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Racehorse diet... sugar?

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 11:18 am
by skeenan
I was talking to my Poulin feed rep last week, at a seminar. It's a locally-produced feed that covers the Northeast. I guess he supplies many of the tracks up this way with feed. I asked him what most folks are feeding their racehorses, and he said a diet high in sugar. I was very surprised by this... is this typical? I would have expected a high fat diet, including oil supplements, as it's a very digestible energy form?

Re: Racehorse diet... sugar?

Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:49 am
by madelyn
sugar is cheap and weighs a lot so that they can load it in the bag and charge out the butt. its also pretty bad for them. A lot of TB's I've come across are insulin resistant and too much sugar makes them lethargic and dehydrated.

Re: Racehorse diet... sugar?

Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:52 pm
by skeenan
Thanks for the reply, Madelyn. That's what I was thinking... it can't be any better for them than it is for us. I could see the use of molasses-based feeds, but not the high sugar quantities my rep eluded to.

Poulin has a great nutritionist, and she's well versed with racehorses. She's helped me with my Morgan's seasonal allergies (a change in diet helped a lot), and now my 15 year old TB mare, whose diet I had to change to something higher in fat with more calories.

Re: Racehorse diet... sugar?

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:36 am
by madelyn
corn and molasses are both pretty much pure sugar once processed by the horse and I think the vitamin content in molasses can easily be replaced by a good supplement. I really don't like molasses based feed. It cakes rock hard in cold weather; buckets are sticky and dirty, etc. But I have one horse who just won't eat feed without molasses... Once again it is heavy and very cheap so feed companies load it into the bag to make up the weight.