Re: Ca:Phos ratio

["hn.heather" <hn.heather@wanadoo.fr>]

Sarah is more qualified than I am to tell you about the nutritional benefits
of beet pulp but I can tell its not new.  Its been used in UK for at least
25 years, traditionally in winter for keeping condition on horses and for
damping down feeds.
I've heard it described by endurance riders as a "super fibre" as it
supplies as much energy as oats but is high in fibre, digested in the large
intestine and so-on.  It also has a healthy Ca/P ratio.
In UK you can get it in various forms: molassed, unmolassed, and Spillers do
a range of HDF (high digestible fibre) feeds (nuts and sweet-feeds) based on
sugar beet pulp.  There is also an extruded form.
My horses get it every day all year.  Here in France its tricky in the
summer because it ferments quickly so I have to put the bucket somewhere
cool.
Apart from the nutritional use its valuable for "fixing" supplements
especially those in powder form that would otherwise drop to the bottom of
the manger.
If you've got a horse on box-rest its useful with chaff to add bulk to the
feeds so the horse thinks he's being fed "properly".
I use sugar beet water, as do lots of people, to tempt a bad drinker, both
pre- ride and during the ride.  My gelding Darrar has a bucket of beet water
and a bucket of normal water when he's stabled at a ride venue and he always
drinks the beet water first.
In France I had a hard time getting beet pulp when I first came here (15
years ago).  Now my farmer's co-op keep it in stock.  I've introduced some
of my friends to it but its still little used even amongst endurance folk.
Its cheap, relatively, compared to grains, so its useful for feeding
out-wintered horses.
My horses get a plastic scoop full of soaked beet pulp am and pm.  One scoop
(I'll weigh it tomorrow) of beet pulp soaked does 7 horses.
Susan Garlinghouse has a good article on beet pulp and a great story about a
squirrel and beet pulp nuts.
In Uk in the old days it was only available in the form of "shreds" then
nuts were invented and now the shreds are difficult to find which is a shame
because they rehydrate much more quickly.
In UK there are lots of dire warnings about soaking beet pulp - you're
supposed to do it for 24 hours.  Here in France in summer thats not
practical as it ferments.  I soak it in the evening for the morning, and
so-on.  I believe some experiments have been done to see how well horses
cope with unsoaked beet pulp.  Believe the results were positive but haven't
the nerve to try it myself, and anyway that defeats the object a bit.
I think the beet-pulp in France is unmolassed because beet water made with
my French beet is like dish water.  I keep a sack of English beet pulp
shreds just for race rides.
Some people in France say you shouldn't feed beet pulp because of the sugar
content but from what I understand as beet pulp is a by-product of the sugar
industry most of the sugar is removed anyway during processing.

Am I boring you yet????

Anyway, sure there are others with much to add.

Heather
France



<SANDYSROB@aol.com>;
<ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 4:57 PM
Subject: RC: Ca:Phos ratio


> Sarah,
>
> Tell me about beet pulp. It seems to be a ubiquitous new ingredient in
horse
> feeds. What are its salient points?
>
> ti
>
>
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