We are all familiar with the New Year, New You mottos pushed upon us to make us feel like now is the time to do better in our lives. A new year signifies a fresh start, a new beginning and provides us with the motivation to set goals to change our dreams into accomplishments. Goals based around health and fitness are by far some of the most common New Years resolutions. Have you ever thought about beginning the year with goals for your horse? Improving their health, fitness or even nutrition? The first place to start would be detoxing your feed room.
Step 1: Removal & Clean
Remove anything that is out of date, mouldy, old or that hasn’t been used in more than 6 months (excluding your first aid kit!). This is an obvious step but checking it off and preparing your feed room as a clean space will help the process. Clean all buckets, shelves and containers for a fresher feel. Not only does this make the space more inviting but it will also clear your head. Too many times do we hear the headache horse owners go through of feeding their horse 10 different supplements, not knowing which one is actually working, but not wanting to remove any out of fear that their horse won’t be getting the best.
Step 2: Read Labels
Understanding the nutritional label is the first part to not only knowing what is nutritionally correct for your horse, but also gives you an understanding of what exactly is going into their system.
Steer clear from ambiguous terms such as ‘protein meals’, ‘fibres’, ‘cereal meals’, etc. Terms which cover a broad spectrum of potential ingredients. Opt for labeling on feed and supplements with clear ingredients such as ‘oats’, ‘lucerne’ or ‘barley’, for example are all clear ingredients where you know the place of origin.
Animal derived ingredients are a clear no for any horse. Horses are strict herbivores, the vegans of the animal world if you will. Ingredients such as honey, fish oil, cod liver oil or even ambiguous terms such as ‘marine-sourced calcium’, which don’t provide a clear plant or animal source to the ingredient.
Step 3: Refresh
If you have noticed you are throwing out a lot of feed or supplements from over the years, or a little confused with where to go from here. Source the guidance of a qualified Nutritionist to help iron out all the loose ends in your feed regime and assist you in understanding the ins and outs of what your horse needs for health.
Give us a call on (03) 9775 6422 or email us at enq@hiform.com.au if you would like some direction as to what to feed your horse to provide them with all the nutrients, they need to support their potential.
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COMPARING THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF EATING
The modern way of feeding horses has evolved over the years from very basic feeding practices to more complex regimes. Stemming from; new research, marketing tools and recommendations from friends. Through these factors including a lack of regulation of the stock feed industry, there has been a general loss of understanding of the equine digestive system.
Every animals’ digestive system is different. They are classified depending on what food source is natural for them to consume; meat-eaters are classified as carnivores, plant-eaters are herbivores and those who consume both are omnivores. For example, biologically horses are herbivores, snakes are carnivores and we as people are omnivores.
What does this really mean and why is the difference between these classifications so important?
Anatomy
Beginning from the mouth; carnivores have sharper teeth for ripping and breaking muscle tissue whereas herbivores have wider, flatter teeth for grinding plant material. Not to mention the mechanics of the jaw muscle and bone structure; carnivores have a hinge action which enables a slicing of meat, whereas herbivores and horses are able to have side-to-side mobility of the jaw, enabling for a grinding action.
As we travel further through the digestive tract it is noticed that some herbivores either have multiple stomachs (ruminants) and others use their colon to break down plant material (hind-gut-fermenters). Horses are hind-gut fermenters and have a long small and large intestine. As most of their diet is grass, cellulose from plants is broken down in the large intestine via fermentation. Carnivores on the other hand have shorter digestive systems as there is no fermentation process needed for them to breakdown their food.
Enzymes
Amylase is contained in the saliva of herbivores and omnivores to enable breakdown of complex carbohydrates. This enzyme is not present in the saliva of carnivores due to their food source being meat. In addition, carnivores have a gall bladder where they can store hydrochloric acid and gastric enzymes for digestion when required. Unlike horses and other herbivores, who do not have a gall bladder and have a constant slow release of gastric enzymes to support their grazing nature.
pH
The pH of the stomach is of importance when looking at the difference between carnivores and herbivores. Carnivores such as dogs and cats have a stomach pH of 1, this is extremely acidic, meaning they can destroy any bacteria that may be present in raw meat as well as having enough enzymes for break down. Herbivores on the other hand don’t need to have such an acidic environment and their pH is more neutral, sitting at around 7 for horses, this is due to most of their diet being lower in protein than carnivores and the fermenting nature of the large intestine.
After evaluating these differences, it raises questions of whether products containing fish or animal material, dairy proteins, by-products such as beet pulp, copra meal, bran, soy or lupin hulls and honey are suitable for a horses’ digestive system and whether they naturally support the uniqueness of the horses’ digestive tract. With this in mind, we can extrapolate from human studies to horses. The effects in which unnatural substances such as artificial sweeteners and high-fructose-corn-syrup and the effects these have on inflammatory markers and disease progression in our bodies. This link has been extensively researched in cardiovascular diseases as well as metabolic diseases such as Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome.
If our bodies are unable to recognise these substances (as they are unnatural for us to consume), it is fair to assume the same chain reaction would occur when putting foreign substances such as animal material into a herbivores digestive system.
References
Ward, M. (2004). The Equine Stomach. Retrieved from https://www.quia.com/files/quia/users/medicinehawk/2107-Anatomy2/Ulcers.pdf
Mills, M.R. (n.d). The Comparative Anatomy of Eating. Retrieved from
http://www.adaptt.org/documents/Mills%20The%20Comparative%20Anatomy%20of%20Eating1.pdf
Pratt-Phillips, S. (2016). The Equine Digestive System. Retrieved from https://thehorse.com/150961/the-equine-digestive-system/
Julliand, V., De Fombelle, A., & Varloud, M. (2006). Starch digestion in horses: the impact of feed processing. Livestock science, 100(1), 44-52.
Roberts, M. C. (1975). Carbohydrate digestion and absorption studies in the horse. Research in veterinary science, 18(1), 64-69.
Lorenzo-Figueras, M., Morisset, S. M., Morisset, J., Lainé, J., & Merritt, A. M. (2007). Digestive enzyme concentrations and activities in healthy pancreatic tissue of horses. American journal of veterinary research, 68(10), 1070-1072. Suez, J., Korem, T., Zeevi, D., Zilberman-Schapira, G., Thaiss, C. A., Maza, O., ... & Kuperman, Y. (2014). Artificial sweeteners induce glucoOur Financese intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature, 514(7521), 181.
Aeberli, I., Gerber, P. A., Hochuli, M., Kohler, S., Haile, S. R., Gouni-Berthold, I., ... & Berneis, K. (2011). Low to moderate sugar-sweetened beverage consumption impairs glucose and lipid metabolism and promotes inflammation in healthy young menO: a randVomizedE controRlled triaVl. The IAm
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Moulamein Grain Services t/a Northern Valley Stock Feeds and Hi Form Australia Pty Ltd producing world class feeds and formulas, when only the best is the only option.
Moulamein Grain Co-operative LTD (MGC) was formed in August 2001 as a storage and handling business. MGC today are shareholders and managers of another 7 grain storage and handling businesses and the group consist of more than 180 farmer shareholders with annual average production of 500,000T. The group is the largest independent storage and handling business in the east coast of Australia. MGC are also shareholders in a container packing export facility which exports grain in containers to most South East Asian Countries.
In 2016 MGC strategically purchased Northern Valley Stockfeeds as a direct value adding business to our grain handling enterprise. MGC are also involved in the development of two oaten food products for the human consumption market. In 2017 the Northern Valley Stockfeeds Mill gained organic certification.
From the paddock to the feed shed, Harrys Choice is a unique, high quality feed formulated using the latest cutting-edge research and ingredient technology available. Hi Form Australia, one of Australia’s most advanced, successful and reliable equine supplement companies has joined forces with Northern Valley Stockfeeds to produce the best viable feed options for the ongoing health and well-being of your horse in their Organic Certified Mill. Harrys Choice contains a high roughage content which is exceptionally important for the horse’s gut health and longevity. Harrys Choice and Hi Form Australia offer the horse owner the opportunity to meet their horse’s daily requirements in exact measures.
web: harryschoice.com.au
tel: 1300GOHARRYS
email: enq@harryschoice.com.au
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