Oats- pros and cons?

[goldenstirrup]

Visited a barn that feeds crimped oats. What are the pros and cons?

I would think that 53% NSC could cause hindgut problems and a glucose spike. Do they provide adequate nutrition versus a balancer like Grow N’ Win, which only has 13% NSC?

My horse is an easy keeper and very green. He gets a balancer for nutrition, not energy, which is supplied with good hay.

If you feed crimped oats, how much and why? Would you feed them to an ulcer prone horse?
Of course I would ask my vet if truly considering feeding crimped oats, but just curious about the benefits. TIA

[PNWjumper]

I have a horse who chokes on any type of a pelleted feed (she’s a fatty air fern who likes to eat a bit - so she tends to bolt her grain). So I feed her rolled oats, which she has no problem with. She’s not ulcer-prone, though.

I also used to add rolled oats to my ulcer-prone horse’s grain (I have him on LMF TACO, which is a pelleted blend of Timothy, Alfalfa, Corn, and Oats, in the AM and LMF Showtime in the PM) - but that was just because of a completely non-scientific interest in adding a little more bulk to his grain and potentially giving him a little extra “oomph,” especially at shows. In the grand scheme of what he was eating, it was such a small thing, and it made no difference (positive or negative). Eventually I got lazy and dropped the rolled oats.

On that note, I still add them to the grain my big jumpers get at shows. Again, in the interest of adding a bit more pep to their step. Don’t think I’ve ever noticed much of a difference, but I add both oats and alfalfa into most of their diets.

[Scribbler]

Oats are the best of the grains, better than corn, barley, or wheat.

Yes they are high nsc but the nsc is averaged out over the total diet.

I feed a mash of oats alfalfa cubes beet pulp and flax plus a supplement. If maresy doesn’t get a certain amount of oats when she’s being ridden she gets very low energy and dopey.

I would love it if oats reliably made her hot!

Some of the mystery extruded feeds are close to oats in nsc, especially if they use corn and wheat.

I feed whole oats not crimped as they stay fresher but I soak them for digestibility.

I figure my mash in total is fairly low nsc and I know exactly what goes into it.

Really the exercise level of the horse and overall health determines what level of nsc if can use. A horse using up a lot if energy needs a concentrated source. I fed sweet feed as a teen which must have had nsc through the roof and we ran it all off riding all day every day.

[Laurierace]

There are no pros in my opinion.

[tazycat]

Nothing wrong with feeding oats at least you know what horse is eating. High nsc doesn’t affect a hard working horse. I feed a sweet feed that a lot of oats in it plus pellets and corn 34% nsc.

[luvmyhackney]

Nothing wrong with oats, I have fed them when I want extra energy and that little extra showiness. But I prefer smoking hot horses/ponies.

[BUSY]

Digestibilty - we used to crimp our own oats - few have that machinery in their Feed rooms now days.

[candyappy]

I worked at a barn that fed oats to every horse . They did very well actually and looked fabulous. I feed mine oats during the hot/ humid months since anything else seems to get hot, sweat and mold in my unconditioned tack room. I noticed both my horses were calmer once the added ingredients in commercial feeds were removed.

[halt]

Oats are wonderful for non-metabolic horses. Very common in barns with high intensity work like endurance, eventing and racing. Oats provide long slow burning energy and are great for ulcery horses in my opinion.

I had my Prelim horse on a mixture of oats, alfalfa and coastal hay. He looked the best he had ever looked in the 12 years I had owned him. Glossy coat, great feet, and always had that extra reserve for conditioning sets. I did not find it made him hot.

Oats are very palatable and digestable and do have their place. I don’t think the NSC is a deal breaker for a horse that does not have metabolic issues.

[keysfins]

I have always wondered about the digestibility of crimped oats. For the few horses that got them as part of the diet, I could always spot the apparently-intact crimped oats in the manure. (No dental issues for those horses, FWIW.)

Comments? I am teachable.

[Manni01]

come and visit my barn… I feed all my horses whole oats (I found out, its the least dusty variety…) no oats in the manure… I feed 5 horses on one bag per week… And they look amazing and are ridden and worked every day…I feed a good vit/min supplement with it and grounded flaxseed and everybody loves it… From the 23 year old pony to the 3 year old youngster… Did never anything else all my life and see no reason to change… Who knows what is in pelletted feed…

[tazycat]

@keysfins

I have always wondered about the digestibility of crimped oats. For the few horses that got them as part of the diet, I could always spot the apparently-intact crimped oats in the manure. (No dental issues for those horses, FWIW.)

Comments? I am teachable.

Finding the oats in manure totally intact it’s not just the hulls of the oat. So the oats just pass through digestive tract whole. Since i started feeding the sweet feed that has a good percentage of oats.

[Texarkana]

All “NSC” values are not equal.

Different carbohydrates have different digestibility. Whole foods vs. processed foods also affects digestibility.

An example of some of the research behind my statements:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4851386/
(Yes, I realize how the study was funded)

Many horses do wonderfully on oats. Even my ulcer-prone horse tolerates them well (yet she will not tolerate many lower NSC products made of corn/wheat mids).

They are an excellent source of energy and calories. They do NOT provide adequate nutrition as compared to something like a ration balancer, as they are deficient or unbalanced in several key vitamins and minerals. They also have an inverted Ca:P ratio, which would be corrected in any ration balancer. However, it is quite easy to combine them with a vit/min supplement or other fortified product to provide nutrients.

I prefer whole oats, just because I like the chew factor and natural preservative of the hull. Plus, I don’t mind that unchewed oats pass through the horse intact-- that means they aren’t acidifying the gut.

[JB]

@Texarkana

They also have an inverted Ca:P ratio, which would be corrected in any ration balancer.

Actually, it wouldn’t

RBs are either balanced at about 1.5-2:1 for the majority (the ones with 28-30% protein) which are geared towards all/mostly grass-based diets (so can’t correct anything, just wouldn’t unbalance anything further), or are more like 1:1 for the few that are geared towards all/mostly alfalfa diets, so definitely won’t help the phos-heavy cereal grains.

[Texarkana]

@JB

Actually, it wouldn’t

RBs are either balanced at about 1.5-2:1 for the majority (the ones with 28-30% protein) which are geared towards all/mostly grass-based diets (so can’t correct anything, just wouldn’t unbalance anything further), or are more like 1:1 for the few that are geared towards all/mostly alfalfa diets, so definitely won’t help the phos-heavy cereal grains.

It depends on how many pounds of oats you are feeding.

Oats are very low in Ca and P overall, at about 0.1% Ca and 0.35% P.

Ration balancers, on the other hand, are considerably higher in Ca and P. Gro n Win for example has 2.5%min Ca and 1.5%min P.

1lb of oats provides 0.001lb of Ca and 0.0035lb of P.

1lb of GNW provides 0.025lb of Ca and 0.015lb of P.

So a diet with a 1lb of oats and 1lb of GNW would have an overall Ca:P ratio from feed of 1.4Ca:1P, before you consider forage.

Of course, as you increase the quantity of oats, you will bring the ratio down lower. But even 2 or 3lbs of oats will still end up providing a ratio above 1:1 when mixed with something like 1lb of GNW.

[JB]

Right, but you can’t balance an inverted ratio with something that’s balanced on its own right. You just make it a little less unbalanced If you feed little enough oats as to not really cause a significant imbalance, it doesn’t matter too much

2.5:1.5 is a 1.67:1 ratio, so at the lower end of the “balanced” ration. The actual amounts matter less than the end result ratio.

But you are right - 1lb of oats is not really enough to significantly tip the scales against the ratio, but at the same time, adding the balanced ration of the RB doesn’t change the balance either, it just doesn’t cause any extra imbalance.

[Texarkana]

@JB

Right, but you can’t balance an inverted ratio with something that’s balanced on its own right. You just make it a little less balanced If you feed little enough oats as to not really cause a significant imbalance, it doesn’t matter too much

2.5:1.5 is a 1.67:1 ratio, so at the lower end of the “balanced” ration. The actual amounts matter less than the end result ratio.

But you are right - 1lb of oats is not really enough to significantly tip the scales against the ratio, but at the same time, adding the balanced ration of the RB doesn’t change the balance either, it just doesn’t cause any extra imbalance.

The actual amounts are what determines the ratio.

You don’t correct an inverted ratio by comparing ratios. You correct a ratio by increasing the amount of Ca as compared to the amount of P in the diet. It doesn’t matter what the specific ratio is on the ration balancer is; it matters how much Ca and P it is adding to the diet.

If you feed 4lbs of oats alone, your ratio is from feed is inverted (1:3.5 if you want to be specific).

If you feed 4lbs of oats and 1lb of Grow N Win, your ratio is now 1:1.

Is this example an ideal ratio? No. But the horse is now taking in equal amounts of Ca and P, whereas before they were taking in more P than Ca. By very definition, that’s correcting an inversion.

And of course, forage has not been considered in any of these examples. 1:1 from feed may be perfectly acceptable for a horse receiving even just a few pounds of legumes… not so much if the horses is strictly on a low calcium grass hay.

[Texarkana]

Just one more example: timothy is usually around a 2:1 (or higher) ratio. But adding a pound of timothy pellets to feed won’t change the inversion of 1lb of oats. Because timothy is only 0.4%Ca and 0.2%P. The ratio will come out to 1Ca:1.1P.

The irony of this conversation is that the original quote was taken out of context (I said oats are inverted while the ratio is corrected IN ration balancers, not “by”).

But the math remains the same, which is why I think it’s important. You need to consider total quantity of Ca and P being before making assumptions about the ratio alone. It’s true that two inverted ratios will never make a correct ratio… but sources with above average calcium concentrations can correct an inverted ratio even if their specific Ca:P ratio is only in a “normal” range.

[S1969]

What, in addition to the oats would be fed (or is being fed?) What quantity of oats are we talking about?

Pretty sure 53% NSC would kill my metabolic pony in <3 days. I’d guess my TB mare would be fine. I’m not sure about my two easy keepers, and not sure I’d want to find out by trial and error.

[Manni01]

I think that was the hardest part here in the US when feeding oats. To find the right additional vit/min supplement. In Germany many people feed oats so there are more companies to produce the right supplement. Here I finally settled with Uckele Sporthorsepellets and I love it… I feed now Timothy hay, Oats, grounded flax seed and Sporthorse pellets and my horses look shiny and healthy…