What Kind of Oats Should I Feed My Horse? (2024)

FAQs

How much oats should I feed my horse daily? ›

Feeding Oats

The University of Illinois recommends feeding 2 to 2.5 pounds of grain, such as oats, or hay per every 100 pounds of your horse's weight each day, although your horse's age, health and activity level will play a part in determining how much hay and grain he should get.

Oats can be fed whole or processed. Processing includes crimping, rolling, or crushing the kernel. Whole oats are easily eaten and digested by the horse. If oats are processed, a slight crimp is sufficient.

Processed Oats

Because crimping exposes the tender groats, though, most horses find this variety more palatable than whole oats. Crimped oats are a good alternative to unprocessed whole oats for older horses with tooth issues, or extremely young horses without fully developed teeth.

Oats contain a highly digestible form of starch that doesn't require heat treatment or processing. Therefore oats can be fed whole and unprocessed to horses.

Consumption of large quantities of high starch grain can have drastic consequences to a horse's intestinal health, causing digestive upset, abdominal pain (colic), and diarrhea. The most notable consequence of this occurrence is the development of laminitis (founder), which might only become evident days later.

Oat starch is more digestible in the small intestine than corn starch, and this feature makes oats the safer feed choice when large amounts of cereal grain must be fed. Oat starch reduces the risk of hindgut acidosis, which is caused by starch entering the hindgut and undergoing rapid fermentation.

Oats are a good ingredient in horse feeds, but nutrient levels are variable, and oats are lacking in many important nutrients needed to sustain peak performance.

For this reason, steel cut oats may be the best choice for those looking for better control of their blood sugar. Steel cuts oats are slightly higher in fiber than rolled and quick oats. They also have the lowest glycemic index of the three types of oats, potentially making them the best choice for blood sugar control.

Horses can eat human oats, and it's healthy for them. The only difference is the oats for humans don't have the hulls.

Oats are the safest and easiest grain to feed with hay because it is high in fiber and low in energy, and higher in protein than corn. Corn has the highest energy content of any grain and can put weight on a horse quickly.

Is alfalfa or oats better for horses? ›

The alfalfa hay diet provides 151% of the lysine requirement while the oat hay diet provides only 34% of the lysine requirement. Lysine is the first limiting amino acid in most horse diets. Protein and calcium supplementation is needed for lactating mares fed oat hay based diets.

Feed ingredients such as oats, corn, barley, alfalfa and molasses have been identified by horse owners as causing “hyper”, “fizzy” or “hot” horses. Grains contain starch and sugar that may result in large fluctuations in blood sugar and result in mood or behavior changes.

Black oats and protein supplements are a great and natural way to enrich your horse's muesli and mash feeds. It is recommended that blackcurrant be fed to the horse as a whole. The black oat, which is fed as a whole with a good-toothed horse, will only go through a few percent.

As it is a larger grain, horses are capable of chewing the grain enough to break its seed coat, removing the need for physical processing. Studies have also found that oat starch is far easier to digest than corn or barley starch in an uncooked form. So oats can be fed whole and uncooked.

Straight grains, like corn, barley, sweet feed or oats, can contribute to the onset of colic in horses.

A combination of naked oats and alfalfa may keep the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio in balance, an important factor to consider when formulating diets for young horses.

Oats are the traditional cereal grain for horses and are the best choice for several reasons. Oats are very palatable and are the best nutrient-balanced grain, containing about 53% starch, 12% protein, 5% fat and 12% fiber.

Do oats help horses gain weight? Yes, oats are a good source of calories and can help horses gain weight when fed in appropriate amounts alongside other essential nutrients. For better nutrient absorption, horse owners should soak or steam oats before feeding them to their horses.

Barley As Horse Feed

Corn has a higher percentage of nutrients than barley while oats have less. Barley is able to provide the horse with surplus digestible energy which makes it more commonly selected type of feed as compared to oats.

The most common is over-eating green grass or fresh lucerne, as well as large amounts of oats or maize rations. This overdose of carbohydrate causes the rapidly multiplying gut bacteria to release endotoxins. Laminitis can also occur within hours of foaling if the afterbirth stays in the uterus and bacteria multiply.

Are rolled oats and whole oats the same? ›

Here's why — all oats start as whole oat groats, but they're processed to cut down on cook time. As a result, oats come in different shapes and sizes. Oat groats, the least processed type of oat, resemble farro or wheat berries. Rolled oats, which are steamed and flattened, are more processed.

There aren't any major differences in the nutrition benefits of the three types of oats. All forms of oats are 100% whole grain, a good source of fiber and have the same nutritional information – same calories, fiber and protein per serving.

Steel-cut oats, also called Irish oatmeal, are the whole oat kernel that has been cut into two or three pieces using steel disks. This type of oats contains the highest amount of fiber, as it is least processed. Steel-cut oats take a little longer to cook, and result in a creamy and chewy porridge.

Metric per metric, rolled oats and steel cut oats are almost the same when it comes to nutritional value. However, steel cut oats beat out rolled oats in two areas, fiber content and density, which make steel cut oats the best bang for your nutritional buck.

The biggest downside to feeding either straight oats or straight corn is the inverted calcium and phosphorus ratio, and neither cereal grain provides complete nutrition. To correct these nutrient deficiencies, it is necessary to feed a ration balancer pellet in combination with the cereal grain.

Oats, one of the most popular grains to feed horses, are higher in fiber than corn and barley. Again, processing these grains will improve digestibility; in other words, processing grains will increase the amount of nutrients that the horse can get from the grain.

Because of their high fiber content and low energy value, whole oats have traditionally been a relatively safe feed for horses when compared to other cereal grains such as corn.

Roughage/Forage Roughage, found in hay or grass, is the bulk of the horse's food. Grass or alfalfa hay, or a combination of the two, are good sources of roughage. Grass hay is generally higher in fiber and dry matter than alfalfa, but alfalfa may be higher in protein, energy, vitamins and calcium.

Oats are a type of cereal crop grown for the seed/grain. Oat grains have been fed to livestock for centuries and have long been a sought-after source of energy for horses. Oats are high in starch and fiber, and while most horses consume and digest them easily, many horses don't due to their high starch content.

“The biggest benefit of alfalfa for horses is that it tends to be more nutrient-dense than most grasses when harvested at the same stage of maturity,” says Martinson. It typically contains more digestible energy, more crude protein and calcium, and fewer nonstructural carbohydrates (sugars and starches).

Do oats give horses ulcers? ›

Avoid oats and other cereal grains (corn, barley, wheat, rice, etc.). Starchy feeds can lead to ulcers by stimulating stomach cells to produce more acid, as well as encouraging acid production through bacterial fermentation.

A chief advantage of sweet feed (also known as textured feed) is its excellent palatability. Most horses accept it readily, so it is a good choice for equines that tend to back off other feeds.