# Feeding straight (whole) oats



## Kay26 (Sep 28, 2010)

I think the re-planting story is basicly nonsense.

On the subject of oats a livery yard i worked at fed oats, barley and chaff thats all they stocked if you wanted anything else you had to supply it. Not many people feed oats though because they have quick releasing energy and make alot of horses fizzy and highly strung so most horse just got barley and chaff as barley is a slower releasing energy and even then it still makes alot of horses a bit wild.

I personally think feeding a good quality chaff and a mix suited to your horse is probally better than feeding like that yard did but thats just my opinion, i most certianly couldn't feed Hugo oats, he has quite enough energy thank you.

Kay


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

I would think the replanting story _could_ be true, because I have had other things pop up in my manure pile, such as watermelon plants and bermuda grass (after feeding the horses those things). So I don't see why oats wouldn't do the same thing.

It makes me question why I am buying oats though, if many aren't digested. 

I have heard that they ARE digested, and what you are seeing in the manure is just the hull, but I have actually taken a few oats out of the manure(!) and peeled them open, to see if it was just the hull or if the seed was still inside. The seed *was* still inside. So while the horses enjoy oats and probably chew up some of them, I also think many of them are wasted. 

I am going to switch to barely when I run out of the current batch of oats. I HOPE barely is more digestible, because it is rolled and doesn't have all the hulls oats do. In my case, I want my horses to get some energy from the grain, because one is a lactating mare and she needs the calories. 

I have heard oats are a "safer" grain to feed because they do have the hulls.


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## luvs2ride1979 (Nov 9, 2007)

Oats have decent protein and horses actually get some Vitamin C out of them. I use plain whole oats for extra energy in my lazy mare (oats are high in starch, which translates to energy). Whole oats and quality Timothy hay are actually a nearly "complete" feed for horses. Depending on how much of both you feed, you're only lacking in Vitamin E and a few trace minerals, depending on the mineral content of the soil used to grow the oats and timothy hay.

The "oats" you see in horse poo are actually just the outside hulls. As long as the horse has good teeth and doesn't gulp their food down whole, they will properly chew and digest about 95% of the oats that go in to their mouths. I read a couple of studies that showed that crimping or rolling oats only increases digestibility by about 3%, which is not worth the added cost.


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## luvs2ride1979 (Nov 9, 2007)

If you have one lactating, you might consider adding alfalfa pellets to her diet for added protein and calcium. That's what I give my lay mare, 1 qt of alfalfa pellets and 2 qts of oats, with a vit/min supplement and 1/2 cup of flax meal. She's shiney, fat, and healthy! ;-)


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## ~*~anebel~*~ (Aug 21, 2008)

If you feed to much oats you will overflow the stomach into the secum and end up imbalancing the horse's digestion process leading to colic, founder and if you're lucky, both. Be careful when feeding oats, or any other high starch/sugar feed.
Seed your resting pastures with grass and feed your horses hay and beet pulp if they need a concentrate. It is far healthier for the horses and the pastures.


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## wyominggrandma (Nov 4, 2009)

I feed rolled oats, they like it, tend to chew a bit more and works good for young and old.


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## sempre_cantando (May 9, 2008)

I don't think the replanting thing can happen - we fed our horses oaten hay which contained fully developed oats and no oats came up in out paddocks! maybe it happens more with older horses whose teeth aren't as good as they used to be!
Whole oats in moderation should be fine so long as they don't hype your horse up too much. Like somebody else was saying, it might be good to also feed some lucerne/alfalfa because oats have high phosphorus but low calcium.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

We feed crimped oats. I don't know that they are really any easier to digest than regular whole oats, but I haven't found any in our horse's poo.

Then again, when we fed our own home grown whole oats, I never noticed any in their poo! Either I'm not very observant, or since that was all they got way back then, they digested all they could!


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

luvs2ride1979 said:


> If you have one lactating, you might consider adding alfalfa pellets to her diet for added protein and calcium. That's what I give my lay mare, 1 qt of alfalfa pellets and 2 qts of oats, with a vit/min supplement and 1/2 cup of flax meal. She's shiney, fat, and healthy! ;-)


Hi Luvs2ride (and all), 

I am feeding my lactating mare alfalfa (actually, about 60/40 alfalfa and bermuda hay) because it is the cheapest, most widely available hay here in Arizona. I give her about 2 lbs. of oats in the evening, with a little vegetable oil, as a treat. 

I really do think a lot of oats pass through whole. Maybe my mare is just a piggy and swallows them without chewing, but I can pull apart the "digested" oats and find the seed still inside. :shock: At least some of them are passing through whole.


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## morganslittleleo (Nov 3, 2010)

I feed wet oats ( molasses covered) in a mix with horse pellets and alfalfa pellets and corn chops and rice bran and a lil 18% livestock feed and they all look very nice and arent overly hot


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## luvs2ride1979 (Nov 9, 2007)

Have you had her teeth looked at? I wonder if she's in need of a float, or if your vet may be missing some spots when he/she floats. The last vet I used was one I swore by, until I had another out for an emergency and he pointed out all the sharp/uneven spots in my horses mouth, only 4 months after his last float...

If she eats fast, add some big rocks to her bucket, or feed her in a shallow pan or trough. If crimped or rolled oats are in your budget, then switching may be not a bad idea.


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## Production Acres (Aug 26, 2009)

If you want to sow oats - sow oats! Seed to soil contact is paramount for germination so you need to get some soil over the seed. If you want to feed your animal oats - and we do - feed them oats, but don't imagine it is some wonderful seeding method - it ain't! You will see some plants come up from oats dropped out of the horses mouth and into the stall floor and thus into the manure pile, but this is not a seeding method! A no-till drill is a seeding method!


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