horse chewing lucerne fast or slow

Question
QUESTION: hello ma'am, do horses take longer time to chew lucerne(alfalfa) when compared to grains? if yes, may i know why? is lucerne rich in sugar content? at our thoroughbred racetrack, club made a rule to feed 3kg lucerne per day per horse. is it a correct ratio?

ANSWER: Hi Rohit,

Thank you for your question.  Horses do take longer to chew forages than grains...as there is more structure to break down...although pelleted lucerne or alfalfa may not take much longer to chew than grain.  I can't say if feeding 3kg of lucerne is ideal for the racehorses without knowing what is in the rest of the diet.  I could make a better judgement call knowing the full diet.

Thanks, Corlena

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello ma'am, these are the feeding rules to be followed by all the trainers licensed at our local thoroughbred racetrack.

daily feeding(mandatory):

carrot - 1kg/day
lucerne - 3kg/day
dry grass(kancha breed hay) - 5kg/day
barley - 0.5kg/day
australian oats - 5kg/day
bran - 1kg/day

timings: between 9am and 9:20am in the morning after exercise and in the evening around 6pm. horses are fed only 2 times a day

so, tell me ma'am, is the club following correct rules. is 1kg carrot too rich in sugar content? is 3kg lucerne too much for horse per day? can you explain me in detail?

Answer
Hi Rohit,

Thank you for the follow up...very interesting.  The 3kg of lucerne is a nice addition to the diet, because without it the ration would be too high in concentrate and too low in forage to be safe.  As it stands, the lucerne and grass hay (forages) make up 51.6% of the diet.

I've never seen carrots used as a staple in a horse diet but in reality, 1kg of carrots are only bringing about 50grams of sugar to the diet.  That's equivalent to 5 teaspoons of sugar...which won't have much impact on a 500kg horse.  I would be more concerned with the amount of starch that the 5kg of oats and 1kg of barley bring to the diet.  Remember that sugar and starch are all converted by the horses body to glucose...so they end up being the same for the horse.  Oats contain between 45-69% starch (bringing 2.25-3.45kg starch/day to the diet) and barley is 55-74% starch (bringing 0.6-0.75kg starch/day to the diet).  These cereal grains bring far more glucose to the diet than the carrots ever will.  There is a lot of starch in these diets, although they are not a lot unlike the starch rich diets of North American racehorses.  I realize that your rations are regulated by the track, but it would be wise for them to consider substituting some of the starch feeds for fat-rich feeds...just a thought.

Thanks, Corlena