As Kat said, Susan Garlinghouse could elaborate better. However, I did have a discussion with her over a year ago on this topic. I can't find the email trail, so I'm having to go by memory, but I believe the upshot of the discussion was that the 72 hour rule applied to fat supplementation using oils like corn oil, and the reason I remember was because of the "cheeseburger effect" - which is that it had the effect of satiation, so the horse eats less hay, which is not what is desired.
The point we were discussing was the balance between feeding rice bran, and the effect of changing the horses diet. At that time, I was supplementing bermuda hay with beet pulp, alfafa pellets and rice bran. The rice bran I buy is corrected for calcium balance. I've since substituted timothy pellets for the alfalfa pellets.
The end result of the discussion was that it probably wasn't worth changing up the horses diet just before a ride, since the fat was being added in the form of rice bran rather than oils.
Now - as I said, since then I've slowly changed his diet. I found that he loves orchard hay, so I've started supplementing with that. That allowed me to decrease the amount of the pelleted supplements and still maintain weight, and I believe is better for him. Before, he was getting 4 pounds of hay pellets and 2 pounds of rice bran, split into two feedings, with 1.5 pounds of beet pulp in the evening feeding. Now, he gets 1 pound of hay pellets and 1/2 lb of rice bran, split into 2 feedings, with 0.75 pounds of beet pulp added to the evening feeding. (I use a food scale - so those are real numbers). Those numbers may change as I increase his excercise (assuming it ever stops raining). However, I'm not too worried about a 1/4 lb of rice bran in his mash the day of the ride.
On Dec 17, 2008, at 9:15 PM, Terry Banister wrote:
Also, fats (rice bran) should be eliminated at least 72 hours prior to competition because it is harder to digest/process, and it does something about slowing water absorbtion. Kat, can you elaborate?
