Many endurance horses, including mine, are doing fabulously on grain free
I personally run ultras (and my DH is a nationally ranked adventure racer who has done up to 5 day long expedition races) and both of us eat no sugars or grains- same with many other endurance athletes I know.
I’m not saying it works for all because all living things are different but it’s definitely not a “this can’t possibly be” situation
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My metabolic, easy keeper is on a “grain free” diet; beet pulp/Vermont Blend Pro/flax+vitE. Plus Unbeetable Forage Only in his auto-feeder. He cannot be on grass or have free access to hay unfortunately. Works pretty well in our circumstance.
Horses also don’t replenish their muscle glycogen stores as quickly/efficiently as human athletes do. There is some interesting new research I saw presented last year (not sure if it has been published yet) that indicates that the “ultra low NSC for all horses” fad may actually impede athletic performance even in show horses (as opposed to race/event horses working at much higher intensity) who are expected to perform multiple days in a row.
“Food” for thought - pun definitely intended!
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Low carb for health reasons, like PSSM1 horses, does impact their performance at a certain level, even as they’re fed higher fat to replace the energy source they lose from the carbs. The fat is just a slower burning source of energy.
So, that research makes absolute sense.
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Can you talk more about Heiro and what benefit you see from it? Thank you.
Ok this is really interesting.
Here’s a question. If I wanted to add grain to improve performance when would be the optimum time to feed? The night before or the morning of performance? Would the energy benefits dissipate or get stored as fat if you feed a night? I know race horses get early morning meals.
My horse gets hay regular hay drops over night (timed feeder), hay before we ride, and her grainfree mash with supplements at night. The big reason I discontinued oats was they didn’t seem to have any impact and she didn’t need more calories.
Ideally, you’d want to feed a meal or “snack” after exercise (there’s some older research showing that feeding a combination of starch and protein post-exercise increases protein synthesis in the muscles). So, if you’re showing multiple days in a row, I would feed your grain meal in the afternoon or evening. That would be the most beneficial timing for both replenishing muscle glycogen stores and potentially maximizing muscle growth/healing in response to exercise.
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Milestone Equestrian has been successful in transitioning her OTTBS off grain and shoes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4xWKUp3Ak
I worked for a barn in a college town that fed top of the line hay, both grass and alfalfa. Most of the horses that came in at the beginning of the school year were ribby and getting many pounds of grain. Within a couple months, ALL but one horse became plump on the hay and were transitioned to ration balancers or vitamin/mineral supplements. We’re talking OTTBs, Appendix QHs, older horses, etc. The one skinny mare ended up having Wobblers and sadly passed away not long after she arrived. That was an eye-opening experience for me.
Of course, not everyone has access to the quality of hay of that barn, but I wonder if some horse receiving many lbs of grain/bagged feed because they are either not receiving enough forage or quality forage to sustain their condition. Many boarding barns are notorious for underfeeding hay and expect the owners to make up the difference in supplements/hay.
I personally drank the Kool Aid and switched my horses from a ration balancer, to a forage balancer (Vermont Blend). Their hoof, hair, and coat quality improved immensely, and their overall comfort level has also improved. The difference in comfort/stiffness was especially noticeable in my older gelding. He must have had an inflammatory response to something in his ration balancer. They have also maintained their top lines beautifully.
I’m not going to speak in generalities and say that the grain-free diet is going to be suitable for EVERY horse. However, you never know if you don’t try it.
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I just wish I could get mine to eat VB or KIS. Doesn’t matter how slow o go…we get to a certain point and that’s it.
Have you tried the Vermont Blend Pro? It’s a little more pricey but you feed a lot less. They’ve also recently come out with pellets.
I’ve had pretty much the same experience as @CowgirlCoffee
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I’m sorta-kinda “grain free” in the sense that my horses eat as much high-quality forage as I can keep in front of them (in nets), and their hay is balanced by a forage balancer (VB Pro) carried in Triple Crown Timothy Balance Cubes. However, I also add ~2-4 cups Triple Crown Senior Gold to get them to eat it. They’re not super gung-ho without the added TCSG. They all live out and I don’t have stalls, so I need them to eat in a semi-reasonable time period (~30 mins). I can’t stand around and referee for two hours while they contemplate whether the bucket is tasty enough or not.
They’re all in fantastic weight, shiny coats, happy feet. Two OTTBs, a race-bred TB that never made it to the track, and a KWPN. But I have access to really high quality hay–honestly higher quality than they need–and feed as much of it as necessary.
I really do feel it’s the most species-appropriate way to feed, but I agree that it’s not always feasible. And if one of my horses wasn’t thriving for whatever reason, I wouldn’t be afraid to try something else if all my tricks for grain free/forage first/whatever it is didn’t work.
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I have been following Milestone Equestrian as she is in my region. My impression is she is busier as a social media personality and selling bitless bridles than as an actual trainer. I have heard not-good things about her training from people who are generally on the same page in terms of gentle training etc. I would not take her as authority on anything.
My understanding from her own posts is she’s late 20s (27 on blog may be out of date), did some very local Arabs and hunters as a junior/ early 20s, quit showing, and sometime in the last year reinvented herself as a bitless bridleless natural horsemanship guru but doesn’t actually work as a trainer in any meaningful way.
She’s had a few posts on various platforms that have almost made me toss her to the COTH wolves for scorn but I felt she was such small potatoes and so very young that didn’t seem fair.
It’s one of those situations where I agree with her in principle but then find what she says stupid, click bait, or just wrong. She does however have the language to attract nonhorse or beginner riders on FB and encourage them to ride on the beach with no bridle. Or halter. Maybe neck rope, maybe not.
It’s easy to keep retired OTTB pasture pets on hay and barefoot.
Edited to add: something recent from Milestone came across my FB feed today. A series of her Biggest Fail type photos from her junior competition days to show “anyone can change.” Definitely all in the genre of Yeehaw Junior with No Intelligent Adult Support and too many martingales. Definitely not "nice horse and rider pair having a bad moment " I can spot Yeehaw Local Juniors a mile away. I grew up with them.
So props to her for getting out of that. Thing is, if she’s 27 and “quit the show world” 4 years ago, and emerged as a Natcheral Guru (with no mentor or influences named) in the past year ---- well, I’ve been doing liberty, groundwork, clicker training, obstacles, biomechanically aware dressage, forage first feeding, barefoot horses, etc etc far longer than she has. And she was clearly a nastier junior rider than me. I think the bee is in my bonnet over this just because I had some beginner adults and basically beginner returning riders quoting her to me for a while before the algorithm showed me her feed, and I was assuming she was a real trainer.
Then I Googled a bit and realized she was just a child with multi platform social media feeds making pronouncements about The Horse Industry.
I’m sure every region has a child in a backyard or rented property with a social media feed about What Everyone Else is Doing Wrong.
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A person can know jack squat about training and still have their feeding program down to a science, but:
can be very true. I have one, and he looks like a fat QH or WB cross. He’d need more management if he was in work though.
Anyway, not every program will work for every horse. If the horse in front of you isn’t thriving despite doing everything “by the book” of whatever feeding regime you choose, you have to be willing to try something new! Plenty of horses do just fine on hay and v/m and fat, while some just need “more”.
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Not the poster you asked but thought I would share my experience.
I read about that somewhere on this forum and tried it for my metabolic mare( prone to fat pads, quick weight gain for the last 15 years) who seemed a bit tender footed despite muzzling, weight management and the like. I started her on Heiro and she was noticeably better in a week.
I kept her on it for a year but it is fairly pricy( for my budget). I switched her to Remission which is what I put my gelding on a couple years ago and she is doing just as well and it has been several months now with her on good grass 24/7 --muzzled 20 hours a day.
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KIS has a newer (not sure how long ago you tried) anise flavored option. Smells good and my horses eat but one is not in any way picky and the other is maybe medium picky. Another similar option would be Horsetechs AZ Copper Complete, I think it tastes better since it’s flax based.
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On Prescend my pony still has a hard time shedding unless I increase the dose and then he quits eating and gets the squirty poops. With Heiro, he sheds like the other horses and doesn’t seem as lethargic plus doesn’t get foot sore during season changes. I could be better at management and his diet now, but I’m not willing to stop feeding Heiro to find out and risk vet bills. Its still cheaper than a vet visit.
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My latest bag of Vermont blend pro – ordered around the July 4th holiday? – is way more anise smelling than the previous bags, so they might have changed something recently, in their product line expansion?
My guys haven’t really blinked at it, but oats are yummy and I’ve tortured (haha) them for a long time with a copper/zinc supplement, which might help.
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I have switched my young horse back and forth between grain-free and ration balancer a couple of times in the last few years, and oddly enough she seems to do better on the ration balancer (soy based). Her coat had dapples for the first time ever this spring after being on the RB all winter. I originally switched to the RB because it was way more budget-friendly than alfalfa pellets + vit/min mix.
This summer I switched her back to alfalfa pellets + the MadBarn Omneity vit/min mix (is this what folks call a forage balancer?), because I am certain that she’s ulcery and I wanted to include alfalfa for its buffering properties. I didn’t want to overdo calories by mixing alf + RB, and I had read that soy might not be good for ulcers (big query on this one, no clear data).
She seems content in her tummy again, and gets grumpy if I reduce the quantity of alfalfa pellets, but her coat looks duller. Most people rave about the Omneity but this particular horse doesn’t look amazing when she’s on it; she looked absolutely phenomenal on the soy-based ration balancer.
All of that to say is that I’m not sure what I’ll do moving forward once the Omneity is used up. I’m usually someone who recommends every horse go as “grain free” as possible, but I know it’s a case to case basis often.
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A couple of years ago I took my horses off commercial grain. I fed grass hay in hay nets, and they had whatever grass was in the paddocks. I fed them hay (alfalfa/timothy) pellets FOUR times a day, and fed another supplement that escapes me at the moment. I had two TBs on this, both geldings, similar in age. One did well on this diet, the other lost a LOT of weight. So, I basically proved to myself that it really does depend on the horse. I have since switched back to commercial feeds for my herd.
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She may need more protein? I think soy has way more protein than alfalfa per pound. Maybe include some actual alfalfa hay in her forage
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