Decomplexicating Equine Nutrition Part 11 of 12 – Lectins ( Moved to community.thehorsesadvocate.com )
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This is really good! I have been following Plant Paradox way of eating for 9 months and have seen a significant reduction in pain in my knees and finger joints as well as improved energy throughout the day. Having seen these improvements in myself I got to wondering about the horses and this article answers a lot of my questions. I just have a couple left. You mention chia seeds as a side-note but didn’t really address them. Just by feeding what grazers naturally eat, I am guessing you would say not to feed them to horses. We have been, but primarily as a way to help prevent sand colic. My research says they are high in lectins. We bring our mares in about every other day to inspect them, groom them, and doctor any sores they may have. We give them a scoop of timothy pellets with some chia seeds in it when we bring them in. We live in florida and keep our horses on pasture, but of course there is sand everywhere! How would you suggest we deal with sand-colic prevention? I have read that plentiful hay is the best preventative of sand-colic but we can’t get our mares to eat any hay in the summer when the grass is plentiful. Also, legumes are high in lectins as well and alfalfa is a legume. Do you discourage alfalfa hay? .
I agree that feeding chia or any soft seeds may not be good for horses.
Horses can eat legumes (alfalfa, soybean meal, peanut hay) with none of the effects of legumes in humans. Remember we are very different in our gut systems so legumes are OK for horses.
The prevention of sand colic, in my opinion, is having a healthy gut microbiome. Feeding forage (pasture and / or hay) without the inflammatory ingredients of grain and byproducts (loaded with lectins) should maintain a healthy microbiome.
I too live in FL but I see a lot of sand in Long Island NY as well as every other coastal state. Elephants also get sand impactions (my zoo vet friend has told me). But I think the Arabians from Arabia have us all beat! If the gut is healthy then the horse is healthy. Thanks for reading all my blogs and commenting too.
Hi, Thanks for your information. I was about to add more soy hulls as a fibre source, until i read this. I was trying to find a way to extend my hay as the drought is so bad & hay is getting harder to come by & very expensive. (Australia – Qld, NSW etc). I’ll drop the rice bran too & just feed the copra meal (coconut) & soy bean meal. I was wondering if chick pea & faba beans have the same issues? Thanks Andrea
Good question. I’m not sure as these are not common in America but as an added source of fiber, maybe. All beans have issues in humans but chick peas are a legume and should be OK for horses. Faba beans (fava beans) are OK for humans only after their outer shell is removed through parboiling them. Unfortunately I have no advice using these in horses. You should join the private Facebook group “The Horse’s Advocate” and ask people there this question. 🙂
Thanks Geoff. I’ve been trying to do some research on cooked lectins – would steam extrusion or micronisation reduce the lectin issue, or does it still cause gut issues with the starch? Thanks Andrea 🙂
Cooking under pressure and fermentation can destroy many lectins but the best way to eliminated lectins is to avoid them. Feed forage and supplement with protein plus water and salt.
Thanks Geoff for your reply. It’s getting desperate times here with our severe drought & being able to keep up enough forage. We are limited to the amounts of Copra we can buy & lucerne prices are killing me. The horses are dropping away, especially my oldies, so trying to do something that stops them looking so bad, getting to the point that i just need calories to help them, but feel bad that it’s heading in the direction of using rice or barley to help. They’re on nearly a kilo of full fat soy bean meal & we’re struggling.
When the fat (soybean oil) is left in the SBM then the oil can be inflammatory. This can lead to weight loss in some.
When horses (or any animal) is in a stressed environment (drought, ice age, etc) then you need to feed whatever you can while avoiding any inflammation. For decades and longer, whole oats have worked as well as other whole grains such as barley. De-hulled whole grains will help to decrease the lectins. Once the drought is over (it can be a long tine) then you can return to all forage. Adding the SBM is just to restore the lost amino acids.
this has nothing to do with what you have printed here, will read it soon, have a question, my gelding keeps getting abcesses front and back and (of course) he is on 12% pellet grain and hay, no pasture, we either have wet ground or dry ground. could it be a vitamine defintionsee? that is causing it. We try to keep place clean as possible, I am 78 and daughter is 51 and she works at a factory so I am left with keeping all(2 1/2) horses safe. He is the only one that has that problem. When he does, i put him in the arena with sand and when the corral is dry and he is sound I move him to the dirt. even dry on the dirt he gets them. he is not rode so he does a lot of standing eating a round bale and then moved to a stall over night for hay in there. Anyway you can give me a hint as to what might be the problem without you seeing him. I live in the middle of Delaware in low land. Thank you, Kathryn Krouse, meatthebarn2@verizon.net.
Thanks Kathriyn – you need to add soybean meal at 1 pound per day per 1200 pound horse. You can even double this. It will take at least 1 year and up to 2 years to replace the hoof with stronger material to prevent abscesses.
The 12% grain is weakening the hooves and it is not a vitamin deficiency. Please read about protein and the damage grain does at the other blogs: TheEquinePractice.com/feed
Consider joining the Facebook private group “The Horse’s Advocate” where a lot of your questions can be asked and answered. It is private so it is safe.
I have a hard time understanding how coconut would be natural in a horse’s diet. I would also welcome your thoughts on hemp hearts.
Coconut oil is non-inflammatory in humans. It is an assumption that it is also non-inflammatory in horses as the interaction between oil and lipopolysaccharides should be the same in all animals. I only recommend shredded coconut (Coolstance) for underweight and older horses heading into winter. She view it as a protein source but I cannot confirm its bioavailability or its amino acid composition.
Hemp is becoming popular now that this administration made it legal. It is another plant that needs more research in horses. If it is used as a protein source I would ask why when soybean meal is tried and tested and complete for all horses – and it’s inexpensive.
The world is filled with solutions that we all add to fix something but in reality, life is beautifully elegant. Domestication has messed things up a bit. On occasion we need to step in with a solution but we must always be vigilant and note responses to these additional steps. We have not done this with the addition of grains, last summer’s grass (hay) and the plethora of supplements.
Hi, what would you suggest as a good grain free hardfeed? I have been feeding Timothy chaff with a handful of soaked beet (to damp the supplements and make it tastier so they eat it). Would really like to cut out the beet though. I’m just reading plant paradox and finding it very interesting and I am feeling so much better after following the diet for just a week (even though I was already eating what I thought was a super healthy diet) which got me thinking about the horses too. Thanks
Any hay pellet or hay cube should work. Add some water if you are worried about choke. A handful of hay pellets plus the soy beans meal works well with or without water.
Be careful of the “supplements” as some have inflammatory ingredients and not all sources of these ingredients are verified.
One of the reasons I recommend avoiding sugar beet pulp is that it is the outer part of the sugar beet where lectins reside. I’m glad you have read the Plant Paradox and now feel better after removing the inflammatory foods from your diet. The same will happen for the horses. Thanks!
Great article on lectins! I recently became somewhat educated on lectins and their impact on humans. I did not know that Italians peeled their tomatoes and removed the seeds! I was wondering how Italians, with all their tomato-based foods, weren’t all very sick. Now I know!
Thank you o ce again for this good information.
I just read all 11 posts you have made. Your reference to beet pulp (sugar beets), is that including pelleted beet pulp without molasses that should be avoided?
The flax seed not being ideal has blown my mind. I am constantly learning, but anyone that has a horse with ulcers claims flax seed has helped them. Though, they changed a multitude of things at once.
What are your thoughts on de-shelled pumpkin shells (peponitas)?
Thanks for reading all of them (and there are a few more plus a whole course coming).
There is one main principle here. Horses should only be eating what is available in their environment. If there are seeds and sugar beets available where they live then go ahead and feed them. But in humans we are now seeing lectin caused inflammation from all soft seeds. While I have no proof of this, I do know that flax, pumpkin and beets are not available to most grazing animals.
Horses should be fed only what grazers eat when available for eating. Supplementing with grass cut in summer and preserved as hay is reasonable when how this works is taken into consideration.
Please join me in the Horsemanship Nutrition course coming in about 2 weeks. Thanks again for your interest in a different approach to feeding horses.
Geoff:
Absolutely brilliant, as ever. If I could add only one comment, it would be that you tell people about beet pulp shreds as much as about coconut meal. While I wish I could wave a magic wand and have all horse owners & caregivers comprehend what you’re so eloquent about, my bet is this will primarily be read by nutritionists in feed companies! Oh well, if they actually react positively to this, you will have changed everything for the better from the horse’s perspective.
How do we get veterinarians to pay attention?
John
Thanks John. The feed companies and vets are paying attention, just not in the direction or in the amount that they should. Their approach is to take some of the big new shiny words (gut microbiome, pre-biotics, hind gut ulcers, insulin resistance and others) and spin vague rhetoric to continue the confusion. Add to this the enormous material in human nutrition work coupled with the belief that horses should eat what humans eat and the result is that chia seeds will fix everything.
Cynicism is the bane of our age, so I chose optimism. Until I can no longer, I will continue to help horse owners sort things out to make choices that are in the best interest of the horse. And as my wife says, if I am thinking this then there are others. In time, our message will be heard.
As always, I so appreciate your words and support.
I think horse owners are reading your articles and it’s their response that will force feed companies to change. Only when grain or bad lectins are no longer in high demand will the feed companies bother to offer better alternatives. But it’ll be a constant battle because it always is. Thanks again for a wonderful article.
Thanks Barbara – Like everything else, it will take clarity and consistency to help horse owners understand but as they do, they will change everything.