The following Blog has been written by Dengie Horse Feeds.
With the nights starting to draw in and bonfire night on the horizon, this time of year can present a challenge if you have a horse who can be fizzy or anxious. Sometimes making some adjustments to your horse or pony’s management can be helpful, but what’s the best course of action when it comes to the feed?
Dengie recommend evaluating your horse’s fibre intake when considering how feed might be impacting on your horse or pony’s behaviour.
In general, the main aims when feeding the fizzy horse or pony are to keep their intakes of starch and sugar to a minimum. These are rapidly broken down in the horse’s digestive system, releasing energy quickly, so high intakes of starch and sugar are commonly associated with increasing excitable temperaments.
Where does starch and sugar come from in the diet?
The main source of starch in horse feeds tends to be cereal grains, with ingredients like oats containing around 40% starch. Feeds that include high levels of cereals should therefore be avoided for the fizzy or spooky individual. Even a basic horse and pony cube or “cool” mix may be around 15-20% starch, so it’s always worth checking!
Whilst it’s not a legal requirement for manufacturers to list the starch and sugar levels on the feed label, reputable companies may list them on their website and should also be happy to provide this information on request.
It might surprise you to learn that the most abundant source of sugar in the horse’s diet is grass. Smaller additions like molasses are often blamed for fizzy behaviour, but fresh spring grass consumed in large amounts can have a far greater impact on energy levels.
Dengie recommend that horse owners should not overlook the impact of fresh spring grass on their horse or pony’s sugar levels.
Other Considerations
It’s important to remember that feed isn’t always to blame for fizzy behaviour. Other possible causes can include:
Pain or discomfort from an injury, poorly fitting tack or dental problems
Weather conditions
Stress or excitement in unfamiliar environments
Limited exercise or prolonged stabling
Of course, a horse’s natural temperament also plays a role – some are simply more excitable, regardless of their diet!
Fizzy and Fat
For good doers who are sharp or fizzy, it can be very tempting to cut out the bucket feed entirely, in the hopes of both calming them down and promoting weight loss. However, UK forages are typically lacking in certain nutrients.
For this reason, it’s advisable to feed a broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement alongside a low energy chopped fibre. This will help to keep sugar, starch and energy intake to a minimum, yet still supply a balanced diet to support the horse’s health and wellbeing. The use of a chopped fibre is also beneficial for promoting chew time which is important for digestive health and may also help to reduce stress.
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Good Doers who are fizzy or sharp will often benefit from being fed a low energy chopped fibre.
Fizzy and Thin
When it comes to feeding the underweight horse or pony, it can be difficult to know how to feed enough for your horse to gain weight, whilst still keeping them calm and level-headed.
Traditional conditioning mixes or cubes are typically cereal-based with starch levels exceeding 25-30%, and such levels can often prove far too high for nervous or excitable types. While lower starch conditioning feeds are now available, these often contain 8-10% starch, which may still be too much for some individuals.
What’s the alternative?
For weight gain without the fizz, a good place to start is to choose a higher calorie fibre feed that contains the lowest levels of sugar and starch. Chopped or pelleted fibres usually don’t contain any cereals or cereal co-products, keeping the starch levels as low as 2-3%.
Alfa-A Oil is one of the highest calorie options in the Dengie range, providing 12.5 MJ/kg. This is comparable to many conditioning mixes but with around 10 times less starch. Other suitable options from the Dengie range include Alfa-A Molasses Free, Healthy Tummy and Cool, Condition & Shine.
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To keep condition on poor doers who can be fizzy or sharp, a higher calorie fibre feed that contains the lowest levels of sugar and starch can be a good place to start.
I’ve heard alfalfa makes horses fizzy – is this true?
Whilst alfalfa is naturally a good source of calories for the horse, it is very low in sugar and starch and so is less likely to increase fizzy or excitable behaviour. Like other plants, alfalfa does make sugar, but it cleverly stores it as starch in its roots – the part that horses don’t eat – which makes it a much more appropriate option for horses who can be excitable.
Alfalfa offers a good source of calories, but is naturally low in sugar and starch.
In fact, a 2015 study from the University of Edinburgh showed that horses who were fed Dengie Alfa-A Molasses Free were less reactive to novel stimuli and had lower resting heart rates compared to horses fed the same amount of energy (calories) but from cereals (Bulmer et al., 2015). This provides further evidence that alfalfa can be a great alternative to cereals for horses needing to gain or maintain weight without the fizz!
