Feeding the right forage, immune system health and antioxidants for horses

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Feeding the right forage, immune system health and antioxidants for horses
03/07/2012

http://www.horsesourcesolutions.com

Two excerpts from articles by Jo Bower MSc Eq S (articles originally from Arabian Magazine)

Supplements: Immune System Health – Antioxidants

Antioxidants are very important for supporting the immune system. Human athletes may experience immune function for around 70 hours following a bout of prolonged and intensive exercise. During this period the body may be particularly susceptible to infection, allowing viruses and bacteria to gain a foothold.

Lack of sleep, severe mental stress, malnutrition, weight loss, or other stressors commonly associated with shipping and competing can also exacerbate depression of immune function and, although major research has been done in humans, it may very likely be similar for the equine athlete.

Whether human or equine, body cells all need specific nutrients to be able to properly divide and produce necessary antibodies. Many enzymes in immune cells require the presence of micronutrients, and critical roles have been defined for zinc, iron, copper, selenium and vitamins A, B6, C and especially vitamin E.

Does my horse need a vitamin E supplement?

A superbly conditioned horse that can fully utilise its athletic talent in top-level competition, recovering quickly without muscle damage after strenuous exercise...that's the dream of many horse owners. A superior nutritional plan is one key to turning that dream into reality, and natural vitamin E is one of the crucial elements in the equine athlete's dietary regimen.

Whether a horse's work involves racing, eventing, endurance, showing, trail riding, or reproduction, vitamin E plays a huge role in both overall health and specific performance.

Vitamin E is abundant in fresh grass, so all horses get plenty every day, right? Well, yes, except when they're kept in a stable for many hours; or when they don't have access to pasture at all; or when grass is scarce or dormant; or when they eat mostly hay, which contains lower levels of this important dietary element; or when they're exercising intensely, in which case their requirement for antioxidants increases dramatically.

As horse owners learn more about equine nutrition, they begin to see that their horses may need supplementation with a natural form of vitamin E. Recognised as a unique nutrient less than a hundred years ago, vitamin E has many important functions in various body systems. In reproduction, vitamin E supplementation may positively influence fertility in broodmares.

Nutrition - Gastrointestinal Health - Why Feeding the right Forage is so Essential

Since horses are designed to live on forages, any feeding programme that neglects fibre will certainly result in undesirable physical and mental consequences that can have lifelong repercussions.

Despite the common knowledge that horses are ‘hindgut fermenters’ or ‘nonruminant herbivores’, many horse owners still overlook the importance of feeding not only an adequate quantity of fibre, but also the right quality. Why is it that when the hard feed is considered, the levels of protein and other nutrients are very closely examined but rarely do we test our forages or pasture for nutrient content, even when fibre is known to be the most essential component of a horses’ diet?

Forage composition

Forages are made of two components, cell contents and cell walls. Cell contents contain most of the protein and all of the starch, sugars, lipids, organic acids and soluble ash found in the plant. These components are broken down by enzymes produced by the horse and are highly digestible. The cell wall contains the fibrous part of the plant, which is the part resistant to the digestive enzymes.

The nutritional value of fibre is determined by two factors; fibre content and fibre quality. These factors are important because the horse can digest nearly all of the cell contents, but bacterial fermentation can only digest 50% of most plant cell wall.

For advice on Natural Feeding please contact Jo Bower MSc Eq S, Independent Equine Nutritionist, HorseSource – Natural Feed Specialists Made by Nature, Proven by Science.

Telelphone + 44 (0) 1977 646312 or + 44 (0) 7970 165479 or please see the website for more details

http://www.horsesourcesolutions.com

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