Question

I have a five-year-old Quarter Horse mare that I am conditioning for barrel racing competition by working her four days a week. She’s roughly 1,000 lb (455 kg). She gets about four flakes of mixed grass hay each day (divided into two feedings) and a scoop of a low-starch feed (divided into two feedings). She gets a couple supplements, too. I’m not confident that the mare is receiving adequate nutrition. She is getting cinchy (girthy) and seems more flighty and nervous than ever when worked under saddle. She is an easy keeper, and maintaining her weight is not a problem. In addition to basic hay and grain, I want to supply her with the best vitamin and mineral supplement. I am looking for recommendations.

Answer

Because your mare is such an easy keeper and receiving a feed at an amount way below the recommended feeding rate, she may be a little short on the vitamins and minerals needed for her performance. There are a couple of options for getting these nutrients into her.

(1) Remove grain and add a “ration balancer.” The ration balancer is a type of feed designed to provide all the protein, vitamin, and mineral requirements in a concentrated pellet. The typical feeding rate would be 1 to 2 lb (0.45 to 0.9 kg) per day. Depending on the manufacturer, you would probably be fine with 1 lb per day (one-quarter of a two-quart scoop two times each day). Almost every major feed manufacturer has a ration balancer, All-Phase is an example of one manufactured by Kentucky Equine Research (KER), available in the U.S. and Australia.

(2) Add a vitamin/mineral supplement to the current feeding program. KER has two excellent choices for this option, Micro-Max (available in N. America), and Gold Pellet (available in Australia) which will balance out the shortage of nutrients from the small amount of feed you are giving. Either product may be fed by itself if you decide to take the grain out of the diet.

In regard to the sensitivity to being cinched, your mare could be developing ulcers. This can also be a cause for the increase in flightiness. First, you may want to consider feeding more hay on a daily basis if the horse is finishing off her current helpings of hay. Consuming more forage will allow her stomach to be bathed by more saliva, which contains natural buffers to keep gastric ulcers at bay. There are also supplements that soothe the stomach like the KER product, RiteTrac (not available in Australia or New Zealand). Consider getting your veterinarian to confirm diagnosis and suggest treatment.