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Location: Willows, CA | Omega 3 to 6 ratios are more than a little vague in horse nutrition. There has been very little real clinical research done directly on horses. Most is translated over from human nutrition. What has been done in horses relates mostly to allergy rather than to inflammation as most people think. I do feel that Omega 3s have significant value in horses, and that time and research will prove out that they have value as anti-inflammatory agents. You must remember that Omega 6's are vital also, and that inflammation encouraged by 6's is insignificant as long as the ratios are not wildly out of balance, and feed rates are low. This is not the case in most conventional grain based feeds, even when flax is added due to the higher feeding rates. In theory, an ideal ratio in the entire diet would be to have Omega 3s higher than Omega 6s. In nature this typically does not ever happen in a natural horse diet, as there is very little Omega 3 in forage, the primary natural food source that horses evolved to eat. We add food grade stabilized non-gmo flax to Renew Gold to move the 6 to 3 ratio into what we consider an acceptable level. Then feed such a low feeding rate that the Omega 6 contribution from one pound of Renew Gold is quite literally insignificant when considering the entire diet. There is a point where there is no more room for additional flax in the formulation ratio of the product. In other words, we gain more in total with the formulation as is, than we would if we took up more room for flax to just to move the ratio a little more. As to inflammation, that is addressed quite well by the medium chain fatty acids that make up the oil fraction of the coconut meal used. Omega 3's are beneficial, and worth considering if you are loading your horse up on Omega 6's by feeding grain based feeds at four or more pounds per day. If you are doing that, it would take a lot of flax to balance the entire ration. |
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