So here’s my disclaimer: I don’t know hardly anything about horse nutrition and have no credentials whatsoever, but I do know horses and how they should look and act and live. This is only my opinion of horse ownership of over 40+ years.
My take on oats: I was mostly brought up around thoroughbred jumpers and race horses long before I settled into Quarter Horses. What were they fed? Oats. I worked as a human slave for a number of performing high school horses and circus horses and what were they fed? Oats and dry bran. So when I began to feed my own big horses, oats is pretty much what I fed with my vitamin of choice, which at that time was Vita Plus, Source, or Drive. My quarter horses worked, played and showed hard and were just fine and dandy on my oat food. Time marched on and then I began to feed sweet feed from a number of companies, but mostly from Purina and Nutrena. Back then, if the contents were in the bag, it was supposed to be in my horses’ stomach. No questions asked.
From time to time I re-evaluate my feed program and make changes if needed. So last year I began to examine yet again what I was feeding the miniatures because some of them began to look a little “off” so I switched up feeds and did another one of my experiments. In doing so I put 4 horses on oats. Yes I know oats are on the sugary and starchy side and it’s carbs but they get so little of it, it didn’t seem to matter. Truth be told, my horses don’t even need food. They are idle, don’t work, don’t show, don’t do anything but employ me as their general caretaker and buttwiper, and eat a minimum of processed food. I know they can survive quite well on just their hay and minerals. But it’s something with me, etched in my brain, my maternal instinct and way I always did things, that says I have to feed my children horse food! I always felt I have to have something to offer them besides their hay. I only use a little food to get them into the barn at night and for something to give them as I greet them each morning so they will like me. LOL- just cup or two per feeding if that much. So why all the hub-bub about what to feed them? Its way out of control.
I first purchased the lowest cost bag I could find at about $15.00 or so. Crimped oats. It was very dusty, way too dusty for me to bother with. The horses would cough as they ate them, so I got rid of that bag. The next bag was whole oats and a couple dollars more. The oats weren’t nice and plump at all but it was “something” to give them.. After that I tried the steam crimped, rolled oats and triple cleaned. No complaints except the price was getting higher and higher. As it turned out, the horses on the oats were fine. Since I have easy keepers and some who are too fat, it reduced the neck and fat pockets on two of the four horses. I did not expect that, but it was a bonus. The hair coats were good, the energy level was there, and no one looked the worse for wear. I double checked with my brother in laws’ vet clinic in Kentucky who work on the most valuable race horses in the world and was also told oats is still also the choice of food after all these years for most of the race horses. It also is good for horses who are prone to ulcers and the easiest food a horse can digest but I already knew that part.
I think feeding horses has gotten way too complicated, scientific, and emotional for us and the feed companies have us on a guilt trip. I need to uncomplicated things. Frankly I’m getting too old to keep buying into the fancy propaganda of the feed companies who are desperate to sell their over priced over packed feed, when they know the horse industry is in the tanks. They can blame the farmer or politics, I don’t care who they blame, but its shameful what they are charging for a bag of horse food. They are forever changing up their recipe and being inconsistent and adding all kinds of newfangled nuggets and the like in a 50 lb bag of feed and will do anything to convince you of it, and don’t forget the recalls. If you let it boggle your mind it surely will. I’m at two points in my life: #1: I am on a fixed income now and stuck on a budget. I can very well still afford my horses but I cannot afford to be stupid and throw good money after bad. The other point I’m at is being fed up with getting so far away from nature and adding all this crap into my horse’s guts when they don’t need it. I think of it this way: There was once life before MacDonald’s’ luscious Big Macs. Now a days people are fat and the obesity problem in our country is at an all time high so its like “If you build it they will come” but in this case its “If we sell it power packed in a fancy wrapper, they will buy.” Did your mother need a special rocket scientist to make you a healthy homemade bowl of soup? Anyhow, disgusted with the whole thing my honest feelings on it is, if the horses aren’t shinny, it doesn’t mean you have to buy a more expensive food or add bird seed and special additives to it. It means to get out a dad gum brush and buy a wormer. And now they need yet another special nugget or pellet to help them digest the food you just paid how much money for? Then why they heck are they processing this stuff if they know your horse needs help digesting it in the first place? They just keep adding more and more stuff. Do these itty bitty equines really need it and are they getting enough of it in the bag? I don't know, so I provide minerals and I fix my own beet pulp so I know they are getting the amount of that stuff I want them to have. That makes the emotional part of me feel better. I really feel at times the feed companies are making fools out of us horse owners because as long as they keep making it, we’ll keep buying it at any price. They are making us feel if we don’t spend twenty bucks or more a bag we aren’t good horse owners and that is not the case here. So feeding my horses everything from soup to nuts and yes plenty of oats over the decades with no horrible results, I think we all need to smarten up.
So fast forward to today: The time has come for me to make the switch so I went to Tractor Supply to see about their oats. They had three kinds of oats, but I about fell over when I saw their whole oats was a whopping $20.99 a bag. Yes I shall now complain about the price of oats! Someone please justify that price? There is absolutely nothing anyone can do to a lousy oat to make it cost $20.99 for a 50lb bag so I left it sit right there on the shelf. Give me a break people, its an oat, not the Hope Diamond. I came back home and stopped at the mountain general store where they sell some cheap off brand horse food from some no-name mill someplace and inquired about their oats. They carry whole oats at $12.50 a bag. At that I said “Gimmee it”. I got home and low and behold, the oats are not dusty as I expected and are relatively plump. Amazing. They would do fine. Let’s face it, oats are as back to nature as we can possibly get. I realize they lack nutrients so I do keep my mineral stations full and always have. I may be adding a vitamin if I think we need something else like I used to do back in the day, but I’m doubtful that will be warranted. I’m getting back to basics, less complications, and going to save a good buck at the same time. Maybe I’ll be back here in 6 months ranting that my oat plan didn’t work out but that remains to be seen. Now if I can just figure a way to lower my bedding cost…….that’s next.
My take on oats: I was mostly brought up around thoroughbred jumpers and race horses long before I settled into Quarter Horses. What were they fed? Oats. I worked as a human slave for a number of performing high school horses and circus horses and what were they fed? Oats and dry bran. So when I began to feed my own big horses, oats is pretty much what I fed with my vitamin of choice, which at that time was Vita Plus, Source, or Drive. My quarter horses worked, played and showed hard and were just fine and dandy on my oat food. Time marched on and then I began to feed sweet feed from a number of companies, but mostly from Purina and Nutrena. Back then, if the contents were in the bag, it was supposed to be in my horses’ stomach. No questions asked.
From time to time I re-evaluate my feed program and make changes if needed. So last year I began to examine yet again what I was feeding the miniatures because some of them began to look a little “off” so I switched up feeds and did another one of my experiments. In doing so I put 4 horses on oats. Yes I know oats are on the sugary and starchy side and it’s carbs but they get so little of it, it didn’t seem to matter. Truth be told, my horses don’t even need food. They are idle, don’t work, don’t show, don’t do anything but employ me as their general caretaker and buttwiper, and eat a minimum of processed food. I know they can survive quite well on just their hay and minerals. But it’s something with me, etched in my brain, my maternal instinct and way I always did things, that says I have to feed my children horse food! I always felt I have to have something to offer them besides their hay. I only use a little food to get them into the barn at night and for something to give them as I greet them each morning so they will like me. LOL- just cup or two per feeding if that much. So why all the hub-bub about what to feed them? Its way out of control.
I first purchased the lowest cost bag I could find at about $15.00 or so. Crimped oats. It was very dusty, way too dusty for me to bother with. The horses would cough as they ate them, so I got rid of that bag. The next bag was whole oats and a couple dollars more. The oats weren’t nice and plump at all but it was “something” to give them.. After that I tried the steam crimped, rolled oats and triple cleaned. No complaints except the price was getting higher and higher. As it turned out, the horses on the oats were fine. Since I have easy keepers and some who are too fat, it reduced the neck and fat pockets on two of the four horses. I did not expect that, but it was a bonus. The hair coats were good, the energy level was there, and no one looked the worse for wear. I double checked with my brother in laws’ vet clinic in Kentucky who work on the most valuable race horses in the world and was also told oats is still also the choice of food after all these years for most of the race horses. It also is good for horses who are prone to ulcers and the easiest food a horse can digest but I already knew that part.
I think feeding horses has gotten way too complicated, scientific, and emotional for us and the feed companies have us on a guilt trip. I need to uncomplicated things. Frankly I’m getting too old to keep buying into the fancy propaganda of the feed companies who are desperate to sell their over priced over packed feed, when they know the horse industry is in the tanks. They can blame the farmer or politics, I don’t care who they blame, but its shameful what they are charging for a bag of horse food. They are forever changing up their recipe and being inconsistent and adding all kinds of newfangled nuggets and the like in a 50 lb bag of feed and will do anything to convince you of it, and don’t forget the recalls. If you let it boggle your mind it surely will. I’m at two points in my life: #1: I am on a fixed income now and stuck on a budget. I can very well still afford my horses but I cannot afford to be stupid and throw good money after bad. The other point I’m at is being fed up with getting so far away from nature and adding all this crap into my horse’s guts when they don’t need it. I think of it this way: There was once life before MacDonald’s’ luscious Big Macs. Now a days people are fat and the obesity problem in our country is at an all time high so its like “If you build it they will come” but in this case its “If we sell it power packed in a fancy wrapper, they will buy.” Did your mother need a special rocket scientist to make you a healthy homemade bowl of soup? Anyhow, disgusted with the whole thing my honest feelings on it is, if the horses aren’t shinny, it doesn’t mean you have to buy a more expensive food or add bird seed and special additives to it. It means to get out a dad gum brush and buy a wormer. And now they need yet another special nugget or pellet to help them digest the food you just paid how much money for? Then why they heck are they processing this stuff if they know your horse needs help digesting it in the first place? They just keep adding more and more stuff. Do these itty bitty equines really need it and are they getting enough of it in the bag? I don't know, so I provide minerals and I fix my own beet pulp so I know they are getting the amount of that stuff I want them to have. That makes the emotional part of me feel better. I really feel at times the feed companies are making fools out of us horse owners because as long as they keep making it, we’ll keep buying it at any price. They are making us feel if we don’t spend twenty bucks or more a bag we aren’t good horse owners and that is not the case here. So feeding my horses everything from soup to nuts and yes plenty of oats over the decades with no horrible results, I think we all need to smarten up.
So fast forward to today: The time has come for me to make the switch so I went to Tractor Supply to see about their oats. They had three kinds of oats, but I about fell over when I saw their whole oats was a whopping $20.99 a bag. Yes I shall now complain about the price of oats! Someone please justify that price? There is absolutely nothing anyone can do to a lousy oat to make it cost $20.99 for a 50lb bag so I left it sit right there on the shelf. Give me a break people, its an oat, not the Hope Diamond. I came back home and stopped at the mountain general store where they sell some cheap off brand horse food from some no-name mill someplace and inquired about their oats. They carry whole oats at $12.50 a bag. At that I said “Gimmee it”. I got home and low and behold, the oats are not dusty as I expected and are relatively plump. Amazing. They would do fine. Let’s face it, oats are as back to nature as we can possibly get. I realize they lack nutrients so I do keep my mineral stations full and always have. I may be adding a vitamin if I think we need something else like I used to do back in the day, but I’m doubtful that will be warranted. I’m getting back to basics, less complications, and going to save a good buck at the same time. Maybe I’ll be back here in 6 months ranting that my oat plan didn’t work out but that remains to be seen. Now if I can just figure a way to lower my bedding cost…….that’s next.
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