The Beginning of a good Series on "FLAVORS" in Horse nutrition

Five Element Feeding - Five Flavors

By Dr. Madalyn Ward, DVM

Most people think of food from only its nutritional value which they consider the same for every horse but when viewed energetically foods have different effects on different horses depending on their Five Element type. In addition to looking at foods from a standpoint of different types we should also look at what we feed our horses in different seasons.

Each Element has a flavor associated with it and this flavor is often needed for that type when it becomes out of balance. The same horse may need a different flavor to help him balance for seasonal changes. For example, bitter is the flavor assigned to Fire because the Fire element has a tendency to overheating conditions. A Fire horse might benefit from some bitter foods in the diet on a regular basis but might need some sweet, warming foods in the heat of summer to help keep his energy moving outward to the periphery of the body to match the heat of the environment. Alfalfa is an example of a bitter food and grains such as oats are considered sweet according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. So an overall diet for a Fire horse could be include grass and alfalfa hay with minimal grain during the winter or cold weather and slightly less alfalfa and more grain during the summer. Alternately, you could leave the alfalfa the same and instead of grain give sweet vegetables such as carrots during the summer months.

Therapeutic use of the Five Flavors:

Bitter - Fire, heart and small intestine, yin, cooling, moves energy inward Sweet - Earth, spleen/pancreas and stomach, yang, warming, moves energy outward Pungent - Metal, lungs and large intestine, yang, warming, moves energy outward Salty - Water, kidneys and bladder, yin, cooling, moves energy inward Sour - Wood, liver and gallbladder, yin, cooling, moves energy inward

It is important to remember to balance first to the Five Element type of the horse and then if needed to the season. Never go to extreme with any flavor because too much can cause the opposite effect and weaken the organ you wanted to support.

Bitter
Properties: Horses that have excessive energy and impulsive behavior benefit from bitter foods because they have a centering effect of bringing the energy deeper into the body. Also good for slow moving, lethargic horses that have damp conditions such as stocking up or are just generally overfed and under exercised.

Uses: Very helpful in horses with inflammations, infections and damp skin conditions.
Organ functions: helps support the heart and blood vessels by removing deposits which lowers blood pressure. Celery is a vegetable which is perfect for this and could certainly be fed to horses. Bitter foods like celery can be given to help clear heat and inflammation out of the liver after overeating. Sounds like a perfect treat instead of the high sugar and starch store bought ones. I will have to try this out with my Fire horse, Cerise. Bitter foods help drain damp conditions such as yeast infections, parasites, moist skin eruptions, abscesses, tumors, cysts(including the aggravating ovarian types) and swellings. Bitter foods help with intestinal function by increasing motility. In addition to the liver and gallbladder, the lungs and kidneys also benefit from the bitter flavor. Any condition that shows thick, yellow discharges suggests dampness and heat and the bitter flavor is perfect to break this up and get it moving out of the body. Think about upper respiratory infections, uterine infections and hoof abscesses and just a few typical damp heat examples that benefit from the addition of bitter foods.

Season: Increase bitter foods throughout the fall and winter to pull energy in to protect the body from cold external temperatures or any season when heat symptoms appear.

Cautions: Horses that are weak, thin nervous, and dehydrated should be given bitter foods sparingly.

Examples: Bitter herbs include, dandelion leaf or root, burdock leaf or root, yarrow, chamomile, hops, valerian, chaparral, echinacea and pau d'arco. Alfalfa is a strictly bitter food, celery and papaya are bitter and sweet, citrus peel is bitter and pungent and vinegar is bitter and sour.

More on the other flavors later.

Madalyn Ward, DVM, is a recognized author and veterinarian in the field of holistic horsekeeping. For free tips on horse health, horse personality types, laminitis, and horse nutrition, plus one-stop shopping on holistic horse products, visit http://www.BuyHolisticHorse.com and her blog at http://blog.horseharmony.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Madalyn_Ward,_DVM
http://EzineArticles.com/?Five-Element-Feeding---Five-Flavors&id=1886247

Sweets make young horses harder to train in Montana State study

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Young horses may be easier to train if they temporarily lay off the sweets, says a Montana State University study where two-year-olds wore pedometers, wrist watches and Ace bandages.

A commercial mixture of corn, oats, barley and molasses -- sometimes called "sweet grain" or "sweet feed" -- gives horses the glossy coat and lively spirit that makes them attractive to prospective buyers, said Jan Bowman, an animal nutritionist at MSU.

But the extra energy provided by sweet grain during the early stages of training made the horses in MSU's study more disobedient and fearful than horses that only ate hay, Bowman said. The grain-eaters spent more time resisting the saddle. They startled easier. They bucked and ran more during training.

Early training, which usually lasts about 30 days, gives young horses the foundation they need for more advanced training, Bowman said. They learn to move sideways on command, for example. They learn how to move their front or hind feet in any direction.

"Results suggest that trainers under time constraints could increase their training effectiveness during the early stages of training by not feeding excess dietary energy," Wade Black wrote in a paper that will be submitted later this year to the "Journal of Animal Science."

Black -- a horse trainer, instructor for the MSU Colt Starting class and one of Bowman's graduate students -- came up with the idea for the study when he was an undergraduate in her equine nutrition class, Bowman said. She and Black then conducted experiments during the summer of 2007. Black presented their findings to the American Society of Animal Science in June this year. He is still analyzing some of the data to see how the grain affected the horses' adrenaline during training.

The study involved 12 closely-related quarter horses that came from one Idaho ranch, Bowman said. Black trained the horses for three weeks, five days a week at MSU's Miller Livestock Pavilion. Half the horses ate only hay. The hay was a mixture of grass and alfalfa. The other horses ate five pounds of sweet grain a day in addition to the hay. Both groups ate as much hay and drank as much water as they wanted.

Each horse wore a pedometer adjusted to its stride and attached with an Ace bandage to its left front leg above the knee, Bowman said. Each horse also had a combination wristwatch-heart monitor hanging from its saddle. The watch displayed minimum, maximum and mean heart rates detected by an electrode belt.

Black trained the animals for 30 or 40 minutes a day without knowing which animal had eaten grain and which one hadn't, Bowman said. She and Black then recorded heart rates and the number of steps the horses took during training. They scored behaviors like obedience, get-up-and-go and separation anxiety.

Horses that ate both grain and hay became more upset when they were separated from the herd, Bowman said. They whinnied more and were livelier and less submissive than the horses that ate only hay.

The study doesn't mean that trainers should keep grain away from horses forever, Bowman said. They might consider withholding it just during the early weeks of training.

"We don't want to give the impression that you should starve them in order to enhance their good behavior," Bowman said. "That's not the point of it."

Wade wrote in his paper that, "Horses, being ridden by less experienced riders, need to be calm and easy to handle, characteristics that may be enhanced by more effective early training."

Bowman noted that all of the horses in MSU's study gained weight during the study. It didn't matter if they ate hay alone or hay with grain.

Contact: Evelyn Boswell
evelynb@montana.edu
406-994-5135
Montana State University

Western States Horse Expo 2008 and Exciting new Products

Another Great Weekend, 10th anniversary of the Western States Horse Expo, Sacramento, Ca, June 6-8, 2008.

Well, the 2008 Western States Horse Expo is over and I came back with some great information on some unique and valuable Horse Care Products.

Two products that captivated my attention were based on Old Knowledge combined with new Technology.

The first has to do with Horse Nutrition and the proper care and feeding of the confined horse.

The following re-print will give you a clear understanding why this Innovative Product form Stable Grazer fits a real Niche in the tools need for the responsible, overall low cost maintenance of our Equine Friends.

Reprinted by permission from the University of Kentucky - College of Agriculture ASC-143 Equine Feeding

Management: The How & When of Feeding Horses

Laurie Lawrence,

Department of Animal Sciences

Providing horses with good nutrition is essential for normal growth, reproduction and performance. Horses should receive feeds that are adequate but not excessive in required nutrients.

However, just providing the right feeds is often not enough to ensure that horses are receiving optimal nutrition. HOW and WHEN a horse is fed may be just as important as what a horse is fed.

The HOW of horse feeding includes the type of feeding system used (group or individual).

The WHEN of horse feeding includes the number and timing of meals that a horse receives. Good feeding management should encourage adequate consumption of feed and limit wastage.

In addition, good feeding management should promote the safety and well being of horses.Number & Timing of MealsIn the natural state, horses are grazing animals that may spend up to 60% of their time eating. Grazing and resting periods are interspersed so that grazing periods are rarely separated by more than two or three hours of non-eating behaviors. When domestic horses are kept in a true pasture situation, most will adopt the grazing pattern described for horses in the natural state.

However, many horses have limited access to pasture and will receive their nutrient needs from hay and concentrates in a more regimented environment. In pasture situations, horses may spend 12-14 hours a day grazing. By comparison, stalled horses may consume a typical hay and concentrate ration in two to four hours.

When the diets fed to stalled horses are high in roughage, more time will be spent eating than when the diet is high in concentrates. Because horses in stalls often spend less time eating than horses in pastures, they may be more inclined to occupy their time with undesirable activities such as stall vices, or wood chewing. Wood chewing appears to occur more at night in stabled horses and is increased when low roughage rations are fed. Horses have evolved to consume small amounts of feed several times a day, rather than large amounts of feed once or twice a day.

Anatomically, their digestive tract is designed to accommodate small meals, in that the stomach is relatively small. Despite the fact that the horse is more physiologically adapted to many small meals each day, it is not uncommon for feed to be provided only two (or occasionally three) times a day for many horses that are housed in stalls. This feeding practice may be labor efficient, but it may not be the most desirable situation for the horse, particularly if large amounts of concentrate are being fed.

The following situations may result when horses are fed two times per day: When a large amount of concentrate is fed before the roughage component of the diet, the horse may consume the grain readily and then have a reduced appetite for the hay. The horse may "pick at the hay or waste the hay by mixing it in the bedding.

In either case, the horse will not be consuming the nutrients that are contained in the hay. A high and rapid concentrate intake may increase the possibility of digestive disturbances. "Concentrates are feeds such as cereal grains (oats, corn, barley, etc.) and commercially mixed feeds that are concentrated forms of energy. Concentrates are high in starch. It has been estimated that the maximum amount of starch that should be fed in one meal to a mature horse is 3.5 to 4 lb (1000 lb horse). When higher levels are fed, starch may bypass the small intestine and enter the large intestine where it will be fermented by the microbes in the cecum and large intestine. Excessive concentrate intake has been suggested as a causative factor in the occurrence of colic in horses.

A large concentrate meal has also been associated with large shifts in plasma volume and changes in other cardiovascular parameters. Individual FeedingA distinct advantage to individual feeding systems is that every horse can receive a ration that has been specifically designed to meet its needs. There is maximum flexibility in the amount and types of feeds that can be given to each horse.

It is also easy to monitor each horse?s appetite and feeding behavior when they are individually fed. Generally, individual feeding also reduces the opportunity for injury due to competition for feed within a group. On the negative side, it is more time- and labor-consuming to feed horses individually than to feed them as a group. Further, individual feeding systems usually require some type of facility where horses can be separated, usually a barn with stalls. The horses may be housed in the stall more or less continuously, or just brought into the stall at feeding time. It is not uncommon for horses that are fed in stalls to develop undesirable behaviors at feeding time.

• For example, horses may kick at partitions, walk the stall or strike at the door in anticipation of feeding. Some of the disadvantages associated with individual feeding can be minimized with good barn and stall design.


• For example, the time and labor associated with feeding can be reduced if all feeders are placed at the front of the stalls in a location that can be reached without entering the stall.


• For example, small doors that swing out into the aisle way can be placed above the grain tub. Swing-out hay feeders are also available. Some people believe that feeding hay from the floor is the most natural situation for horses and that hay racks or hay nets increase the exposure of the horses to dust from the hay.

In addition, some horses will remove the hay from hayracks and eat it off the floor. However, hayracks/nets will often decrease wastage of the hay. The stall design and feeder location may also affect the behavior of horses at feeding. Placing feeders on either side of stall partitions is a labor-efficient design, but it may increase undesirable behavior at feeding, such as kicking. Stall partitions should be high enough to prevent aggressive horses from reaching into adjoining stalls. Some horses do not adapt easily to separation and/or isolation from other horses.

Stalls that allow for visual contact across a stable aisle may improve the response to individual feeding. For horses with poor appetites, visual contact with other horses may stimulate eating activity.

Because of the above research, Dan Ferhinger and his brother Ed, have perfected an Automatic Feeder, which allows your confined horse to fed properly. up to six times a day. The Stable Grazer is constructed of Horse safe High density Plastic and functuional working components.

The timer is powered by 4 C cell batteries which ave ben field tested to operate for 8 months plus without replacment. This timed feeding sysytem will save on Feed waste and possible Veterinarian bills for thar dreraded "Colic Call"

For more information fill in your name, e-mail and phone number and Dan or Ed will get right back to you to discuss this Labor and Health Saving stable necessity

Stable Grazer

or call me direct

530-798-0245

Watch the Video Below

Thoughts on Transitioning Your Horse to Spring Pasture

When introducing a new type of hay or grain it should replace the old feed at a rate of 25% every other day, taking a total of six days until the horse is completely on the new feed.

Feed intake or eagerness to consume the diet may decrease during this changeover period. If this occurs, more time might be needed for the horse to adjust to the new feed.

"When a horse is to be turned out on pasture all day, especially if the pasture is lush and green, time on pasture should be gradually increased to avoid overeating, in a manner similar to increasing the grain," Jones said.

Horses should be provided with all the hay they want to eat about a week prior to the start of complete pasture turnout.

The time on pasture should be increased by an hour each day for four to five days. Then, before the horse is going to be turned out completely on pasture, provide a hay meal.

"It's important to remember that each horse is different," Jones noted. Some horses take more time to adjust to dietary changes than others. So monitor the horse's eating habits and health status closely during this time.

For more information on horses, contact your county extension agent or visit www.uaex.edu and select Agriculture, then Horses.