Hi @User1625311329

SBM is a high quality protein source meaning it has all the essential amino acids. All animals that are not nursing need to have this type of protein in their diet especially if they are in hard work (racing young horses) or if they are recovering from a starvation situation.

Young horses that are not working and are on a pasture with a variety of forage won’t show a need for this high quality protein much like a teenager that eats anything still looks good. Looks can be deceiving as sedentary “healthy” 20 year olds show beginning stages of intracellular fat and thus are pre-insulin resistant even though they look good. In addition, they are already losing proteins more than they are gaining. The same is true with young horses. The pasture and hay are limited sources of high quality protein so they are losing more protein faster than they are absorbing.

While the net gain of condition (fat covering) improves in this horse you have rescued, underneath they still need the high quality protein. The goal is 0.5 to 1.0 grams of high quality protein per pound of body weight. Take half of his weight in pounds and that is the minimum amount of protein he needs. Most sources recommend 1.5% of the body weight for the amount of forage. If a horse weighs 1200 pounds then this is 18 pounds of forage (the rule of thumb is ½ a 40 pound bale per day for an adult horse).

If the protein content of the forage is 10% then 10% of 20 pounds is 2 pounds of protein. But the bioavailability of grass is 50% so this then becomes 1 pound or 454 grams of used protein. For a 1200 pound horse, the forage protein isn’t half of their body weight PLUS it is a good quality protein (does not have all the essential amino acids). Adding 1 pound of SBM gives about 174 g of HIGH QUALITY protein (all the amino acids). 454 + 174 = 628 grams and you are in the zone.

1200 is an easily divisible number. If your horse is 1000, 900, 800, 600, 400, 300, 200 or 100 pounds all you need to do is divide the 1 pound by the fraction of weight.  ex, a 600 pound horse needs ½ pound SBM, a 300 pound mini needs ¼ pound SBM, a 1400 pound horse needs 1 1/6 pound SBM.

Sorry about the math but this is the reason people avoid the protein side of the nutrition equation. We can’t ignore protein and focus only on carbs, calories and fat. So yes, a 2.5 year old Belgian recovering from starvation needs SBM and a no grain diet to fully recover without developing problems.

Maybe you want to change your user name to something with a picture. We are a family here! Thanks, Doc T