Do carrots affect horses/ponies

[fin]

razoe said:

They really are high in sugar. They apparently used them in cakes during the war when sugar was scarce because they are so sweet!

Yup. But that was back in the days when people weren't that used to a high sugar diet anyway--so a carrot or a parsnip or a beetroot (also used to sweeten cakes!) seemed relatively sweet. It's a case of better than nothing--wartime diets could be pretty basic. Have you ever tasted dried egg or mock cream? Nowadays any decent carrot cake will have as much sugar as a normal cake, plus carrots.

I haven't got a bag of carrots to hand to check, but according to Clare McCleod (nutritionist): " Carrots are about 80% water, so for every five carrots fed, 4 represent the water content and only 1 represents pure 'carrot' (carrot dry matter). Following on from this although, on a dry matter basis, carrots are relatively high in sugar, on a fresh weight basis they are low in sugar." (THe Truth About Feeding Your Horse, p.88).

Even on seriously soaked hay I worked out I was feeding my horse well over a kilo of sugar a day, and a horse at grass takes in far, far more, so it would be interesting to know why a horse might react badly to carrots. It can't only be a total sugars problem given that they're relatively low compared to a lot of horsefoods and by weight people rarely feed that many. Are they very high GI (for horses, not people, where they're only medium), or is it a pesticide/fertiliser problem?? Or something else?

[Amanda Dolby]

Finn - vet recons it is the pesticide content and that of synthetic fertilisers.
There are studies( can't confirm) on going to ascertain the effect on cell structures damaged by synthetic fertilisers and how this creates problem proteins and sugars in grass. I can only assume it could have the same effect on carrots.
Now I feel a bit thick as I can't give any more info - but you are welcome to try and e-mail

Chris Day at alternativevet.org website.
Also note that small production organic carrots that are not fed by water systems with liquid fertilisers are far sweeter than other carrots - So is it the sugars or the restructuring of the sugars/proteins/cells due to synthetic fertilisers generally pumped in with the water.

[fin]

Yup, sounds plausible to me. There are lots of anecdotal reports of horses with chronic laminitis recovering on higher sugar but unfertilised hay, and root veg--as storage organs for the entire plant--must be especially susceptible to pesticide/fertiliser residue. Ditto sugar beet, which is rather alarmng--but may explain why my ned has problems with it (as well as everything else ). It makes you wonder how far background agricultural pollution has effected all of our metabolisms

[Amanda Dolby]

I'll stick my neck out on that one and say TOO MUCH

[fin]

Scary, isn't it?

[geeup]

deffinately had an effect on our last pony!

[highlanderpony2002]

We used to feed them ad lib by the tonne to our horses and ponies and apart from them coming out of the winter really well they had no other side affects. We live near a carrot packing station and the rejects were a cheap ans nuitritious alternative for the ponies. They only come in 10 tonne lots now or I would still be feeding them.

[fin]

That would be my horse's idea of heaven.....probably only for about 20 mins till his hooves exploded and he dropped dead, but heck! He's be extremely happy

[malikariverbaby]

I give mine carrots. About once a week I throw a whole bags, about 5 kilos, around the field. I hide them all over the place so that they have something to do. They love it and will spend ages searching. There are 4 hores in the field at the moment.

I also chuck alsorts of peelings in the field and they chose what they eat and what they don't. They really love grapes.

[janetgeorge]

Carrots got bad press when people became obsessed with the glycemic index (GI) of foods. The TYPE of sugar carrots contain is transformed into blood sugar very quickly. But the amount of sugar they contain is actually very low! Carrots are also one of the richest sources of beta-carotene, which lowers insulin levels in people, reducing the risk of diabetes!

Being a root vegetable, they will 'hold' pesticides - so the advice to use organic carrots is good.

[jo7]

I cant give my pony carrots, his gets really hyper, sweats up like his been dunked in a bath its terrible to see, i didnt realise it was carrots untill someone told me.

[jodie1084]

thanks for all the good advice i recently reduced his feed as i only get to ride 2-3 times a weeks and was finding he rather a hand full he is a 15.3 belgian warmblood who is 11. i now just give one rounded scoop of dengie healthy hooves in morning and night what else can i give in the feed as it seems rather boring? what veg could be a suitable replacement?

[dingbat]

i used to feed them no problem but only about 4-5 a day.

i dont now though as my horse is laminitic. so hes banned from carrots! (and many other things). my new horse is probably most put out as he used to have them - until he cae to live with me that is! we are carrot free (its just not natural for me to buy them).

i wouldnt have thought a few would harm (apart from odd sensitive ones) but i personally wouldnt want to feed loads - it doesnt seem very natural to.

[highlanderpony2002]

A tonne of carrots used to last the 10 ponies about a week and a half becasue they were washed for the supermarkets they went off quicker than dirty carrots would but then again they were not as sandy and mucky so less dirt eaten. I certainly wouldn't feed them to horses with lammi or IR but mine were baby and breeding natives and managed fine on them as I said they just were fed in winter and they came out of the winter really well too well sometimes, as they then needed their grazing restricted. Everyone who owned horses around here fed them in the same way in fact a very good breeding and driving lady that lived locally told me once she was surprised the poo was'nt orange