Horses and Sweet Feed

The thing that I have noticed is that the large drafts I own are usually calm regardless of feed ration. The haflingers on the other hand go over the top when given grain. They appartently do not need the extra calories or energy and act like they want to jump out of thier hides when they are up on the grain. It could be just the breed differences.

Joshua

I think feeding and reaction depends on the horse not the breed. I dont care to feed sweet feed because of the molasses if you need to or cant get an all grain I like to thin it down a bit with dry grains. My reason for it is molasses is a sugar and if you eat sugar like candy every day even small amount it usually causes tooth problems I believe same with horses. If its energy your looking for try rice bran topped on crimped oats or calf manna powder or pellet on top both excellent sources of high energy.

carl, molasses was always the way to get cattle to eat poor hay, and they had great lusterous coats when they were on it, so i always leaned to molasses with our horses, but lately i was thinking the way you are and went to just oats, bran or pulp, and two or three fistfuls of black oil sunflower seeds. birdfood. pictures of birds right on the bag. full of fat. i think its working. they seem to be making weight. i may change my mind but thats the latest experiment.

@mitchmaine 17917 wrote:

carl, molasses was always the way to get cattle to eat poor hay, and they had great lusterous coats when they were on it, so i always leaned to molasses with our horses, but lately i was thinking the way you are and went to just oats, bran or pulp, and two or three fistfuls of black oil sunflower seeds. birdfood. pictures of birds right on the bag. full of fat. i think its working. they seem to be making weight. i may change my mind but thats the latest experiment.

That is interesting. Were the horses at all thin before you started feeding the sunflower seeds? I know that when our kids were in 4-H and showing rabbits some people fed the black sunflower seeds to improve their haircoat, though I never could tell that their rabbits had better fur than ours did so I didn’t pursue it.

hey oldkat, my near colt, dick, wintered hard, and i’ve been trying to get him back up. i tried the recipe first, but last week had them floated, and he broke a back tooth off and the opposing tooth erupted into it’s spot keeping the others from grinding as well as they could. it was quite a ways back and even tho i could find a few sharp edges the “dentist” found it and it took some grinding and may take another go at it. but he’s eatin’ better now. thanks, mitch

Plenty of energy and adequate protein should put weight on IF your horse: 1) can chew the feed sufficiently 2) doesn’t have a huge parasite load 3) is in “good health” (not carrying a disease or illness).

There’s nutritional info on feed molasses in most “feeds” books – from Ensmingers’ Feeds and Nutrition text – it’s about 60% carbs (sugars), 7-8% protein as fed. Primarily used as an energy feed. I think molasses not only keeps down the dust but does help w/ palatability.

Sunflower seeds (and other oilseeds) are also a good E source just have to watch the amount(S) or else it can reduce intake. Can also try adding corn oil to grain ration.

I agree that molasses is not the likely culprit in tooth decay in horses. In fact, there are often more issues with bits of plant fiber getting jammed btwn the tooth and gum and giving abcesses.