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The question of whether grain for horses should be fed whole or processed has been an issue for horse owners for at least 100 years. Because horse owners readily observe oat hulls in the manure of horses fed whole oats, they may believe that horses digest processed grain better than whole grain. However, this observation is not a good indication of grain digestibility. When the grain is processed, there is still undigested material in the manure, but it is just not as easy to identify.

Processed grain, for most horsemen, means grain that has been dry rolled, crimped, steam rolled, or steam flaked. The reason grain is processed is to alter the physical form of the grain to improve the availability of nutrients. With processes such as rolling or crimping, the particle size is changed, thereby increasing the surface area to allow for greater exposure of the feedstuff to digestive enzymes. When the process includes heat, the starch in the grain is gelatinized and this may increase starch digestion.

Early in the last century, many horses were used for agricultural work and transportation, and research on feeding was directed toward increased productivity as it related to these horses. Researchers in the early 1900s who evaluated rolled grain versus whole grain reported improvements in growth performance of horses fed rolled grain. Results of one study1 suggested a 5-6% improvement with working horses fed crushed oats. In the study, horses on crushed oat diets were fed at 95% of the grain intake of the whole grain fed horses, yet still had better weight gains, and were observed to be in better condition. In another study2, horses had 24% faster gains on 21% less feed with draft horses fed crushed versus whole grain. These results provided the foundation of the recommendation that rolling or crushing oats will result in a 5-7% improvement while processing hard grains such as barley and wheat will result in even greater improvement.

These early reports suggest that processing grain will result in faster growth and better utilization of the processed grain. However, draft horse use has almost entirely been replaced by the use of lighter breeds of horses for racing and pleasure riding. Though many commercial feeds include processed grains, examinations of growth performance and nutrient digestibility suggest that processing of grains fed to horses may or may not result in a large enough improvement to justify the cost of processing, at least for healthy horses with functional teeth.

1Morrison, F.B., J.G. Fuller, and G. Bohstedt. 1919. Crushed versus whole oats for work horses. Wis. Agric. Expl Stn. Bull. 302, p. 63.
2Caine, A.B. 1931. Rolled vs whole oats as a feed for draft colts. In: Proceedings of the American Society of Animal Production 31:200. 

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