Sweets Make Young Horses Harder To Train, Study Finds

Young horses may be easier to train if they temporarily lay off the sweets, says a Montana State University study where two-year-olds wore pedometers, wrist watches and Ace bandages.

A commercial mixture of corn, oats, barley and molasses — sometimes called “sweet grain” or “sweet feed” — gives horses the glossy coat and lively spirit that makes them attractive to prospective buyers, said Jan Bowman, an animal nutritionist at MSU.

But the extra energy provided by sweet grain during the early stages of training made the horses in MSU’s study more disobedient and fearful than horses that only ate hay, Bowman said. The grain-eaters spent more time resisting the saddle. They startled easier. They bucked and ran more during training.

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Young humans are harder to train when they’re hyped up on sugar, too.  I wonder if feeding the horses sweet grain makes them energetic and less focused in the same way feeding five-year-olds candy makes them energetic and easily distracted.

-MJ, aka Kitty Mowmow

Tagged as: Animal Nutrition, Animals, Barley, Corn, Horses, Molasses, Montana, Montana State University, Nutrition, Oats, Sweet Feed, Sweet Grain