Natural Hoof Care
NSC (non structural carbohydrate) made easy for horse owner
To simplify the NSC in feeds here is a quick summary:
NSC content in:
Oats 48%
Corn 78%
Barley 59%
We believe that grain should only be supplemented if needed. If a horse is under weight or is a performance horse. Then we would recommend a natural diet such as Oats.
Horses are foragers and naturally eat small amounts of high fibrous foods all day.
We do not believe horse's food should be cooked.
The Low Starch, Low NSC grains are cooked and we do not recommend them.
We believe an Insulin resistant, laminitic or founder horse’s diet should be under 10% NSC.
It is very hard to get a grain under 10% NSC because to do so the feed companies can not use the standard feed items like Oats, Corn and Barley which are way too high.
Most feed companies are not disclosing all the NSC content. For example they will tell you the Starch content but not the WSC (water soluble carbohydrate) which is also a NSC. Starch is only part of the NSC, I suggest you call the number on the bag and ask them for the total NSC, Starch and WSC.
So when you read a feed bag that says Low NSC or Low Starch they are correct, it is much lower than the NSC in a usual grain product. For Example an Oat/Corn/Barley grain could be as high as 60 % or higher. So when they formulate these Low NSC and Low Starch grains at 17% they are much lower. BUT still way to high for Insulin Resistant horses!
So when you read a bag of feed that says Low Starch and Low NSC that does not mean it is low enough in NSC for your IR, laminitc or founder horse.
It is easier to find a low NSC hay pellet than a processed grain, because hay is lower in NSC than grain usually. We believe a horse’s diet should be forage and no grain unless it is needed to supplement a horse in need. Then using a natural product like oats.
If you have to feed a grain to your IR horse we suggest Standlee Pellets, Orchard or Timothy you can purchase at Tractor Supply the timothy pellets tested at 11.4% NSC by http://www.equi-analytical.com/
We also believe if you have one horse in the barn that is IR, laminitic or founder that taking away his grain at feeding time is not a good idea, feeding other horses and not him can cause a lot of stress, we would suggest feeding him the timothy or orchard pellets.