As the title says, I am interested in COTH wisdom for increasing the protein content of an easy keeper horse’s diet.
I am assuming that you are not seeing the muscle development you want or ? as the reason for adding protein. I do think it’s worth thinking about the overall diet (including whether additional amino acids would help).
Depending on the rest of the horse’s diet and your location/access, your protein might come from browse, hay or from various feeds. There is a reason soy is in a lot of horse feeds—it is a reasonable source of plant protein.Yes, some horses do have problems with soy, but many do very well on it.
A ration balancer might be the right choice if you just need to fill in vit/min and add a bit of protein. However, some easy keepers will blow up on these.
Triamino or nutramino. Alfalfa pellets, cubes, or hay. A ration balancer.
Correct about the muscle development. I would like to add protein and amino acids. I was hoping to get trade names of products people have had good results with.
This is a horse that is an “air plant” and lives on 2 cups daily of Tripple Crown Lite, with lilmited pasture (muzzle) due to founder concerns and good hay. I don’t need more weight, He needs help to build muscle.
Alfalfa.
Try adding some alfalfa, preferably as plain hay, the better kind of alfalfa.
Doesn’t take much as supplement to other hay types.
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2c of TCL is probably not quite 1lb. To that end, switch to 1lb of the Triple Crown 30 ration balancer. Lots more protein, only a few more calories.
See how that goes after a couple weeks.
If that’s still not to your liking, then I would add a serving of Tri-Amino or Nutramino - no calories, but 10gm lysine, 5gm methionine, and 2gm threonine.
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Thank you … very helpful.
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I agree that JB’s suggestion is very reasonable and an easy shift.
I’ve had very good results with Tri-Amino (and it is cheap). Nutramino also has good reviews but I’ve not used.
We use double dose (2 cups AM and 2 cups PM) of Essential K for my guy who needs more protein to fill out on top. He also gets 3 lbs Kalm and Ez split in two meals.
You can call or chat with TC online, they are super helpful and know their products inside and out, and are actual real people with real equine nutrition credentials.
I switched from TC 30 to TC Lite since mine just looked too beefy on the TC 30 at the suggestion of the TC people, and am very very pleased with the results.
More exercise? This isn’t a “snark,” it’s a real suggestion. Work builds muscle as long as the basics are there. Adding protein sources is good if, but only if, you also add work. If you don’t add work then you’re just adding calories and that will make a bad situation worse.
If you add work and the horse lacks the protein to continue work then look for an additional source.
G.
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G, agreed about “more work.” However, discussions with the vet indicated that more protein would help a young horse build the required muscle out of the work.
For anyone who has done human “body building,” those folks are heavy into protein consumption to build muscle.
Whereas I am conversant with human dietary routes for increasing protein, I am not so conversant for how to add protein to a herbivore.
