Adding Oils to Your Horse's Feed.

I recommend 1 cup of ground flax a day for an 1100lb horse or 2oz of flax oil. There are other more potent sources of omega-3's like fish oil and algal DHA but these are far more expensive. I tend to save those horse horses battling known inflammatory conditions.

I actually have posted before just not in a long time and I lost my login info so decided to start again. This post caught my eye as it was something I felt I could make a meaningful contribution. I tend to stay away from the generic "what should I feed my horse" questions because to answer those properly you need a lot more info than is typically given in a forum post. Plus that is what I do as a profession :)

I will pass through now and again and see if there are posts I can contribute to and you can always find me on facebook where I am very active. Search for Summit Equine Nutrition.

Clair
Clair Thunes PhD
Independent Equine Nutritionist

Drumrunner to my knowledge we don't know what the ideal ratio of 3's to 6's is. I have never seen it published anywhere although I see so many products that claim to be formulated to the ideal ratio. I've read a lot of papers and no-one I've asked has been able to give me a ratio either. Maybe its out there but I haven't seen it. What we know if that fresh quality pasture is about 4 times more 3 than 6. We feed forages low in omega's and then add grains which are higher in 6's and oils that are higher in 6's. They need 6's the question is how much is too much and we don't know. All we have to go on is human research some limited equine research their "natural" diet.

3's and 6's share the same elongase enzymes. The ALA form of omega 3's in flax have to be converted to EPA and DHA. We don't know how well horses convert ALA to EPA and DHA and their ability may be reduced when a lot of O6 is present. This is why I will recommend EPA and DHA directly for horses that have inflammatory conditions.

I have an article about this on my website you might find interesting.

Omega fatty acids for allergies.

Clair
Clair Thunes PhD
Independent Equine Nutritionist

So should I not be feeding BOSS to my guys?

I'm the same, I can't find any articles, studies, or really anything much that goes into more depth about the ratio of 3 & 6. I've had this conversation with my vet a few times and she can't really find anything either so we're both curious. My horses are turned out 24/7, I don't feed my hay in the summer because our grazing is so rich but fall/winter/spring they have a free choice high quality round bale. Then of course grain, free choice mineral block, and supplement. What do you think about the feeds I use, and would would you recommend anything different?

I have barrel horses, two QH/TB appendix mares and one QH gelding.

Nikki (11) gets 2X a day 1 scoop of Nutrena SafeChoice, 1 scoop Purina Omolene 200 and Omegatin.

Lark (12) gets 2X a day 1 scoop Strategy, 1 scoop SafeChoice, and Omegatin.

Hickory (22) gets 2X a day 1 1/2 scoop Nutrena Life Design Senior which is a recent change from a Safe Choice and Life Design Senior mix.. He also gets Omegatin.

Nikki is a little harder to keep weight on in the winter months so I do add Rice Bran oil and Franam Weight Builder..

This is the type of questions I mentioned before that is very hard to answer on a forum. How hard are your horses working? What do they weigh? How many pounds of feed do your scoops hold, etc etc. Without that info I can;t say whether the diet is adequate. I don't think you are feeding any of the feeds per the manufacturers recommendations so you may have deficiencies but then you are combining multiple fortified feeds which is curious, so maybe you are. Again hard to tell without really running the numbers.

Clair
Clair Thunes, PhD
Independent Equine Nutritionist

I don't feed by the recommendations, I've had better results with mixing the feeds. Right now I'm out of town but when I get home I'll figure all of it out and post it.

I have read this entire post concerning the oils. Wow that's a lot of information to go through. I'm curious about the fish oil and why not for picky eaters?

Francis you of course can feed it to picky eaters it is just that they may not like the smell/taste. You would need to find one that has had the taste masked.

Clair

Clair Thunes PhD
Independent Equine Nutritionist

As Clair said, it just has to do with each individual horse. Some may eat it while others won't and you will have to hide it to get the horse to eat it.

Great post! I also have a gelding who is a hard keeper and have had great results with adding Farnam Weight Builder and oil. I am currently using vegetable oil as I read somewhere it was an acceptable aand affordable option but I don't see it mentioned and wondered in what category that would fall and if I might be better off to switch him to a different oil type as he is fed this daily. Appreciate your input.