Research New Findings

Grey Bruce Farmer's Week Horse Day

"Are you going this year?" My friend Judy asks.

"Probably. Are you?" We have this same discussion every year, the first week of January.

The weather was bad this year for the event. In fact, very few people were able to make it. A few years ago, I wasn't going to go to the local horse day as I had that attitude of what could I learn from the same topics, year after year.

I'm NOT going to sit through another lecture on horse nutrition. Can you?

My attitude changed. I was a guest lecturer myself a few times at the Grey Bruce Farmer's Week - Horse Day and I knew how hard that crew works over there. There was a lovely article about it in last months The Rider.

I wanted to support horse days, locally and provincially where I can. I love to learn. And I think it's important too for us horse people to learn and incorporate the latest research in our industry.

I used to begrudging go and then find myself happy that I had gone. I enjoyed the social aspect of horse days or equine fairs. So now I don't even question it. If I can make it, I'll go. I always learn something new.

Research in Equine Nutrition 

Jackie VandenBrink (Equine Nutritionist, Masterfeeds) talked about the basics of balancing feed. Besides hay, an addition of complete-feed makes sense to get all the horse's daily requirements of vitamins and minerals. No new news there.

I was pleasantly surprised when Jackie told a lovely story about her father's fjord who only gets a coffee cup full of feed, otherwise he'd be HUGH. It's the first time I've heard a nutritionist speak of the real amounts we feed our horses and not what's on the feed tag. 8-10lbs. of feed! Not!

She explained making up the difference of what is required with a ration balancer. You can see her slide on the photo explaining it.

One of the other things that I like about local equine events, is that the information, stats and advice, is specific to the local area. Much of Ontario is very selenium deficient and our feed companies compensate for that in their feeds. She also mentioned that over feeding selenium could be an issue as well.

So the take-away was to feed complete feeds or supplements and not be a creative chef in the feed room!

Putting my spin on research and new findings.
Reinersue
@KISS Reiners