Re: Molasses

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Lysane Cree wrote:
> 
> I don't think adding molasses would increase the nutritional value of
> what you are feeding your horse to any significant degree, but it
> seems that for some horses the added sugar is not good, i.e. the
> good old "sugar rush" - the sudden peak and then drop in blood
> glucose.

Molasses is added to sweet feeds at a rate of 3-5%, so the simple sugars
and effects on the glucose curve are going to be much, MUCH higher from
the grains in the mix than the molasses portion.  And even those you can
avoid by feeding small meals at frequent intervals, rather than a large
meal all at once.


> I know that molasses is often said to be high in iron and so eating
> molasses should be a good thing for us humans (if we leave out the
> high sugar content), but I don't know if the iron content would have
> any significant effect on our horses since molasses is usually only
> provided in small quantities. Maybe other people will have more
> insight into this.

Iron is provided in high quanitites by many other feeds as well, and
iron deficiency is extremely rare in healthy horses (ie, ones that
aren't anemic because of parasites or hemorrhage, etc).  Even if a horse
is fed ten pounds a day of a sweet feed mix, that's only 3 ounces of
simple sugars derived from the molasses---about equivalent to what's in
two or three apples.  It's just not something to be at all concerned
about.  

Susan G