The Challenges of Chronic Weight Loss

critical nutrients such as amino acids and minerals. Next we can start to gradually increase the grain portion of the diet this must be done with care so as not to cause any digestive disturbance. Then we should top dress the grain with a fat supplement or gradually switch the horse over to a high fat concentrate.
Fats and oils are commonly used in horse feeds to increase the calorie content of the feed or to replace the calories supplied by carbohydrates. Fat supplementation has many benefits which include providing calories for weight gain and providing essential fatty acids to improve skin and coat condition. On an equal weight basis vegetable oil provides horses with 2 5 times the digestible energy of corn and nearly three times the digestible energy of feeding oats. Thus adding fat to the diet increases the energy density number of calories per kilogram of feed of the diet. Thin horses will gain weight and do so without having to eat as much grain if the diet is fortified with additional fat.