Is feeding rice bran and barley safe for a foundered horse?
Is it okay to feed soaked barley and rice pollard to a horse that has foundered in the past? I have recently started feeding these feeds. My horse is looking great and putting on weight, but I just began to wonder if this diet was safe for him. I am working at feeding split in two feedings 2 kg (before soaked) barley, 2 kg of rice pollard with mixed chaff and Equilibrium and cup of soy powder plus hay. Your help would be very much appreciated. Rice pollard (known as rice bran in the USA) is a high fat (19 % or higher) and fiber supplement. Barley, especially if soaked, has the lowest starch/sugar index of the grains. If your horse has not foundered on this regimen I doubt if he will in the future! However, 2 kg of rice bran a day is a bit much. It is also very high in phosphorus. Unless your hay is Lucerne (alfalfa) or another legume mix, or your rice bran is a stabilized product (which will have additional calcium added to it), you run the risk of feeding more phosphorus than calcium.
