Feeding bran mash to horses is lengthy related to conventional horsemanship practices. A directly feed composed of the outer coating of kernels of grain, bran is a derivative of milling grain for flour. Traditionally, it used to be combined with heat water to make a tempting mash for operating horses. It used to be believed to lend a hand with restoration after onerous paintings, replenishing misplaced fluids and selling intestine mobility. Some Horse & Hound readers nonetheless file feeding it these days.
Shifting with the days
There’s one thing very nostalgic – romantic, even – about looking at your horse eagerly tuck in to a warming bowl of “equine porridge” after a troublesome day’s paintings. However as horsemanship practices have moved on, with many house owners choosing nutritionally balanced compound feeds or feed balancers moderately than straights, is the occasional mash nonetheless an acceptable feed for the operating horse of 2024?
For Karen Coumbe MRCVS, H&H’s veterinary advisor, bran isn’t a common to find in fashionable feed rooms. “Anecdotally it’s mentioned to assist by way of offering fibre and, with the added fluid, reduces the danger of colic,” she tells H&H. “On the other hand, it’s counterproductive to alternate feed by way of giving a bran mash for your horse.”
Karen provides that bran mash is of quite questionable dietary worth.
“Bran has a deficient calcium to phosphorus ratio and it’s poor in key vitamins this kind of lysine. Moreover, when you feed large quantities of bran long-term, horses can broaden a situation referred to as ‘large head’, which is in fact secondary hyperparathyroidism. This situation is terribly uncommon with fashionable, balanced diets.
“Feeding bran has change into more and more unpopular as even though it’s perceived as a laxative, it may additionally worsen the intestinal tract. In the long run, bran mashes are conventional feeds that at the moment are thought to be outdated. Maximum yards now not appear to feed them and, actually, hardly have bran of their feed room. In relation to suitable vitamin, there are different fashionable, extra subtle diets to be attempted.”
What’s “large head” illness?
“Giant head” illness or “bran illness”, is correctly referred to as secondary hyperparathyroidism. It happens in horses who change into calcium poor along intake of extra phosphorus. This reasons the pony to leach calcium from the bones to stability provides somewhere else within the frame. The bones shape fibrous growths instead of the misplaced minerals, inflicting the top to tackle an enlarged, deformed look. If stuck early and the nutrition is modified, the wear will also be reversed. If no longer, horses will also be left with everlasting skeletal harm.
Discovering a stability
Impartial equine nutritionist Clare MacLeod MSc RNutr tells us that whilst bran mashes will have to be fed with warning, wheat merchandise very similar to bran are nonetheless widely-used components in compound feeds.
“The most important downside with feeding bran mash to horses is that they’re historically fed as soon as every week,” she tells H&H. “In doing this, you disturb the pony’s wholesome intestine microbes. Historically, we alter feeds progressively – it’s one thing everyone knows to do. So long as you feed it each day, and segment it out and in of the nutrition over the season, you steer clear of scary the microbiome. It’s pretty to regard our horses, however we wish to admire their body structure, too.”
Clare, who pioneered her personal Assured Horse Feeding Programme, additionally warned of the risks of low-calcium-high-phosphorus consumption. She provides: “As a result of bran is so excessive in phosphorus, you would have to upload calcium to stability it out. You’ll used limestone flour to try this, I like to recommend a ratio of 42g according to kilo of bran.
“Bran could be a helpful feed. It’s relatively excessive in fibre and protein and occasional in sugar. It’s were given a relatively excessive starch content material, so it’s no longer appropriate for low-starch diets, however it’s no longer a foul feed when fed as it should be and balanced appropriately.”
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Credit score: Lucy Merrell
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