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Rice bran and beet pulp?

30K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  winwillows 
#1 ·
What do rice bran and beet pulp contribute to a diet? Or what are they intended to do when added to a diet?
 
#2 ·
Rice bran is high fat and will help a horse gain well. Beet pulp also helps gain when added to the feet, but is a fibrous feed, more like a forage. On a normal horse rice bran is not a long term feed but beet pulp is.
The base of my feed is molasses free beet pulp. My horse is an uber easy keeper, when she was rescued and malnourished the rice bran put weight on like a charm.
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#3 ·
So basically if you're feeding rice bran to an underweight horse, you would take them off of it once they are back to a good weight?
And do you have to soak beet pulp? whats the difference when it's dry as opposed to soaked?
 
#4 ·
I have fed soaked beet pulp and rice bran to a Tb mare to help her gain weight with wonderful results.

The beet pulp if in pelleted form must be soaked, its very compressed and expands quite a bit with water, I have heard of people feeding the shreds dry but I personally wouldn't want yo run the risk of choking when soaking is so easy.

Now that my mare is up to weight and actually going in the porky side I have taken her off the rice bran and she seems to be keeping her weight well. If using rice bran be sure to get stabilized as the regular stuff goes rancid rather quickly.
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#5 ·
You don't have to soak beet pulp. Some people do, as it used to be thought that if you didn't it would expand so much the horse would colic (that has been disproved, but some still believe that and swear by it, but I have never had a problem). If your horse has never had beet pulp, soaking it can make it palatable if they don't seem to like it. (it has a very coarse texture) In winter, as a nice measure I might soak it in some warm water. On the flip side, beet pulp will turn rancid quickly when soaked (it begins fermenting), so if your horse won't eat it, it has to be thrown out.

I use beet pulp if there isn't enough quality forage available. (I try to stay on a hay-only diet, but sometimes extra is needed when hay is hard to come by or of lesser quality than I'd like) In that case, I use primarily beet pulp, and add in a small amount of feed to give compensate for the nutrients they would be lacking.

I've only given rice bran to young horses that were underweight, as it has high fat and protein that help gain weight/muscle. Once they are getting where they need to be, then I haven't used it. I have known people that used it with horses that are in intense work, and are young and growing. I myself wouldn't recommend it as a every-day supplement unless you work your hard every day, as they don't need it and can cause more problems than it's worth. (Problems being; anxiousness, hyperactivity, etc- all that energy has to go somewhere!)
 
#6 ·
Rice bran is about 20% fat and is usually fed for additional calories. There's no reason why it can't be fed long term unless (like any other feed) the horse needs to lose weight.

Being high in fat, rice bran can go rancid quickly, so it's best to buy a stabilized rice bran unless you're going through it very quickly. If buying unstabilized, be sure to get it from a feed store that goes through their inventory often or it could be rancid before you even buy it.

Another consideration is whether it's fortified or not. Rice bran is naturally high in phosphorous and low in calcium. Horses need to have an overall diet that is higher in calcium than phosphorous, so many manufacturers fortify rice bran with additional calcium (usually so that there is roughly equal calcium and phosphorous). If you're feeding in small amounts (say, 1-2 lbs per day) the horse might be getting enough calcium from other sources (hay, pasture, other hard feeds) that fortified rice bran isn't required. But if your horse is getting more than 2 lbs/day, you don't know how to calculate the calcium-to-phosphorous ratio in your horse's diet, or your horse isn't getting a high-calcium diet (like alfalfa hay) then fortified is a safe way to go.

Beet pulp is another great feed for putting on weight. It's full of highly digestible fiber, which provides more calorie content than other high fiber sources that contain more indigestible fiber (like stemmy hay or peanut hulls). Most people will soak it (especially if feeding the pelleted form). It's not strictly necessary to do so, but is certainly a good idea to reduce the risk of choke, and can also add some fluid in the winter when horses tend to drink less.

Beet pulp is a high calcium feed, so it pairs well with rice bran. IME beet pulp and rice bran together form a mash with a very nice consistency that can be great for hiding supplements that the horse might otherwise sift out of a dry meal.
 
#11 ·
Beet pulp is a high calcium feed, so it pairs well with rice bran. IME beet pulp and rice bran together form a mash with a very nice consistency that can be great for hiding supplements that the horse might otherwise sift out of a dry meal.
How do you mix the two? Like how much water for how much of each?
 
#9 ·
Yeah, rice bran is reasonably high in fat, but beet pulp is also high in energy & good for weightgain. As mentioned, ricebran, like wheatbran is very high phosphorus, & beet pulp is quite high calcium which can create imbalances if not fed as *part* of a balanced diet. **I'd add extra Mg if feeding high Ca.
 
#10 ·
Wausuaw, what makes you say that rice bran makes horses higher energy? In my experience it has been a great 'cool calorie' source and when I fed it to my 2 year old TB filly, she didn't seem any more high energy on 1 1/2 lbs of rice bran than she did on 3 1/2 lbs of beet pulp. She did have quite a bit of energy, but that is a given with a baby TB who is being fed 6-7 lbs of alfalfa pellets, rice bran, and 2 lbs of hard feed every day!

Personally I had more luck with beet pulp helping with weight BUT my girl was a picky eater and after a while she refused to eat it. She never refused rice bran.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Endiku, calories = energy. Excess calories can therefore equal too much energy, regardless whether it's 'cool' or not. ;-)

Hannahh, yes, gatorade is mostly sugar, salt & water, with potassium & flavours added. Fair percentage of sugar. So it would depend how sensitive your horse is to sugars for a start, as well as considering whether they actually need that extra salt & potassium or whether that would cause an OD/imbalance.
 
#14 ·
Endiku- Great job with your filly! (first off)

It's been my experience that the average horse (not under nourished, not growing, not in hard work, that is) that is fed with any too-high a protein diet (any number of supplements, not just rice bran) can start to exhibit problems that could otherwise be averted (too much of anything isn't good). I tend to be more cautious with feeds and supplements (I have a less-is-more-policy). So that wasn't directly toward rice bran, but just any any hi-protein type feed/supplement for long term use without a specific plan.

Given that we were given an open question, not really specific to any particular circumstance, I was just giving a general answer (opinion). I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to extra feeds and such- but my philosophy is to try to get as much from hay/pasture as you can and supplement from there.

I do think it's a great option to help malnourished horses gain good weight/muscle, but I personally think it's too much for the average horse. (It's got a lot more fat, and alot more protein than beet pulp).

But, I know that everyone tends to have different ideas and thoughts on things- and there are so many circumstances we could probably write a 3 part novel on feeding philosophies, lol.
 
#17 ·
It's been my experience that the average horse .... that is fed with any too-high a protein diet ....can start to exhibit problems that could otherwise be averted
There seem to be a few on the alfalfa/lucerne thread that beg to differ...

I mix powdered orange Gatorade with water. Encouraging them to drink is such a good idea. She drinks buckets of it in the middle of the day in the heat.
I'm curious to know, how many people have real problems that are due to horses not drinking enough? Because I haven't ever even heard of the problem before aside from recently on this forum - aside from strange tasting water at events or new places, bore water or such - and it strikes me that giving kids soft drink would encourage most to drink more too, but that's not necessarily a great thing either.
 
#20 ·
I fed my endurance horse Legends rice bran pellets. :wink:

I like rice bran. I have a PSSM horse who requires a ton of calories from fat. Rice bran is pretty palatable, and she ate it well during her transition to a high fat diet. Due to expense (it can get expensive to feed five pounds of rice bran a day!) I weaned her off of it and used another fat source. If it wasn't for the expense, I would have continued.

I use beet pulp for my non-PSSM endurance horse. PSSM horse doesn't like it, and it's a pain to wash the molasses off! Great supplement when forage is low quality; I feed it during the winter, mostly. I also feed it during endurance rides. Water and fiber, baby!

As far as Gatorade goes... PSSM horse can't gave it; it IS high in sugar. Quite high. Normal-horse loves it, but I don't give it to her regularly. I've heard lots of pros and cons regarding Gatorade use (in endurance horses), and no one has a straight answer about whether it's a "good thing" or a "bad idea." I've competed a couple horses whose owners swear by it, and those horses drink it by the five gallon bucket. Other owners are afraid of the sugar.
 
#19 ·
Check and see what your local feed stores carry. My preference is for a "straight up" rice bran instead of a rice bran-based product (like Nutrena Empower Boost or Purina Amplify) Stabilized is very important unless you're going through it quickly, and fortified if you're feeding a lot of it or the horse's diet is low in calcium. In my case, I could only find one store that carried a stabilized rice bran (Equine Shine). It's not fortified, which was OK for the quantities I was feeding it in.
 
#22 ·
I can add a little information on feeding Rice Bran to horses. Maybe a little more than most since I invented the use of Stabilized Rice Bran for equine feeds. First, raw rice bran is rancid when you get it. period! Once exposed to air in the milling process rice bran goes rancid in about eight hours. As you can see, there is no way to get it to a horse in this time period. However, rancidity is not the real potential problem with unstabilized or raw rice bran. Since it is a waste product, it is stored and handled as such with no regard to outside contamination. Rats, birds, mold and moisture all have access to raw bran because of the way it is stored in most rice mills. On the other hand, stabilized rice bran is actually a food grade product and is handled and stored that way. You can't move raw rice bran to another location from the rice mill to stabilize it. It would already be denatured by the time it was moved. Stabilization equipment has to actually be in the rice mill, and the bran is stabilized within minutes of being milled off of the rice kernel. The process is mechanical and destroys the enzyme that causes the fat in the rice bran to go rancid without effecting fragile anti-oxidants. This is actually a kind of flash heat process that is very specific. After forced cooling, it then goes directly to packaging in bulk tote bags or smaller retail bags. If calcium is to be added, this is done during the cooling period in the system. Again, all done in a controlled environment. Can you feed raw bran and get away with it?? Yes, until you can't. You may do it for years, but it is a roll of the dice. I would certainly never feed it to a customers horse. When we brought the first rice bran label to the market in the 1980's, "Natural Glo", we realized that we could only sell stabilized rice bran from a liability standpoint. As to amount, over about 2 pounds per day seems to reach the law of diminishing return. Up to that point there is a lot other than just fat to stabilized rice bran. This is something that many horse owners don't realize, and the reason that there is such a response from the horse to stabilized rice bran in the diet. The protein is about 12% and of very high quality. There is over 100 anti-oxidant vitamins. It is one of the highest natural sources of vitamin E found in nature, high in fiber and typically replaces enough conventional feed to significantly lower NSC in the total diet. We use stabilized rice bran in Renew Gold for these reasons. Cool energy and super safe if stabilized.
 
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