What is a prebiotic?
A prebiotic is an ingredient that promotes the health and growth of microorganisms already living in your horse’s digestive tract.
Prebiotics consist of various naturally occurring lactic acid-producing bacteria that encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria already present in the horse’s small intestine, therefore, improving your horse’s overall health and digestion.
The benefits of feeding a prebiotic to your horse
For people and companion animals, small intakes of prebiotics are reported to have a positive effect.
Giving your horse a prebiotic can be beneficial if your horse is resting after illness or their digestive system has been exposed to high levels of stress which can occur if they have changed their routine or if they are at a competition. They can protect against gastric problems, boost the immune system and promote efficient digestion. Fibre is one of the most important components in the horse’s diet, yet they cannot digest it in their small intestine. They depend on microbial fermentation (billions of bacteria that live in their hindgut to digest the fibre by fermentation). They are more likely able to convert this into useful nutrients if the fibre is highly fermentable
Speedi-Beet has been proven by University of Glasgow to be up to 25% more digestible than other fibres such as hay and lucerne, meaning the horse can absorb more fibre and nutrients from the feed when compared to other fibres.
Why is Speedi-Beet easier for the horse digest?
- Beet pulp is rich in pectin – Pectin is a soluble fibre which acts as a prebiotic (food for the bacteria) which encourages fermentation
- Speedi-Beet is micronized (a cooking process which involves infrared) it disrupts the cell walls, increasing the surface area, leading to increased fermentation
How do we know Speedi-Beet acts as a prebiotic?
University of Glasgow conducted work on behalf of British Horse Feeds to measure the rate of fermentation of fibre sources. As you can see from the graph above, the results showed that, gas production when fed Speedi-Beet is higher than that of hay. Not only that, when Speedi-Beet was fed alongside hay the gas production was higher than that of hay fed alone.
So what does this mean? This indicates that beet pulp is acting as a prebiotic due to higher gas production (increased rates of fermentation), meaning the horse can digest up to 25% more than other fibres including hay.
Using the best quality our highly nutritious, quick soaking Speedi-Beet is 95% sugar free. Speedi-Beet is a soaked fibre mash which expand when soaked to five times its volume too so can give a cost effective and nutritious meal every time. It is high in digestible fibre and proven to be a super fibre and also low in starch and sugar. Additional water can also be added to these feeds beyond the minimum amount stated, to encourage more water intake.
What do our customers say?
Hannah Irons (equestrian coach) feeds her pony Blue Speedi-Beet and said, “I absolutely love Speedi-Beet, I find it extremely versatile and have used it with many different horses over the years. I currently feed it to my Welsh Section A, named Blue. He was diagnosed with EMS a few years ago and is very prone to Laminitis. We had to medicate him initially but now manage him with diet and exercise, Speedi-Beet is a key part to his diet. Because Blue must be kept on a restricted diet, we found that he was always hungry and would gorge his food (regardless of any slow feeding methods, special hay nets etc used) leaving him hungry and angry – I was recommended to add Speedi-Beet, as the bulk so that the water content would help to fill him up. Now he has a scoop before his hay or mixed with his balancer, and it has made an enormous difference. He no longer runs out of hay in an hour and will still have a bit left at the bottom of his net.
I now recommend Speedi-Beet to all my clients, especially those needing to be managed carefully for sugar intake. There is a common misconception that sugar beet is full of sugar and therefore not suitable. I would highly recommend giving British Horse Feeds a call for some advice.”
Speed-Beet RRP is £18.79 – £20.79 and one 20kg bag will give you 125 Stubbs scoops. If you would like further feeding advice, please contact our friendly and knowledgeable team on 01765 680300.
