Fw: [HORSE-SENSE:1887] linseed meal

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

Jessica Jahiel is having similar queries on her site.  Below is an extract
from her site regarding Flax / Linseed.  Don't know enough myself to
comment, but thought someone else might...
->
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-horse-sense@prairienet.org
>[mailto:owner-horse-sense@prairienet.org]On Behalf Of Jessica Jahiel
>Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 5:09 AM
>To: horse-sense@prairienet.org
>Subject: [HORSE-SENSE:1887] linseed meal
>
>>From: Stan
>>Subject: linseed meal
>>
>>Dear Jessica, let me add myself to the list of your fans. I hope to meet
>you in person someday. It's hard for me to believe that any one person can
>be so well-informed about everything to do with horses, but then I remember
>my own grandfather, who was our county's "old, wise horseman" and the man
>everyone came to with their horse questions. Grand-daddy would sit on a
>bench after church and folks would come to pay their respects and ask him
>questions about horses. He always answered patiently even if the question
>was, let's say, ignorant! I hope you don't take it wrong if I say that you
>remind me of him.
>>
>>I was thinking about Grand-daddy the other day when my daughter mentioned
>that she needed to put a shine on her horse. I suggested linseed meal,
>because that's what my Grand-daddy always told folks to use on their
horses,
>and I saw how well it worked on our farm horses. Cindy tells me that
there's
>nothing special about linseed meal for shining up a coat, and she wants to
>use rice bran instead. Now it seems to me that bran wouldn't do much for a
>shiny coat, or am I missing something here? I certainly don't remember
>Grand-daddy ever telling us to feed bran, unless we were feeding straight
>alfalfa instead of mixed hay. I'm not sure why he wanted us to do that, but
>the horses always looked good.
>>
>>How about it Jessica, can you tell me what the story is with linseed meal?
>Will it or won't it make a shiny coat, and shouldn't it be better than
bran?
>>
>>Thanks, and keep up the good work!
>>Your fan, Stan (I'm a poet and don't know it)
>>
>>
>
>
>Hi Stan! Thanks for the compliment; that means a lot to me. I'm sure the
>whole county was grateful to have your grandfather's help with their
horses.
>
>Your grandfather and your daughter are both right. ;-) That is to say,
>things have changed! In your grandfather's day, linseed meal WAS a great
way
>to put extra oil into a horse's diet and an extra shine on a horse's coat.
>That's because in those days, the oil was extracted through a mechanical
>process, and it just couldn't get all the oil out of the flax seeds. The
oil
>that stayed in the meal made the linseed meal riche and oiler than other
>meals. Your grandfather was right -- for his time.
>
> But that's not true today. The process of removing oils has changed, and
>now it's done with solvents, which do a fine job of getting all the oils
out
>of the flax seeds. Nowadays, linseed meal won't put any more of a shine on
a
>horse's coat than meal from any other oilseed. So your daughter is right
>too, for her time. ;-)
>
>Your grandfather was also right about feeding bran only when also feeding
>straight alfalfa -- this provides a good calcium-phosphorous balance. The
>bran your daughter is talking about is different -- it can still be used to
>help balance the minerals for a horse that's getting straight alfalfa, but
>it's also an excellent source of fat. Stabilized rice bran can indeed put a
>good shine on a horse's coat. Wheat bran won't do that. ;-)
>
>Jessica
>
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