Specific Diets for EPSM Horses

* At the time of this writing there is no feed high enough in fat to provide the proper calorie ratios to EPSM horses without an additional fat source.

In general, aim to feed no more than 5-6 lbs of any feed other than a pure forage based feed per 1000 lbs of horse per day.

Feed the minimum amount of feed in the bucket that gets the horse to eat the maximum amount of daily fat while maintaining good weight.

If it takes a small amount of something “sweet” (molasses, carrots and apples, apple juice, peppermint flavoring, a handful of oats or sweet feed, etc.) to get your horse to eat the right amount of added oil early on, this is not a problem. You can aim to decrease or eliminate this small amount of starch and sugar later.

Very low starch and sugar feeds:

Alfalfa pellets

Other hay pellets

Alfalfa cubes - soak in water when adding oil

Beet pulp, low molasses content - soak in water

Complete feeds - meant to replace hay if needed

Dengie or chaff products

Chopped hay products

Low starch and sugar feeds*:

*In general, feeds higher in protein and fat will be lower in starch and sugar. Ingredients such as soy hulls, beet pulp, bran, wheat brans, and wheat middlings are relatively low in starch and sugar.

Below are examples of low starch and sugar feeds, there are many others. If in doubt, contact the company and ask about starch and sugar content. Look for feeds no more than 33% starch and sugar. If you can see grains in the product it is likely too high in starch and sugar for an EPSM horse.

Purina Strategy

Nutrena Compete

Blue Seal Hunter, Demand, Vintage Gold

Senior feeds

Higher fat feeds:

These are examples of feeds that allow addition of less added fat. Most companies suggest using these only as an addition to other feed. For EPSM horses, feed these alone along with good quality forage or a daily vitamin and mineral supplement:

Kent Feeds Omegatin (20% fat)

Nutrena Empower (22% fat)

Moorglo (15% fat)

Rice bran, powdered (20% fat)

Buckeye Ultimate Finish (25% fat)

Nutrena Farr XTN (12% fat)

Re-Leve (about 10% fat)

Purina Ultium (12% fat)

Calculate amounts of fat fed from these products by multiplying lbs fed per day by the percentage of fat. For example, 3 lbs of Ultimate Finish is 3 x 0.25 = 0.75 lb of fat.

Feeds with 20% or more fat can be supplemented with rice bran (20% fat) to provide additional fat. All other feeds require addition of a 100% fat source.

100% fat supplements:

• Any salad type vegetable oil, such as soy, canola, corn, safflower, cottonseed, etc. Cocosoya and wheat germ oil are also fine, just more expensive.
• Performance Pak 100 dry fat product, by Milk Specialties - 800-323-5424 ext.1156, ask for Catherine Gerardi.
• Cool Calories dry fat product, by Performance Horse Nutrition, Weiser, ID 208-549-2323