Grain intolerance

[Alex]

This whole feed issue can be very controversial. After my warmblood showed some rather strange behavioural problems under saddle and then later when not under saddle as well, I did a lot of research and came up with grain intolerance in horses. After adjusting his food accordingly a lot of the issues dissappeared. It seems that many horses, especially warmbloods and draught horses, are unable to digest the carbohydrates in grains. This leads to muscle pain and ultimately muscle wastage. It has also been proved that this is the main cause of azoturia. Some very interesting info on this subject can be found at www.ruralheritage.com then you do a search on EPSM

[Claire Marshall]

Thanks for the interesting reading Alex. I must say that a few of the horses in my yard do behave strangely when fed grain. One in particular is enormously dangerous to himself, he spooks for no apparent reason then gallops off going thru and over fences at a mad rate. He has been much better since I have been feeding him a grain free diet, which excludes any grain related product such as oat hay. So far I have found that the diet that works best for him is the Capstone Lifetime Balancer and lucern or alfalfa. He lives out and so has free access to grass.

I am also pleased to be able to say that the diet has not affected the horses negatively in any way, in fact I find them somewhat calmer which allows them to work thru difficult excersizes without unnecessary stress, yet they have plenty energy to perform the work asked of them.

Having witnessed the enormous change in my horses when I changed their diet I did a little research of my own.

In general grains are very high in phosphate, so adding grain unbalances the horses diet and is very difficult to balance back to a 2:1 Calcium:Phosphate ratio without adding large amounts of lime (lime is ground up rock with enormous calcium values and is therefore no more than sand - not something I would willingly feed to an animal that can suffer from sand colic). Grain also creates enormous amounts of acidity in the horses gut during the digestive process. Not only can excessive amounts of acid in the gut cause gastric ulcers, but it can also damage the balance of the intestinal flora necessary for the breakdown of roughage. So in essence grain is not really so good for horses - sad but true!
The other point I would like to make is that I have yet to see a wild horse that has a diet consisting of large amounts of grain!

Makes you think about what you feed your horse doesn't it?

[Alex]

It is all making much more sense now. Bobby seemed to be ok when fed on an average to poor quality diet including grains but as soon as I moved him to a yard where he was fed an excellent quality diet full of micronised grain things fell apart. He couldn't cope with normal interactions with his friends in the paddock and became extremely aggressive so that he had to be kept separate, he was previously known as the horse who was friendly to all the other horses in the yard. When under saddle he first complained when I asked him for slightly more collected work by tugging the reins out of my hands and throwing his entire forehand up and back at me - rather disconcerting!! Especially from a horse that never puts a foot out of line! This 'resistance' then became even worse, he wouldn't even let me pick up the reins on a hack, thank goodness he is well behaved!
Eventually I came across this feed issue and changed his accordingly (not always easy if your livery manager is not convinced). After a week or so there was a marked improvement but not long after that it all went wrong again and I found out that our yard had run out of lucerne so Bobs was getting copious amounts of lovely oathay! I changed him back onto lucerne but by that stage everything was too far gone and I stopped riding him.
To cut a long story short, Debs and Claire offered to take him home and home is where he has been for the last 7 1/2 months. He was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer a few months ago which ties in with what Claire says above and that explains his aggressive behaviour and his reluctance to work with his back legs underneath him because of abdominal pain. He is now much better and I look forward to having him back in George at the end of the month.
The challenge will be keeping his ulcer at bay while he is stabled during the night, He has been living out for the last 7 1/2 months which is the best thing for a horse with an ulcer, well I think it is the best thing for horses in general but not often possible.....
Over to you Claire

[Claire Marshall]

Truly, as you say, not always possible to keep them out - more's the pity! But as long as they have access to something on which to nibble all the time I am sure they will survive.
A horses stomach produces acid all the time, it never stops because they are meant to be trickle feeders, eating little bits non stop. This is why it is important to have something rumbling through the gut (soaking up all that acid) all the time. Only their saliva can actually nutrilize the acid - so keep 'em eating!

[Chelsea]

Hi I have a very sensitive TB prone to spookiness. I really just want to keep him calm and quiet. He is on 1kg Capstone Lifetime (2 x 500g p/d) and 5kg lucerne but that isn't enough to keep his condition right. So I have added 1kg of Tranquil per meal and 300g micronised Barley. However we are having a spooking issue again. Could the Barley still be contributing to this. I was told its not heating. What about the Tranquil. Is there something else I could feed that will keep him well covered but not silly. What about full fat Soya? Any suggestions?
Alex, surely you must be adding something to Bobby's feed or is the Lifetime enough?

[Alex]

Hi Guys, those are very good questions. I am very lucky, Bob is the opposite of me and just has to look at food to stay fat so lifetime is enough for him but remember that he gets plenty of grazing as he lives out with Debs and we have been giving him lucerne chaff and a little oil with his lifetime. When he comes home he will be stabled at night with teff ad lib so I'll probably struggle to keep his weight down.
In my experience soya can be very good at putting weight on but there is the odd horse that still gets silly on it. You don't say whether your horse lives out or whether your grazing is good or bad? These will definitely influence what to give him. If he is stabled then I would give him more hay but definitely not more lucerne, teff is the easiest to get here. Also, vegetable oil is a good way of getting calories into a horse that does strange things when fed grain.
Bob was fed tranquil and Capstone cooltime and both of these affected him badly, especially the cooltime which is micronised so I personally would steer clear of those.
Check out that website I wrote about in my first post, look at the suggestions on what to feed to grain intolerant horses and let us know what you think...

[Debbie Marshall]

It seems that a lot more research has been done into EPSM (Equine Polysacharide Storage Myopathy) or just known as PSSM (Polysacharide Storage Myopathy).

The advice remains that the diet should be grain free and suggests lucern chaff or pellets as the carrier for up to 2 cups of oil per feed, minerals and trace elements suited to the area, vitamin E (as it is fat soluble) and Acetyl L Carnitine. The selenium level in the horse is also of importance but one must be careful here as too much can be fatal while too little causes all sorts of problems and it is probably included in your mineral mix so don't just go adding unless you have had the blood work done.

Take a look at http://www.cvm.umn.edu/umec/lab/Diagnostic.html for more detailed info on the diagnostic work up and if you feel that your horse maybe suffers from EPSM get your vet to do the tests.

It could save a whole lot of heart ache.

[Fiona Van Zyl]

Just a quick note when I fed capstone my mare was out of control on cooltime, but amazingly calm on showtime which has oats but no maize. I think the value of oats is seriously underated.

[Debbie Marshall]

The value of oats is underrated perhaps in the horse that has not been diagnosed EPSM. The horses that have will not do well on them.

[Fiona Van Zyl]

yes of course from what I understand they can't have grain at all.

[Debbie Marshall]

That's the way it seems.

[Andree Lewarne]

I am so frustrated I could eat my horse, grain and all. I send a local feed manufacturer an e-mail, asking specifically for info on a grain free feed, and got a reply telling me about this feed with maize, and that one with barley, and oh, grain intolerance in horses is very rare. (Lots of frustrated sounding noises.....)


Thank goodness for friends who lend patient ears, and restrain themselves somehow from saying "told you so". and livery yard people who are open to suggestions about bizarre sounding diets. You have no idea Debbie, how much I appreciate your patience and wisdoms (for they are many!) We are all privileged to be able to call on your knowledge.

[Debbie Marshall]

So thrilled that you have a livery yard that is prepared to work with you on a very strange diet.

Grain intolerance is very rare because people don't realize the far reaching effects of a modern diet on some horses and therefore don't recognise the symptoms as being diet related.

The only high oil, grain free feed that I know of is Capstone Lifetime. It used to be mixed with a lot of maize but it seems that Equifeed have improved there mixing methods and it is now 99% grain free. It is an excellent feed that is full of yummies such as selenium, which is often lacking in the EPSM horse and not present in the ground here, magnesium and vitamin E both of which are essential to an EPSM horse.

Thank you for your kind words and be sure that it is always a pleasure to share what I know and learn from others as well.

Wishing you and your horse the very best of luck.