolutely that and it is. Apparently it can loosen up the system and some animals (& humans) are more susceptible.

Copra works well for her though.
 
If definitely wanting straights I'd go for barley and maize to start as better for weight and then increase oats as needed.

The propel plus is usually used for horses that are a bit tire/run down so if she is getting that could be what's making her more difficult!
 
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I can't really understand your yard's thinking. If you were changing from a low starch/low sugar diet to oats I could perhaps see they might be worried. But the conditioning mix is likely to be just as high in starch as oats, and probably much higher in sugar, so far more likely to make her mental than oats. What brand of conditioning mix do they feed, do you know? It would be good to present them with actual facts and figures for starch/sugar contents.
 
i feedi had 7 different types on oats this yar and all look great on them. never sent any of mine loopy and ive been feeding them years. If i wanted to put weight on though id use equerry conditioning mix. It's brilliant stuff and its never sent mine loopy
 
I’ve know more horsesreact badly to alfalfa then oats.
I’ve successfully used them to bulk feed out without any of mine getting nutty!
 
Up until about 40 years ago there were no nuts or mixes. Horses lived on oats, crushed barley, flaked maize etc. and they were all fine. The biggest problem today is caused by all the sugars and oils that are used to coat the mixes etc.
 
All of my horses get oats every day. I'm in New Zealand, and reading the other replies, I'm guessing we have "naked" oats here as well. They don't have anything else added to them if that is what that means. I feed mine whole, you can soak them if you don't want to buy crushed (they go off quickly), just put in a bucket and cover with water (put a lid on the bucket otherwise you will end up with drowned mice), pour the water off and feed after 24 hours, or just feed as is. I've never had a horse go "nuts" on oats, but I've only ever fed what I think they need re work requirements or to maintain condition.
 
Instead of oats, could you try speedibeet/unmolassed beet? I too would drop the propell plus, not sure it was meant to be used as a permanent in feed. And up her forage intake too.
 
I had one pony who came out in lumps with maize, barley, beans, alfalfa - you name it - it didn't agree with her. Just about every commercial mix at the time had these ingredients. Even though she was on ad-lib good-quality haylage she needed some hard feed as she was working hard. Oats were absolutely fine, the only grain she could eat.
If I have another pony who needs more feed than hay alone oats would be the first I would try.
 
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