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  Discussion on Anyone heard of LinGro --Supplement for warmblood & ocd candidates
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Member:
leslie1

Posted on Sunday, Apr 15, 2007 - 7:41 pm:

Hi
Has anyone used or heard of LinGro? Specifically formulated for warmbloods and OCD candidates?
www.foxdenequine.com/lingro has the ingredient/analysis.
Supposed to have something to do with glycemic diet research at kentucky equine research university.
im very curious.
leslie
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Apr 16, 2007 - 7:10 am:

The idea that there is scientific support for supplementing a few ounces of this product in a growing horse's feed is going to impact the incidence of OCD is not true. See our article on OCD for a more complete story and suggestions.
DrO
Member:
kamibroo

Posted on Monday, Apr 16, 2007 - 7:02 pm:

I personally feed plain whole flax seed because I think the milling process takes some of the 'good' out of it.

You should compare the nutritional analysis of the product against basic whole flax seed. My guess is that the bulk of this product is actually whole flax seed (as stated as the first ingredient and by looking at their picture of the bag).

Whole flax seed runs me $25/50 pound bag, so $0.50/pound (as opposed to their $5.50/pound ).

I personally hate anything with Vit A or Vit D added because it is in EVERYTHING commercial. It must be a cheap way for them to add a couple more lines to their nutritional analysis. But it becomes a problem if you don't want to overdose on them (read the vitamins section of this site about fat soluable vitamins).

I mix my stuff on a daily basis in individual baggies for each horse so I know each horse gets only what its supposed to get. The powders definitely settle out from the seed. It would be interesting to see how they keep their additives (protiens, vitamins) from settling out separate from the flax seed.

Kami
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Apr 16, 2007 - 10:19 pm:

USHO,
If you have the time would you post the analysis is and what specifically are you using the product for?
DrO
Member:
kamibroo

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 17, 2007 - 1:23 am:

Here is the nutritional profile that I give the most weight to because the site "World's Healthiest Foods" is not trying to sell any products.

Here is their discussion of flax (including references to the most significant studies involving human use): https://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=81

Here is their direct link to the detailed nutritional profile: https://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=57

Here is another site that provides a pretty detailed nutritional profile of some basic grains. This is a site that sells organic seeds for sprouting. When normalized for weight, it is close the profile provided at World's Healthiest Foods. https://waltonfeed.com/self/ntr3.html I don't actually use these figures, but it is another source and because it is for a larger 'portion size', you’ll notice some things (like A) appear with values that would be (legally) left out of the smaller portion size at World’s Healthiest Foods.

I started using flax seeds because I had a mare with sweet itch and was desperate for anything that would provide any level of relief for her. It did (as judged by the reduction of how much of her body was rubbed raw). Then another foundered mare w/sweet itch came in. She also seemed to get some relief and also seemed to move better (arthritis wise). So I started giving it to the older (20+) horses as well. All of this was not extremely scientific, I had a feed guy that made sure the basics were balanced and the amount given wasn't large enough to unbalance them.

Then a filly came in at about 7mo from a VERY bad nutrition background (diet consisted of bad/cheap hay + plain oats). She was toed out, had lax tendons and many more challenges. She is the first time I started looking at nutritional deficiencies. But from seeing (a) what I thought were the results of poor nutrition of her dam and (b) the impact of providing the missing nutrition, I became more interested in the topic.

So for about 5 years, I’ve used flax in a casual manner based on the horse in front of me.

Recently, I got the opportunity to own a racing thoroughbred. As a stalled horse, his diet is completely controlled. The trainer told me what she feeds and so I set to work finding out what he needs and comparing that to what he was getting. The two didn’t match very well and the trainer agreed to let me play around with his feeding program. Now there are four total horses on programs driven by me and I pray for their health every day, since I am just learning.

The base of my feeding program for the racing TBs is high quality forage and a complete feed that is beet pulp based (the horses seem sensitive to starches/oats) and 10% fat. Flax is actually a minor element (1.67% of total fed weight and 0.03% of calories fed). Flax seed is nothing new to the racing world, so I’m not blazing any new trails with it.

I wanted it for the plant based omega-3 and hoping for the anti-inflamatory, immune system and bone health benifits.

Many say to grind flax seed. I feed whole flax seeds and can say for certain that they don’t make it through the digestive system of these four horses in tact. I have looked and even taken samples to water down and sift for solids. I have yet to find anything remotely resembling a whole seed. The horse may get reduced benefit, but the seed does not survive the digestive tract.

So that (and the fact that I like it on my oatmeal) is my history with flax seed.

Sorry so long
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 17, 2007 - 9:03 am:

One important difference in human and horse nutrition is we have not been able to demonstrate a need for what is humans essential fatty acids. In one experiment horses deprived of essential fatty acids for very long periods do not develop the same health problems as other species do.

There do seem to be some horses that respond to flax for sweet itch but the number is similar to those not treated (about 25% of the cases spontaneously improve from year to year) so this is hard to judge. Certainly your basic diet seems reasonable, what protein percentage (or amount) are you shooting for?

We do have articles on all these points and if you are interested doing a search should turn them up.
DrO
Member:
kamibroo

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 17, 2007 - 11:59 am:

I have read all of your site and many more. The difference between horses and humans and the lack of research is why I said "hoping".

In the racing TBs
Total protein is 13%. I'm working on getting that down to 12%. Their urine doesn't seem any stronger than other horses at this point. They are in the 'getting fit' stage of training right now and the trainer says they're putting on very good muscles.

Total fat is 3.1%

Ca:P is 1.8:1 (0.52% : 0.29%)

Forages 81% / Concentrates 19% of total diet. They get free choice timothy for most of the time.

They get a loose mineral that is balanced for grass hay and a white salt block in a tub separate from their feed. They seem to go through a lot of salt and minerals. The minerals are not flavored in any way.

The first couple days, I wasn't too concerned because none of them had minerals for quite a while. But after a week we started limiting their amount to the max daily recommended on the bag (4 oz). I'm still trying to figure out what they're missing to be going through so much minerals.

They go through around 15 gal of water a day. The trainer is very happy with their water intake. I was concerned about the high protien, but at this point I think it is more to do with the minerals/salt. (To compare, other horses w/o minerals on prob 10% total protien in similar training go through 10 gal / day).

Total calories are estimated at @32,000/day

Kami
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