Weight gain suggestions

There is no choking on flax it is a tiny seed and I have five on it doing great whole!!

Protien is not a worry it is a high fat high omega 3 product and I don't remember the protien off hand

And you only feed a MAX of 8 ozs daily

Why are you so worried about protien??

Protien is what builds and repairs muscle so you want lots of good quality protien in the diet

I was not saying he'd choke on it, merely that it would go unchewed and then largely undigested....everything I've read on flax says that for the most benefit it should be chewed well, or previously processed. So why would I want to feed something only partially effective? Lol

As for the protein, I lift heavy weights, so I know that the ratio should be generally one ounce for every pound of weight when in serious work....so give or take 1k ounces of protein every day. The ration balancer by itself covers 30% of that need, and his activity level doesn't warrant high levels of protien. It would go unused and he would pee it out, and although it doesn't make anything cheaper its just not practical to throw things at him because one fraction of the product gives him what he needs.
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The difference between ground flax and whole flax is 2% on average and as soon as you grind it you start losing the nutrition so ..... I was "digging" thur poo ball last night on the horse I just brought here Fri and didn't find any "whole" flax seeds for what it's worth

You feed a max of 8oz daily of whole flax at 26% protien

Your ration balancer is approx 135grams of protien and a no work horse needs on average between 540 to 720grams

Flax would only give you another 50 to 60 grams of protien

The benifits are far greater then you would think ... poor topline is a lack of quality protien

Just some interesting reading I found last night
http://www.ker.com/library/advances/104.pdf

Do you have any pictures of this horses that we could see?

Flax seed is not being 'partially digested'. The only part of flax seed that remains in the horses manure is the hull, or shell. All the nutrients (much like whole oats) get extracted in the digestion process, and the only thing left once it's passed is an empty hull.

You're only assuming I'm feeding him the ration balancer. Isn't alfalfa high in protein as well? That's not making up for all of it of course but alfalfa does make up the majority of his (controlled) forage diet.

I have one extremely non-confo pic of him, where he looks better than he does. I just don't like taking my camera to the barn since its a super nice touch screen and its super easy to break! Rather than clog up the board because its huge, here's a link

Thank you for that link, although it only discussed performance horses, which he is so not haha. But it really irks me at the lack of articles, or info in general, that don't break down specifically what horses need! I like numbers, not percentages......

You gave his AM & PM feeds in your original post, she's not assuming that you're feeding him the ration balancer, she's going by what info you've given already.

Also, percentages can always be converted into decimals.

Thats still only thirty percent....my point is 30 percent of what? I assumed im my earlier post 1k grams per day, but Peggy Sue's 30% figure (135g) says its more like 500 grams per day. Save for that article, and one other that I've lost track of on my computer, I haven't found any information on the breakdown of what a horse needs nutrition wise....its mostly "feed 1.5-2% of bodyweight in forage" or similar. Which stills gives me a figure to percentage against haha, but its not exactly what I would call exact.

She also only mentioned and factored the protein value of the ration balancer, which is why I said what I said.

Found the other article and link, and this has the maintenance requirements for a horse in no work. This math says between 500-600g of protein per day (to be exact a 900lb horse would need 532g, and a 1100 lb horse would need 656g). Also includes a variety of math and other info on basic mineral requirements. THIS is what I like to see, lol!

The Merk Veterinary Manual

All of the stuff telling you what they NEED is in grams ... the NRC Nutrition Requirments for horses gives the numbers I posted that is where I pulled them from ...

The reason I linked that article is the it shows the difference in crude protiens and the actual amounts that get digested and used.

If you search for links by me at some point I posted the NRC requirements and anytime I post those it is on the no work or moderate work loads.

So the 500 to 720 is a NO WORK horse of approx 1100 lbs