Talk to me of BRAN MASHES

[UNCeventer]

Over 15 years ago, I was at a barn where they did bran mashes on sundays. The horses got maybe 1/2 of their normal grain and the other half I think was bran. I honestly dont remember how much bran each horse got. Then the barn abandoned the bran mashes because the vet told us that it actually did not do that much and of course the BO wanted to save on money. So, they gave it up. Since then, I have been at barns that either wet the feed down, or give the horses beet pulp to keep things flowing, etc. But no bran.

Now I work at a farm that does bran mashes on Sundays. What is weird is how they do it. Some of the horses are fat and usually only get about 1/4 scoop of pellets or maybe 1/4 of sweet feed. But, on bran mash day, we are supposed to fill a wheelbarrow with one scoop of sweet feed per horse. So if there are 14 horses we put 14 scoops of sweet feed in (even if they usually get pellets) and then we do 2 scoops of bran for each horse (so 28 scoops of bran). It then gets mixed all together in the wheel barrow and each horse gets a full mini bucket of the mush. Even the ones that are fat and usually get 1/4 scoop.

So please, give me your insight and rules about feeding bran mashes. How much bran vs. grain? Pros and cons of bran?

[Amwrider]

I think the barn is nuts, they are doubling or quadrupling the amount of grain andadding bran to that? That is nuts, do they know about EPSM?

Here is an article, it doesn't answer your questions specifically, but it has some good information about bran mashes in general. I don't feed them anymore.
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vsr/gastrolab/TOPICS.html

[Over the Hill]

For many years I prepared bran mashes twice a week for my horses.

I would use one measure of crimped oats for each horse, cooked to splitting, then added one measure of sweet feed per horse and one measure of wheat bran. I'd mix this up in a wheelbarrow and put in 5# of sliced carrots and 5# sliced apples, a goodly dollop of dark molasses. If the horses were on sand paddocks, I would add Metamucil, if the weather was about to change, I would add a gallon of mineral oil.

I would then divide this up between all the horses, according to their size.

My vet would often be there while I was preparing this feast and always proclaimed that when he died he wanted to come back as one of my horses.

My horses would all whinny and paw waiting for their turn to be fed, and to me, there was no better sound in the world than listening to all the slurps as they devoured their mashes, and to see the mash smeared all over their faces from licking every last drop out of the buckets.

My vet told me that they could have more of the mash than their regular grain ration because of the laxative effect of the bran.

[UNCeventer]

I agree, more bran than grain shouldnt hurt in theory. But in effect these horse's grain is being quadrupled and then a large amount of bran added ontop of that.


Amwrider- I agree that the barn is nuts. I have other posts on this forum regarding how backwards some of the thinking is. :(

[Amwrider]

Have they indicated their reasoning behind this, or is it "because we have always done it this way" for the answer?

[UNCeventer]

I meant to ask today. I will try to ask tomorrow. The girl who has been working there the longest comes up with the strangest reasons why we do things, so I sometimes only ask her questions to see what comes out of her @$$.

I bet you money its because they have always done it that way...there is something to be said for continuing education. Even with equine nutrition.

[deltawave]

There is about 5 times as much mythology about bran swirling around as there is actual fact. :lol:

It's a cereal like many others, with more nutrients than some, less than others, high in phosphorus relatively speaking and cheap and palatable. Beyond that, I don't think it's anything special. Don't believe it scours or abrades their intestines, don't believe it "draws water out of their system", don't believe it is the Antichrist, even. I wouldn't feed it to a horse with weight problems, I wouldn't feed it to a horse with a delicate tummy unless it was part of a daily and carefully balanced ration (in other words, chucking a big bran mash at them on Sunday is a nice tradition for Black Beauty, but has little basis in good, modern horse husbandry) and I wouldn't do it under the delusion that any horse "needs" it.

But like a bowl of ice cream or any other occasional treat, I don't think an occasional bran mash likely to be fatal, either. :) And bran in and of itself can work out very nicely in a daily ration, just like any other grain.

[Androcles]

That barn's routine does sound nuts.

FWIW I've heard that the actual 'laxative' effect of bran is due to feeding the horse something they're not used to eating normally, and any newly introduced feed would have the same effect. For horsemen who know and abide by introducing new foods slowly like gospel, it's odd how they overlook it at bran mash time.

[Cowgirl]

I boarded at a barn that did a Sunday bran mash: one bag of bran/one bag of sweetfeed, mixed in a wheelbarrow with alot of hot water. It was fed as an end of the week treat/laxative as the horses had Mondays off.

For the last four years, I've been feeding a Sunday bran mash at our barn. We use a 3 to 1 ratio of bran to Quaker oats, a handful of salt, six sliced bananas, a half jar of molasses and hot water. The horses LOVE it, especially in the winter (the barn has open run doors 24/7), and I believe the salt helps keep them drinking. They know exactly when it's Sunday too.

So far, we haven't had any colics (four horses) or other issues and we have happy, messy horses on Monday morning.

[saultgirl]

FWIW I've heard that the actual 'laxative' effect of bran is due to feeding the horse something they're not used to eating normally, and any newly introduced feed would have the same effect. For horsemen who know and abide by introducing new foods slowly like gospel, it's odd how they overlook it at bran mash time.

Yup. Bran is only a laxative for people because people have low fibre diets.

We used to do bran mashes once a week many years ago, but that has died out around here.

I knew one lady who fed bran as part of the horse's daily ration: a huge bucket of dry bran and some sweetfeed. I'm not sure if that's effective for putting weight on -- since the horse impacted and died within a few months.

[Equino]

That barn's routine does sound nuts.

FWIW I've heard that the actual 'laxative' effect of bran is due to feeding the horse something they're not used to eating normally, and any newly introduced feed would have the same effect. For horsemen who know and abide by introducing new foods slowly like gospel, it's odd how they overlook it at bran mash time.

That's what my vet told me too, said giving a small bran mash as a treat wouldn't hurt, but too much, too often does more harm than good. I now use it to disguise medication in the picky eaters, and I'm talking 1 cup of bran mixed with regular grain.

That said-the last show farm I worked at mashed on Sundays and they would give a ratio of 1 bran, 1/2 grain per horse, 1/2 that for the ponies, which meant for the horses 4 qts bran, 2 qts sweet.

[aiken4horses]

I grew up at a barn that fed hot bran mashes on Sunday. I'd watch the old barn manager "cook" it up, cover with burlap sacks and help feed when I could.

Now that I have my own barn I do the same.
Maybe because it's tradition.
Maybe because it makes me feel good to do it.
Maybe because it's something special after a horse show.

I cut the grain in 1/2 and add the 1/2 back in bran, which is good for horses that wont be working on Monday - less "hot" feed.
Lots of diced apples, some molasses, hot water. Cover and then feed.

Have you ever seen a horse smile? Slurping mash all over the place. It's the best sound in the world!

[chaltagor]

I boarded at a barn that did a Sunday bran mash: one bag of bran/one bag of sweetfeed, mixed in a wheelbarrow with alot of hot water. It was fed as an end of the week treat/laxative as the horses had Mondays off.

Do horses that are fed well need laxatives?

[chancellor2]

I use bran mashes in Winter. I find that it is a good way to get water into a horse who doesn't like drinking cold water. I also heat up water in a coffee urn and fill half hot and half cold.

[JoZ]

Do horses that are fed well need laxatives?

I think it stems from horses having SUNDAY off, not Monday. And these were hard-working horses, true laborers, that may have felt the effects of standing around in their stall for a day, if they had gotten either no grain or their regular ration of oats or whatever their "working" feed was.

Monday-morning Disease (azoturia, or "tying up") was thought to result from too much hot feed on Sunday, the horse's day off. So switching to a less-hot feed that also had laxative effects was thought to help clean the horses out and keep their systems running right.

I used to make a bran mash on Sunday for my retired horse, but that was purely for his and my enjoyment, since he was doing no work whatsoever at that point! But it sure was fun to do, and smelled WONDERFUL!

[FindersKeepers]

The boarding barn I ride out of, as well as the little private barn I keep my mare at, both do bran mashes on Sundays. Mostly out of tradition and as a treat for the horses. We started doing it for the horses coming home Sunday night from horse shows, to ensure they got some extra water and electrolytes.

We mix bran, with a little sweet feed. 3:1, and then add some carrots and apples. Not a ton,each horse probably gets half a carrot and half an apple. The ones that have been competing, get added electrolytes to their mash as well.

The horses also get bran mash proportionate to their size and metabolism,they don't all get the same amount.

[tpup]

Excuse the "blonde" question ;) and no offense to blondes, as I am one! But...I always thought "bran mash" meant RICE bran. Do you mean "bran" as in laxative-like grain like All Bran?? I really always thought it was rice bran pellets!

[deltawave]

Traditionally a bran mash is made with wheat bran. :) It is no more "laxative" than any other fiber-rich substance, as several posters have pointed out. The reason "whole bran" has a laxative effects in humans is because most humans are deficient in fiber (hence their need for laxatives!) and the occasional laxative effect on horses (I've never had one get loose stools from a bran mash, but I rarely feed them, so . . .) probably has more to do with the extra fluid and/or the fact that it's commonly given as a one-off, different meal, which many horses don't tolerate all that well.

Humans are odd--we are bowel-obsessed and convinced that 'most every living thing is in need of a laxative or a better-than-average BM now and then. :lol: