Horse Feed-Triple Crown's Horse Feed Philosophy Designed For Optimum Nutrition

Triple Crown® Horse Feed & Nutrition eNews - Jan. 15, 2009

Today, there is a lot of information being passed around about carbohydrates and what is good versus what is bad. When we refer to carbohydrates, we typically mean soluble carbohydrates, which are composed of both starch and sugar, often expressed as NSC (non-structural carbohydrates). The other type of carbohydrates are structural carbohydrates and they consist of the fiber your horse breaks down in the large intestine. Both are necessary for normal body function, but the type that can potentially cause some concern are the soluble carbohydrates, or NSC.

A horse’s natural diet consists of grazing about 80% of the day and taking in small amounts of fiber. Fiber quality will vary depending on the type of grass and time of year, but typically, fiber will range between 10% and 20% NSC. When we feed horses either grains or a commercial feed made from grains, the NSC level usually falls between 40% to 50%. Oats alone are 50% NSC, a lot higher than most people would suspect. Soluble carbohydrates should be digested in the small intestine and converted to glucose. If they pass through into the large intestine, where non-soluble fiber is fermented by bacteria, the soluble carbs ferment excessively, negatively altering the digestive bacteria. This will dramatically increase the potential for colic and laminitis (founder). Current research also indicates that diets low in soluble carbohydrates, benefit horses with other metabolic problems such as Cushing’s Disease, PSSM, PSM, RER and insulin resistance

Triple Crown’s philosophy has always been to provide adequate calories for optimum performance and body condition while keeping the soluble carbohydrates as low as possible. We do this by combining calories from fat and utilizing digestible “super fibers” such as beet pulp.

There are some pitfalls to watch out for when evaluating low soluble carbohydrate diets. First, having “Safe” or “Low” in the name does not guarantee that soluble carbs are in fact low. We have tested feeds from competitor companies that use some of this terminology and the results do not indicate what the name implies. Triple Crown tests all of our feeds and you can see the Equi-Analytical results at http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/news-soluble-carbohydrate-levels.php You should request the company you deal with show you actual lab results.

Second, look at the total NSC of feeds being evaluated, not specific ingredients. While the fiber guarantee and ingredient list can give you an indication of what the NSC may be, only a test can give you the real results. For instance, Triple Crown Senior contains molasses while the total NSC is only 11.7%.

Check out this article on the potential impact of molasses http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/news.php

Third, soluble carbohydrates and calories are two different things. Just because a feed has low soluble carbs does not necessarily mean it is a low calorie diet. For instance, we have Triple Crown Lite for very easy keepers and Triple Crown Low Starch for horses needing more feed to maintain weight while both are low in NSC.

An in depth article on soluble carbs can be found at http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/news-carbohydrates.php and we have more articles related to specific problems on our website at http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/news.php