feeding only bran - preparing for journey

Question
hello ma'am, why to break the condition of a horse while taking it out of station. a racehorse trainer told me that he would feed only wheat bran to the horse while traveling from the day before the start of the journey. he also told me that horse should be unshod  on all 4 legs. is he correct?

lets suppose, if we are taking a horse out of station tomorrow, i would feed only bran today in the morning as well as evening.

please explain me in detail ma'am!!

Answer
Hello Rohit,

Thank you for your question. What you are describing sounds more like personal management decisions than any fast and steady rule of feeding horses.  The only support I can show for the statement is that the rate of passage of grain fed to a horse that becomes agitated from shipping can increase, and in doing so can cause undigested cereal grains to end up in the horse's cecum.  Undigested grain in the hindgut can cause undesirable bacterial fermentation that creates volumes of gas and colic can ensue.  So it may be useful to cut back on feeding grain prior to trailering, but feeding large amounts of wheat bran will be of little benefit.  Having said that, there are a lot of people who swear by feeding bran to their horses...but I'm not one of them.

I hope that helps.

Thanks, Corlena