Carrot tops (also referred to as carrot greens) are safe for horses to eat, though prior to consumption any dirt or sand should be washed off as ingestion of dirt can lead to sand colic in horses.
However, it is essential that horses only consume limited quantities of carrot greens as too much can disrupt their digestive track and cause them distress. Carrot tops contain fiber which provides horses with essential health benefits for optimal digestive function.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C, commonly referred to as Ascorbic acid, is an essential nutrient for many horses. It plays an essential role in producing collagen protein which forms connective tissue and blood vessel structures, helping ensure healthy bones and joints, reduced tooth loss and helped avoid ruptured capillaries that may lead to abscesses. Furthermore, Ascorbic acid acts as a natural antihistamine by decreasing histamine responses from allergens making life easier for horses suffering respiratory or skin allergies.
Equines cannot produce their own vitamin C, making diet the source of supply. An average amount needed daily by horses is 72 grams; just as with humans, deficiency of this nutrient often results in classic scurvy symptoms; however studies indicate they can still experience deficiency symptoms due to stress, illness or injury without reaching that stage.
Vitamin C has been found to significantly decrease oxidative stress caused by disease and infection, while also improving how efficiently the immune system operates. Vitamin C also stimulates antibody formation as well as aiding with iron, copper and some fat absorption.
Nutritionists have yet to establish a minimum daily requirement of vitamin C for horses, although supplementation may prove helpful during times of high stress and warm climate conditions. Furthermore, giving small doses of Vitamin C during illness recovery or post surgery recovery has been recommended as it may increase red blood cell production.
There are various forms of vitamin C available and choosing one can affect its absorption. According to research, some forms such as crystalline L-ascorbate may have poor bioavailability when taken orally while ascorbyl palmitate or Ester-C (calcium ascorbate chemically esterified with other vitamin C metabolites) appear to have improved bioavailability. Equine supplements combining vitamin C with bioflavonoids like quercetin and rutin have shown beneficial properties such as ease digestive irritation while improving absorption.
Potassium
Potassium (K+) is an essential electrolyte in horses and plays an essential role in muscle function. It helps nerves respond normally to impulses from muscle contraction stimuli, essential for both skeletal and cardiac muscle health. Furthermore, potassium plays an essential part in maintaining proper fluid balance throughout the body as well as managing blood pressure levels.
Plant cells contain high potassium concentrations, making grazing grass or silage with increased potassium content beneficial to horses’ diets. According to National Research Council’s nutritional guidelines for horses, an appropriate daily ration would include about 1.5 kg forage dry matter per 100 kg body weight of dry matter feed per day to provide ample amounts of potassium.
Potassium intake by horses is excreted through sweat, faeces and urine in large amounts. When forage intake is limited or sweat losses occur due to hard work or heat/humidity conditions, signs of deficiency such as decreased appetite/thirst/fatigue may emerge indicating possible deficiency; such signs include decreased appetite/thirst, fatigue and reduced exercise tolerance.
Long-term potassium deprivation puts horses at risk of hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP). This genetic mutation of muscle cells results in symptoms like muscle weakness, fatigue, reduced water and food intake and exercise intolerance that could threaten their welfare.
Supplying adequate forage and avoiding too many salty supplements are both good ways of helping prevent potassium deficiency in horses’ diets, while electrolyte products like Restore SR or Paste may help supplement lost potassium through sweat.
PC-Horse’s higher editions (Education, Consultant and Professional) contain calculators for calculating a horse’s potassium requirements, intake and balances as well as a diet formulation tool to design an appropriate diet ration. These features are beneficial both to nutritionists as well as horse owners in optimizing performance of horses. It should be noted that switching forage or source can have an impactful change on dietary potassium levels; to prevent sudden spikes it is wise to make gradual dietary modifications over time.
Fiber
Fiber is an indispensable energy source for horses. It provides slow but consistent energy sources that will keep your horse fit and healthy – even helping prevent digestive issues such as colic and impaction colic! Unfortunately, however, many owners fail to include enough fibre in their horses’ diets.
Forages are an excellent source of fibre for horses, but that doesn’t have to be the only place they get it from. Lupin hulls and beet pulp can also provide essential sources of this essential nutrient, while often being lower in sugar and starch content which reduces risk for digestive issues.
The hindgut of a horse contains billions of bacteria that help him digest fibre for fueling his body, breaking down most of the fibre he consumes and producing volatile fatty acids that fuel it. This fermentation of fibre in the hindgut plays a crucial role in supporting health and function as it enhances gut motility while decreasing digestive disorders.
Fibre can be divided into two distinct types, fermentable and non-fermentable fibre. Fermentable fibre is broken down by bacteria in your horse’s hindgut and caecum to produce energy for their bodies; non-fermentable fibre does not provide energy but serves another function – adding bulk to food products and encouraging intestinal wall contraction, speeding up feed transport in their system.
Wild horses spend up to 16 hours daily grazing on fibrous plants for food, intaking about 1% of their body weight daily in fiber (including pectin, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) consumed through this method. Their hindgut fermenters process these fibres and extract an incredible source of energy which they need for their daily activities.
Your horse needs protein for muscle development and maintenance. Protein can come from forages, grains and concentrates; however, soybean meal is the primary source in their diets due to it coming from oil-producing seed plants.
Carbohydrates
Carbs provide energy and fiber to horses’ diets. There are various kinds of carbohydrates which can be classified based on structure and digestion processes.
Sugars, starches and soluble fiber (beet pulp and soy hulls) are water-soluble carbohydrates easily broken down in the horse’s foregut into glucose for energy. This process is known as neutral detergent fibre (NDF) or acid detergent fibre (ADF). Structural carbohydrates like cellulose and hemicellulose found in plants’ cell walls provide dietary fiber which bypass the foregut. These fibers can then be broken down by bacteria in the large intestine; fructans have chemical bond structures which resist mammalian enzyme digestion altogether, being fermented by microbes into volatile fatty acids for energy production.
Non-structural carbohydrates (also referred to as simple sugars, disaccharides and starches) have earned themselves an unfavorable reputation within the equine industry due to their role in contributing to Laminitis and Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). They are among the carbohydrates commonly found in grain and concentrate products containing table sugar, fructose and starch as ingredients.
Raised levels of non-structural carbohydrates lead to an increase in blood glucose, which is in turn controlled by hormones like insulin. High sugar intake can also lead to bloat or other digestive problems in horses.
Fats are another primary source of energy for horses and provide about three times more than carbohydrates. They can be found in the form of hay and pasture forage as well as forage by-products such as beet pulp, soybean meal and soy hulls; oilseeds such as sunflower seed oil or soybean oil; as well as supplements like palm kernel oil.
Balanced diets should include an appropriate mix of carbohydrates and fats for most well-trained horses. Working horses may need additional carbs in their diet in order to meet their physical activity demands, in which case body condition scores and energy balance should be closely monitored to avoid overloading their hindgut with carbs that cannot be processed quickly by its microbiota population.