supplements vs. whole foods (re Duncan's comments)

[California Horse Adventures <wendyl@jps.net>]

Forgot an important point when responding to the letter about supplements.
Duncan asks a whole convoluted question about how if supplements are 
supposed to be fed in combination with each other how can you ensure
that your horse eats them at the same time and in the proper combination.
  Well.......that's the beauty of feeding them whole foods vs supplements
that are a little of this, little of that.
 I'm not a nutritionist, but lets see if this example works.
Carrots contain Vitamin A. Vitamin A is not a water soluble vitamin, so 
if you eat too much of it, your body will be poisoned by it. It would be a 
bad idea to start giving your horse big scoops of powdered carrot. Why?
You have to dry about 50 carrots and reduce them to powder to equal the same
mass as a few fresh carrots. So if you gave your horse 5 lbs of fresh
carrots they would love you. If you fed them 5 pounds of dried reduced 
carrots they would probably get into metabolical trouble within a short
period of time.     Same reason that apple juice gives you the trots if
you drink too much. Humans weren't made to eat 20 apples at a time.
   Now then, if you give your horse a cookie made from WHOLE FOODS such as
flax, wheat, alfalfa seed etc they can utilize the vitamins without 
ODing on any one of them. Make sense?   You also won't have to worry too
much about whether they are on grass hay, alfalfa, selenium rich soil etc
because you are not giving them mega-doses of any nutrients. You're 
basically trying to provide them with the same things they would eat if
they had access to good pasture instead of dry hay.
  Anyone more knowledgeable out there who would like to contribute? Susan?