FairyLights
Well-Known Member
Article in this weeks H&H about colic. Says horses fed sugarbeet tend to have an increased risk of colic. As do those stabled with little turnout.
Apparently they think it ferments in the gut.
I was wondering about the sugar beet question on this article as well, does it mean all sugar beet or molassed, wasnt clear and a bit concerning. I feed all my horses a fair bit of sugar beet, good scoop a day over the winter only, unmolassed soak 24 hrs pellets, now im slightly worried, although they are out 24/7 and really only have sugarbeet, few nuts and ad lib hay or grass as their main diet. I was under the impression that unmolassed sugar beet was a healthy fibre rich food.
I've never fed sugarbeet but I think it is unfair to name a particular feed to cause colic.
There are plenty of feeds that can lead to colic if fed incorrectly, for example:
Excessive alfalfa in the diet can form enteroliths (intestinal stones), on the other hand alfalfa is an excellent protein source for horses, so although alfalfa in excess is linked to colic, alfalfa fed appropriately benefits horses.
Excess concentrates (corn/oats/barley/pelleted feed/molasses) can upset the gut bacterial balance and cause colic.
I think if we want to get serious about feed related colic then we need to get serious about getting our horses back to a more natural way of life, there are so many conditions our horses suffer from that are related to how we feed them and unfortunately I think there are many feed companies that are either more interested in filling their pockets with our money or really don't understand or want to understand what is best for our horses. A while back I read separate articles one about an FEI australian dressage horse and the other about a FEI New Zealand dressage horse and how the owners were mourning their deaths, both of these horses had foundered and in one article it referred to the long battle the owners had had with the horse having chronic laminitis, both of these horses were sponsored by feed companies and sadly I don't think anyone had told them that their horses feed was killing them, it is one thing for a pony on pasture to founder but another for an elite performance horse locked up in a stable with no pasture and all their feed carefully controlled to founder.
I just find it frustrating that the advancements in nutrition over the last 20 years haven't correlated in our horses having less problems. There are feed companies that promote advancements in micronisation which enables us to feed more of their product to our horses, my question is why? Why do we need to feed more? I know promoting adlib roughage doesn't make anyone money but it makes our horses healthier.
Colic is obviously a huge problem in horses but further to this we have over 90% of performance horses with ulcers and we have horses getting laminitis or tying up because they are fed too much concentrates.
Apologies for my rant, clearly I am passionate about feeding horses!! So to get back on point, I think if we fed everything responsibly we would be able to fix a lot of problems and our horses would be feeling a lot better!