You tell us, then. :uhoh:
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Then youâre going to have to TELL US what concerns youâve heard about oil, so we can discuss, and we can stop GUESSING what on earth it is that youâre getting at.
Because other than the concern over the omega 3/6 balance, there is really nothing.
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Itâs a reason people donât feed vegetable oil. If a horse is prone to inflammation people will shy away from adding more omega 6 as it supports inflammation as JB says.
I will still use canola oil if I think a horse needs it, but I prefer to feed flax because it helps with more than just coat and weight. With so many choices on the market today vs 30 years ago, people wonât always reach for the vegetable oil.
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Sorry for the confusion. This was a good thought, but I mean all vegetable based oils. Canola/flax/coconut/olive, etc. inclusive. Not just products marked as âvegetable oil,â in which case I would agree.
I feed whole flax or ground flax not the oil. More dry flax based supplements are out there now a days to assist with hard keepers. Also feed options have improved dramatically. The more we understand about nutrition the more certain things will fall out of favor. Sweet feed used to be very common in barns. Now not so much because we have better alternatives.
Itâs not that people think vegetable oil is bad per se, we just have more options. And as people note, oils of any type are messy.
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In the past where I would have fed oil, now I would feed rice bran, high fat feed, or some other fat supplement just because oil is so messy.
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Thanks. Which high fat feeds/supplements?
:yes:
Same.
For my 19yo WB, who came out of Winter a bit ribby, vet suggested adding a high fat feed.
Local feedstore had Nutrena Empower Boost - 20% fat from rice bran.
Had him back up to weight in about 2mos (~ 1 50# bag) fed at about 1/2 package recommendation of 3 cups/day.
Current TWH was losing weight when I had to restrict grazing for my mini & it was less work for me to just close off my larger pasture to all 3. That started May 6.
They still had access to the small (1/2ac) pasture that has sparse grass.
For him, I went straight to rice bran & now - 1mo+ later - his weight is back up where I like.
I feed about 1/4 cup 2X daily with regular ration of whole oats.
Sole supplement is BOSS - 2T with grain.
I am now able to do night turnout on the big field & am going to eliminate the rice bran entirely when I can give them back 24/7 out there.
My 2ĂÂą:
Oil is messy, goes rancid & is more trouble when other dry versions of fat are available.
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Then you should go back to the person who said this and ask for clarification.
If it was in the context of preferring a high fat pellet or a powdered or prilled fat source, then the obvious answer is about mess and perhaps palatability.
The pellets and prilled fat are obviously more expensive than plain oil for a given number of calories.
If I was running a boarding barn I would prefer to feed high fat pellets as needed rather than deal with the mess and instability of oil. I did help feed a friendâs horse that was getting flax oil and I found his feed bucket got gross pretty fast.
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Preference is a whole different ballgame than ânot beneficial,â which is the question posed in the original post.
Oil remains the most concentrated source of calories possible in the diet. One cup is about 2000 kcal. In comparison:
1 cup 100% dry prilled fat (like Cool Calories): ~1000 kcal
1 cup rice bran: 375 kcal
1 cup flax seed: 895 kcal
etc etc etc
Every option has itâs own pluses and minuses. And everyone will have their own preferences. Just because one person finds itâs âmessyâ doesnât mean that everyone will. I donât find it messy at all, and prefer oil for the low volume and low cost compared to other sources of fat, as others have noted in this thread.
âŠunless, of course, weâre talking about ânot beneficialâ to the owner of the horse. Or to the barn owner :lol: We can make all sorts of statements about that, from ânot beneficialâ to the horse ownerâs wallet ($$$ for prilled fat, $$$$$ for flax oil) to ânot beneficialâ to the barn owner (who thinks liquid fats are messy, or is stuck trying to store that fragile flax oil, or has the frustration of trying to get a picky horse to eat a significant amount of a dry fat supplement!!) But that really has zilch to do with the effect of a liquid fat on the horse.
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Oil can go rancid, which can cause sickness (not unlike any other spoiled food).
Introducing a large quantity quickly can cause digestive upset and loose stools. The same thing can happen with people. The way to avoid that problem is to gradually increase the amount, as you do with almost anything you feed horses.
And weâve talked about the omega fatty acid ratios ad nauseam.
But otherwise oil is well tolerated by horses and widely accepted as safe. In controlled studies, theyâve found horses can consume ballpark ranges of around 20% of their calories from oil with no ill effects.
Unless you are feeding forage only or forage plus plain grains, youâre going to find some type of plant-based oil in your horse feed. Itâs widely used in feed manufacturing to boost energy, reduce dust, and to mix/bind ingredients.
Maybe there is some cutting edge research that hasnât been accepted by the veterinary and nutrition community yet. But otherwise there is literally no reason to generalize plant-based oil as something that should be avoided.
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Useful search term. Thanks.
Not sure what youâre trying to get us to say here, but there are a handful of reasons some people choose to avoid oil in favor of alternative high-fat products. Some are more valid than others.
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O6:O3 ratio. As others have already mentioned, this is likely an overblown concern. For one, we donât know a for-sure ideal ratio. For another, if adding a bit of oil is enough to cause a problem (and Iâve never seen any actual documentation of this happening), then the WHOLE diet should be examined, not just the fat supplement.
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âSoy is evilâ is a popular myth at the moment. No evidence to support this claim, but people who believe it are VERY confident/vocal in their claims. So vegetable (i.e. soy) oil is out of favor for that reason with some people.
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Anti-GMO sentiment. Like the anti-soy crowd (and the two are closely related), thereâs zero evidence to support this myth, but it persists anyways.
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Convenience. With so many high-quality pelleted and extruded fat supplements available these days, feeding oil has fallen out of favor. Yes, oil is still cheaper and a more efficient source of calories. But oil goes rancid in hot weather, is messy, and is unpalatable to some horses.
If one of those points doesnât answer your question, then please clarify exactly what youâve âheardâ about feeding oil to horses. Because Iâm an equine nutritionist (M.S. + 10 years academic teaching/research/outreach experience), and Iâve not seen or heard ANY evidence that feeding oil in general to horses has been deemed âbadâ by any significant number of horse people.
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Not sure what youâre trying to get us to say here, but there are a handful of reasons some people choose to avoid oil in favor of alternative high-fat products. Some are more valid than others.
-
O6:O3 ratio. As others have already mentioned, this is likely an overblown concern. For one, we donât know a for-sure ideal ratio. For another, if adding a bit of oil is enough to cause a problem (and Iâve never seen any actual documentation of this happening), then the WHOLE diet should be examined, not just the fat supplement.
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âSoy is evilâ is a popular myth at the moment. No evidence to support this claim, but people who believe it are VERY confident/vocal in their claims. So vegetable (i.e. soy) oil is out of favor for that reason with some people.
-
Anti-GMO sentiment. Like the anti-soy crowd (and the two are closely related), thereâs zero evidence to support this myth, but it persists anyways.
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Convenience. With so many high-quality pelleted and extruded fat supplements available these days, feeding oil has fallen out of favor. Yes, oil is still cheaper and a more efficient source of calories. But oil goes rancid in hot weather, is messy, and is unpalatable to some horses.
If one of those points doesnât answer your question, then please clarify exactly what youâve âheardâ about feeding oil to horses. Because Iâm an equine nutritionist (M.S. + 10 years academic teaching/research/outreach experience), and Iâve not seen or heard ANY evidence that feeding oil in general to horses has been deemed âbadâ by any significant number of horse people.
Sure. Just curiousâ when did you get your MS?
Not sure how thatâs relevant to the topic of this thread, but 2009 (thus the 10 years of experience following the degreeâŠ).
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Thanks. Honestly just curious and is a common question when I meet someone in that context.
I heard saturated fats have better hindgut benefit than unsaturated fats. Is this true/do you know why?
Iâm not familiar with any research to that effect, no. Iâm not sure thereâs any reason they would be, either. Fats are digested in the small intestine and therefore have minimal, if any, affect on the hindgut.
Hereâs a great article that might answer some of your questions regarding feeding fat to horses: https://thehorse.com/18459/feeding-fâŠst-a-diet-fad/. TheHorse.com is an excellent resource across the board, because they choose qualified authors who cite actual research in their articles, for the most part, unlike a lot of magazines and websites.
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This is exactly the reason that horses used to be fed arsenic, because their coats were shiny and looked great.
In reality the horses were being poisoned and their hair was falling out. A horse with short hair is shinier than a horse with long hair.
I have shiny tbs. I have never fed oil. They do not get oil in the wild. If you want a shiny horse, buy a black horse, do not wash, put a rug on and groom daily. You will get a shine that other people will comment on.
For people it has been proven that vegetable oil and especially canola oil causes macular degeneration, which causes blindness and cannot be reversed. This does not include olive oil.
This was something that was not seen by eye doctors. Then one here and there. Then prolific, caused by people eating margarine instead of butter.
So you can eat butter and have a heart attack or eat margarine and go blind.
I have not used either on sandwiches or in cooking since in my 20s. I have pans that heat up to become non stick. I am 50yo. I have prescription glasses that turn dark in the sun.
At a recent eye test I was told I have very young eyes.
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Source?
Hereâs mine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3144752/
âIn this particular sample, adverse associations were particularly attributed to diets high in Ăâ°-6 PUFAs, which may have masked potential protective influences of consuming diets high in Ăâ°-3 PUFA.â
Of the cheap oils, canola has the best omega 3/6 profile. Certainly a whole lot better than soy or corn. Olive oil has very little of either, but still significantly more 6 than 3. If youâre looking for more omega 3, flax or fish is generally the way to go, but those are costly and fragile.
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ââčââčââčââčââč⊠but horses donât get macular degeneration, so this isnât really relevant? 
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