Horse Diet Question..

[warriorhorse]

@JB

Just like any given horse can be allergic/sensitive to things like alfalfa, oats, corn, Timothy, other grasses or tree pollens, and more, it’s a fact that some horses can be the same way with soy. Yes, there is evidence. Evidence doesn’t have to be a full blown study.

Horses who are especially insulin resistant, for example, can definitely react quickly and visibly to soy in the diet - some with any soy, some with the amount in a RB but not in a v/m supplement, some with soy meal but not soy hulls.

It is probably a particular protein in soy, as opposed to soy as a whole, just like it’s a particular protein in wheat, for people, as opposed to gluten.

There’s a study out there showing a link between people with a milk allergy, or rather, an allergy to a particular protein in cow milk, and an allergy to a particular protein in soy.

If the goal is to work on doing an elimination diet to see if GI issues go away, then the top of my list of things to eliminate first would be alfalfa and soy.
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Curious about the soy and how it effects horse’s adversely?

[Scribbler]

@warriorhorse

Curious about the soy and how it effects horse’s adversely?

I understand that JB is saying there is anecdotal or experiential evidence that for some horses, soy is a trigger for GI problems and removing it helps. That is something you can only learn by systematically removing ingredients from a horses diet and watching the results.

I understand JB is saying the actual irritating factor in soy for some horses is not yet identified, but hypothesizing it is one of the soy proteins.

Like gluten for humans. Lots of us live on bread and pasta no problem. Some people are sensitive to wheat gluten and can’t eat bread or pasta. Doesn’t mean bread and pasta aren’t good foods for the rest of us.

[bt1]

For christmas sake look up Naturals Pelleted Horse feed by Triple Crown if you want to “go organic” (which I am all for doing) and save yourself and anyone who has to actually store or serve the feed a whole ton of aggravation. I looked at the Naturals Pelleted, but did not go with it, honestly can not remember why…I think I just wanted to stick with an extruded feed (Sentinel by BlueSeal).

[JB]

Thanks Scribbler, yes. There is no definitive in this. But likewise, there is no “there’s no evidence”. There are more than one-off situations where it has been very clear that soy is the culprit. It will likely never be formally studied in horses though due to cost and little to no real value in the big picture.

It would be almost impossible for a change from a soy-based thing like a ration balancer, to a soy-free v/m supplement like High Point Grass, in taking down mare udder edema, or fat pads, or cresty necks or low grade laminitis, and have it blamed on some other ingredient. If you can prove it, fantastic. But since you can’t, you can’t say it can’t be the soy either. There are too many horses who say otherwise.

[Palm_Beach]

@JB

I’m interested in what else you think could be the problem, other than soy, for a horse who goes from TC30 (ration balancer with soy) to M10 (ration balancer without soy)?

We don’t always need studies to prove experiences.

So the ingredients are identical other than the soy?

Remember when it was considered healthy to eat fat free - as long as it was low or no fat, no one worried much about the sugar? And doing aerobics all day long in thong leotards and leg warmers?