DAN: "Is there any benefit to feeding horses flax seeds
or chia seeds in their grain?
If so, how much should you feed?"
And I know this is one of your favorite topics.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I'm surprised it's
taken this long to sort of float to the top.
So the short answer is yes.
Next question.
So benefits to feeding horses flax seeds or chia seeds.
Yes.
And the benefits could be just maybe
you want to provide more omega 3s period, because they're not
on grass.
Or they're on a high grain diet, and you're trying to rebalance.
Like they're getting too many omega 6s,
and you want to bring that balance.
Shift it back to a higher 3 to 6.
DAN: So for some people at home who
aren't super familiar with omega 3s and omega 6s.
What's the difference between the two of them?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Without getting into regulatory jail?
DAN: Yes.
I like to put you on the spot like that.
Sorry.
DR LYDIA GRAY: You need both.
DAN: OK.
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK.
And we don't know for horses what
the exact correct ratio is.
We think it's about three parts omega 3 to one part
omega 6 because that's what grass is.
DAN: OK.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Being the natural food,
we're like that makes sense.
DAN: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The problem is, in today's modern system
of horse keeping when we feed high grain diets that are more
skewed 6 to 3, or they don't get fresh grass,
their ratio is off.
And because 6 tends to form the precursors
of inflammatory pathways, we think
horses might be in a chronic state of inflammation
because their 3 to 6 balance is shifted.
DAN: Got it.
So this could help balance it out if they aren't on pasture
and are getting grain.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yep, and take them back out
of that chronic state of inflammation.
DAN: Perfect!
DR LYDIA GRAY: Other reasons you might
add it is you might want to add calories to the horse,
because it's fat.
Flax is about 40% fat.
Chia not as much.
Maybe 30% fat, but still significant.
Right?
They have significant levels of protein.
They have some minerals and vitamins.
They both provide mucilage.
We'll get into it in a minute.
If you soak or cook flax--
have you ever done that?
It turns into a gooey, sticky mess in your container,
and your spoon will never be the same again.
You'll be like, why did I do that?
But that's the mucilage in it.
And then some people just want to support cellular health
and provide omega 3 fatty acids within the cells.
It's a wellness idea.
All right.
So flax seeds, the biggest question I get asked
is how to feed them.
I don't think she asked that.
She said how much.
We'll get to that in a minute.
But it's how, so you can feed them just whole.
You can feed them ground.
You can feed them fresh ground.
Like it's feeding time, grind them and feed them.
You can buy pre ground and stabilized
so they don't go rancid.
DAN: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK.
And then you can soak them, say overnight,
or you can even cook, boil them.
DAN: Wow, this is quite the prep work.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I know.
Well you mentioned earlier about a cookbook.
DAN: You're doing a cooking show, for sure.
Next episode.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The reason we tend not to feed them whole
is because flax seeds have a very hard outer shell
or coating.
And it's difficult for the horses.
If they don't chew them and break it,
then their enzymes in their digestive tract
can't really open it up either.
And then, it just passes out completely unused,
and they didn't have access to the nutrients in there.
So they didn't get the omega 3s.
So that's why we grind them.
At my barn, we have a coffee grinder.
DAN: Oh!
That's a smart idea.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So we have a container of flax.
And then at every feed meal time,
we just get out everyone's serving,
grind it, pour it in a thing, feed it.
So it happens right then.
So the omega 3s don't have a chance
to interact with the air and sunlight.
DAN: I love that.
That's a great idea.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
And then when they're out in pasture
and they hear the coffee grinder, they all come running.
So if you want any of our horses,
you just put some flax in the coffee grinder and press it.
And then they come running.
DAN: Whatever works.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
But if you don't want to do that,
then you can buy some pre-ground stabilized.
That's easy.
You can soak to soften it, but that's a little bit of a pain.
And you don't need to cook or boil them.
I like the grinding.
I think that releases the nutrients,
and it penetrates that hard shell.
And then she wanted to know how much.
So it does depend on why you're feeding them
and what else your horse is getting
and conditions your horse might have.
There was a study in the 90s, I think, about horses
with sweet itch.
And they fed them a pound of flax seed to see if it changed.
DAN: A pound a day?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
And notice again, we're not talking about volume,
like a half a cup, or cup, or a quart, or a scoop,
or whatever unit you want to use.
We're talking about weight.
So the weight that you'll see is you
can feed two ounces, four ounces, eight ounces, which
is half a pound.
16 ounces, a pound.
But it all depends on why you're feeding it.
And again I would say, if you were just
starting to feed flax seed or chia seed-- which by the way,
you don't have to grind or soak or boil.
DAN: Chia, you don't?
DR LYDIA GRAY: No, because it's very small,
and there's no hard shell.
They get all the nutrients.
But if you're adding either of these to your horse's diet,
you want to do it gradually.
So don't start with eight ounces or 16 ounces.
Start with one to two for a week, and then
gradually increase it until you get to the amount
that you want.
DAN: Everything very slowly with horses.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
They don't like to be surprised.
Trust me.
DAN: I love that.
So I know we do also sell other flax products.
We have our Smart & Simple Flax, which
comes in a powder, which makes it super easy to feed as well.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Pre-ground stabilized, yeah.
DAN: Take a little bit of the work out of it for you as well.
There's lots of options on the market, as well.
DR LYDIA GRAY: That one, you mean?
DAN: That was the one!
Yes!
Convenient that was there.