Ground Flax vs BOSS for coat care?

Black oil sunflower seeds only have trace amounts of Omega 3 fatty acids, which are better for the coat and hoof health. They do have high Vitamin E levels though.

Flax has a lot higher Omega 3s (with a smaller amount of Omega 6s) and has worked a lot better IME for coat, hoof, and skin health. Knock on wood, I have had NO rain rot this year!!! I buy bulk no-name ground flax from my local feed store for $28 for a 50 lb bag. I feed 1/2 cup to most of my horses. 1 cup to those needing extra calories. You can feed up to 4 cups a day safely.

1 cup of flax holds 4 oz by weight. Flax is light weight, so you can feed a higher volume than you can with rice bran or oils.

Also, Kitten, Hay is high in Omega 6 fatty acids, so horses on hay diets are already getting too high of Omega 6s. It makes no sense to add a supplement to their diet that adds more. If you want to balance the Omega 6 vs. Omega 3 ratio in your horse's diet, you need only supplement with high Omega 3 products.

Sorry for jumping in here but how do you give the horse the flax? Do you mix it in with other feed or just plain flax?

Subscribing, I'm thinking of switching my guys over to flax so looking for any and all info!!

I'm old enough that I was bought up believing you could only feed boiled flax, as a jelly, it was always considered to be toxic if fed raw, so I'm still adjusting.

Peggy, I have to disagree. From what I read flax has 4:1 Omega-3 fatty acids to Omega-6, however the total ratio should be around 1:3 (1 - omega 3, 3 - omega 6). On other side there are other sources of omega-6 while almost no omega-3, so it may equal out without using BOSS. Again, all that I found out in different publications on net, so all those "ratios" may be a big "puff".

I just mix it with pellets.

You can feed flax seed whole...it does not have to be ground or boiled some horses will eat it right out of your hand

Thanks for all the info. I manage a barn and we feed the horses one cup of oats and one cup of ground flax once per day with a vitamin supplement (in addition to free choice hay) and they're all fat and have beautiful coats, so that's why I was leaning more towards flax. However I have a friend who didn't really have any luck with flax so I was considering the BOSS again. Lux gets 5 lbs per day of Blue Seal Grow and Excel, so would giving her 1 cup of ground flax twice per day help with weight gain or would I need to feed more? And is it true it loses it's nutritional value if it's pre-ground? I board her and would have no way of grinding whole seeds right before she gets fed.

Yes, but that 1:3 ratio is for the WHOLE diet. Hay, pasture, and feed/grain is all backward, with more Omega 6 and trace amounts to no Omega 3 fatty acids, like 20:1 Omega 6: Omega 3. Only the best pasture grazing has any Omega 3s, and it's still not that high. Hay has almost 0 Omega 3s.

Lola gets this and it is great!

TRM IRELAND - Curragh Carron Oil