Horse feed should contain wholesome ingredients, however, if you start to
read the labels you will find mostly byproducts rather than grain.
Byproducts can be good, as is the case with beet pulp, which is a good horse
feed that comes from the sugar making industry. But others are not as good.
Each month or so, I will add another more information about the ingredients
you see on the labels today and what the risks are with feeding them.

We will begin with molasses.

Molasses
Good organic Blackstrap molasses from your kitchen contains vitamins and
minerals and can be relatively healthy sweetener. Feed-grade molasses
contains at least 65% sucrose (sugar) and is preserved with mold inhibitors,
color preservatives, flowability chemicals and anti freeze. There are at
least 9 chemicals that can legally be put into the molasses without anything
being written on the label for you to see what is added.
Molasses is added mostly to bind the feed together and make it smell nice to
the humans feeding it. It will cover up the dust that is not cleaned from
the grain, or is added when other byproducts are used. Horses also love the
taste as we love our chocolate and donuts. It has as much nutrition as our
donuts also, and should not be fed at each meal. Sugar contributes to
insulin resistance - the condition called Cushing's syndrome in horses,
obesity, hyperactivity, and poor immune system function. All good reasons
not to feed grain sweetened with molasses.
If you need to add something to your horse's grain try unsweetened
applesauce, organic blackstrap molasses or local honey mixed with water to
decrease the amount of sugar being added. Just use a little for flavor.

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