All too often, we simply just look at the name of the manufacturer or look at the protein content. 

And quite honestly, those should be the least of your concerns when it comes to determining what to feed your horse. 

Knowing What's NOT in the bag is equally important... Least cost analysis is often used to formulate feed. Feeding from just the bag, quite honestly, you can't get what you need anyway, if it's a so called complete feed. If you look at the bag, it'll tell you how many pounds a certain weight horse should get fed every day.

But let’s look more closely at why, and also look at why other feeds may NOT be so great. And let’s take a close look at why these commercial feeds may actually be directly related to, and in my opinion the very cause of many of our overweight, cresty necked, insulin resistant, allergic and laminitis prone horses today. 

In addition, we’ll consider why the idea of supplementing either commercial or individual grains, oats or otherwise, with vitamins, minerals, microbials, etc. is critical as well.

So what is bad about oats?

Oats like ALL grains are mineral and vitamin deficient. Horses simply can’t get the overall nutrition that they need from any grain UNLESS they are fortified. Oats, corn, barley, etc., etc. are all are deficient. Today, what farmers essentially use to fertilize is chemical fertilizer. The 10-10-10’s or 2010-10’s are only nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus: 10% nitrogen, 10% phosphorous, 10% potassium. What happened to all the other minerals on the periodic chart that we learned about in high school? To make matters worse, these fertilizers are salt based. Salt destroys the soil over time and makes it very packed, claylike and sticky – AND in doing so kills the earthworms, the soil’s true method for oxygenation.

For instance, would you agree that most people have and ARE being told daily that fats are bad for you? Most doctors, the media, the advertisements and pretty much ALL, suggest a low fat diet.