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I'm sure it's quite possible that by feeding the entire corn stalk, we were balancing the horse's diet somewhat and didn't even know it!

 

 It's kind of like eggs for humans. We are told not to eat eggs because of the cholesterol, which is true for the yolk. But if you eat the whole egg, the white is full of lecithin which counteracts the cholesterol in the yolk!

 

Nature makes foods right. We fiddle with them and think we can do better.

 

chris

Beth Gunn <happyhoofprints@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Do you think feeding the entire shocks instead of just shucked corn kernals allowed horses digetion to maintain itself without starch overload?

Husband and I watched Hidalgo the other night and while DeeDee is still ouchy we are discussing feed stuffs again.  If Arabian horses never had corn in Arabia, what food stuffs are better for them from an evolutionary veiwpoint?  The past thousands of years?  I would imagine heavy draft breeds do better on a different diet than say Icelandics, Norwegian ponies, Chincotugue sp?, horses in Scotland, etc.

I train and board dogs and research the past 10 yrs does show breed revelance pertaining to diet.  ie Border collies, Westies, do better on chicken, lamb and oats.

American dogs, Chesapeke Bay retrievers, American pitts better on beef and beagles good on junk from Walmart!

I would be interested in learning what Arabians natural diet looks like and I know corn isn't in there :-)

----- Original Message -----

From: Chris Paus

To: Beth Gunn ; heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 6:27 AM

Subject: Re: [RC] Feeding Corn

I don't feed corn to my horses either, now that I've become more educated about nutrition and feed. However, for 15 years when I lived in northern Wisconsin, we fed our horses corn. For years, we grew our own field corn. In the fall, we harvested it by cutting the stalks and piling them up in a tent, called a "shock." Throughout the long Wisconsin winters, we'd feed one or two shocks a day to the horses (who lived outside) along with their hay. The horses would eat the shocks, stalks, leaves, corn cobs and all. Those were some darned healthy horses. I didn't know much then about all the things that could go wrong with horses, but those guys lived their lives with no colics, no heaves. They kept their weight well during winter and had shiny bright coats and eyes and easy to work with personalities.

 

Both horses did founder AFTER we quit feeding them corn shocks and put them on more "civilized" feed. I blamed the alfalfa pellets we fed one year when hay was hard to come by.

 

One horse recovered and lived a good, healthy and useful lilfe to age 28. The other battled chronic laminitis and he could not eat even a sprig of a legume.. no hay or clover... or he'd get sore feet.

 

chris

Beth Gunn <happyhoofprints@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am not happy with corn feeds for endurance horses either. My 19 yr
mare,DeeDee, came up cronically? lame 2 years ago. Very ouchy in the front
end. I have no pasture, dry lots and mixed grass hays 24 7s. The feed I
was using had a lot of corn. Chiro/acupucture vet goet DeeDee fixed up.
Took 3 months, 6 visits, and close to a $1000....
She has been sound since then until now. I mixed a few handfuls of Nutrena
Safe Choice with her regular Nutrena XTN and beet pulp, with the idea to get
her off the high energy food to Safe Choice which has vegetable oil for
energy. She came up lame the next day. Safe Choice first ingredient is
corn. And I bet the veg oil also si corn based. Anyway, stopped feeding
the SC and she is still lame a week later. Ugh!
Starch dump overload into the stomach is never a good idea. And that is
what high starch/low fiber corn is as compared to oats, which has good fiber
ansd decent protein levels.
There is also the mycotoxin problem with corn. We feed it to the deer
around here.
Beth Gunn
SoCar. where Spring has Sprung!!!

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Cc:
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: [RC] Feeding Corn


> >
> >
> > I friend of mine is getting a new horse tomorrow a very large TWH 16.2
> > hands. This horse is being fed free choice grass hay and 12 pounds of
> > corn a day.
>
> Yikes!
>
> > Corn is the one feed I have never see discussed on this
> > forum. So what are the good, bad and ugly facts about feeding corn to a
> > horse that is going to start conditioning for CTR in a few days.
> > Shannon
>
> It's a huge source of starch, which breaks right down into simple carbs.
> Corn was the big culprit in work horses that used to get "Monday Morning
> Disease"--which was basically just tying up from being fed a high corn
> ration 7 days a week, and not working on Sunday. Corn would be about my
> LAST choice for a grain for an equine athlete--would far rather feed oats
> or something with some fiber in it. My thought about this horse would be
> to get him weaned OFF the corn BEFORE you start to condition, and maybe
> substitute a part of it with a non-grain supplement like beet pulp, with
> just a few handfuls of grain in it for flavor.
>
> Heidi
>
> Heidi
>
>
>
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Kansas State Motto: Ad Astra Per Aspera.. to the stars through difficult....

BayRab Acres
Paola KS
913-731-5947
http://pages.prodigy.net/paus