Looking for a high-oil supplement for your horse, but not sure where to start? The expert nutritionists at Baileys Horse Feeds have the following advice.
While the easy way to increase the oil content of your horse’s diet is to add vegetable oil or cooked linseed, there’s now a plethora of high-oil supplements available that offer a mess-free alternative.
If your aim is to provide extra calories for condition or performance, be sure to look at the supplement’s digestible energy (DE) content as this will give an indication of calories per kilo and how much you’ll need to feed to get results.
For coat shine, you need to look for oils that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids as these are the ones that are incorporated in cell membranes and integral to supple, healthy skin.
Linseed is rich in omega-3, while soya oil has a higher omega-6 content.
Other commonly used oil sources, like palm oil, rice bran and coconut meal supply almost exclusively omega-6 fatty acids.
Feeding Baileys Outshine
Baileys Outshine contains a balance of Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids to mimic that found naturally in pasture and to avoid an imbalance in the horse’s body.
It also contains essential supporting antioxidants.
These are necessary to help the body neutralise the increased levels of free radicals.
Free radicals are molecules that are produced during the metabolism of the oil and can be damaging to the body. This is of particular importance to working horses who are being fed higher levels of oil as a key energy source.
This is where Baileys Outshine is particularly useful as it provides a respectable 24MJ/kg DE. A little goes a long way.
Just 225 to 450g per day (one to two coffee mugs), added to an existing balanced diet, will encourage head-turning coat shine, while up to 1.3kg per day (six coffee mugs) will provide a significant number of additional slow-release calories, without adding much to the overall feed volume.
Outshine is ideal for equines requiring slow-release calories as part of a low-starch diet and is available in a 6.5kg bag or 20kg sack.
