Benefits of Rice Bran Oil: How Does Rice Bran Oil Benefit My Horse?
Are you thinking about buying rice bran oil? That’s a great idea. Rice bran oil for horses is very energy-dense and contains many valuable nutrients, such as vitamin E, gamma-oryzanol, unsaturated fatty acids, and natural antioxidants. Antioxidants protect your horse from damage to its body’s cells caused by so-called free radicals. Free radicals are unwanted oxygen compounds that form in the body. Rice bran oil for horses therefore supports healthy blood flow as well as the condition of the coat, skin, and hooves.
Gamma-oryzanol is a plant-based fat found exclusively in rice bran oil. It supports your horse’s muscle development and enhances its willingness to perform. And vitamin E ensures optimal oxygen supply to the muscles. This also prevents muscle tension and helps your horse recover after a strenuous workout.
Since it provides protein-free energy, rice bran oil reduces the strain on your horse’s liver’s energy metabolism. The oil provides quick energy without taxing the metabolism with protein. Thus, rice bran oil is a valuable aid for horses in building muscle during training or during other challenging times, such as during the coat change. It can also be given to increase fertility in stallions and mares.
Rice bran oil—what exactly is it?
If you’re thinking of buying rice germ oil, you’ll surely want to know what it’s actually made of. First and foremost, rice germ oil is a pure, natural product. The raw material for rice bran oil is rice bran, which is rich in fat, protein, and vitamins. Rice bran is the brown husk of the rice grain, consisting of the pericarp, embryo, and seed coat—what remains after the rice is husked. Depending on the variety, rice contains between 17 and 30 percent oil. It is extracted either through refining processes or by cold-pressing. Cold-pressing preserves more of the valuable components, but the oil has a shorter shelf life as a result.
Refined oil is deacidified, degummed, bleached, and deodorized. After these processes, only one percent of the valuable gamma-oryzanol remains. The tocopherol content is also reduced to two-thirds. Phospholipids are no longer present at all in refined rice germ oil.
The appearance and odor of rice bran oil vary depending on the production method. Refined rice bran oil is golden yellow, clear, and odorless and tasteless. Virgin-pressed oil can range in color from yellowish to brownish, tends to be cloudy, and can have a rather distinctive odor.
Rice bran oil consists of 99.9% crude fat. It contains no crude protein, crude fiber, or crude ash. The average content of essential fatty acids is approximately 1.1 percent for omega-3 linolenic acid and approximately 34.1 percent for omega-6 linoleic acid. The saturated fatty acid content is 21 g per 100 g of oil; while the content of unsaturated fatty acids is 79 g per 100 g of oil. Monounsaturated fatty acids account for 41 g per 100 g of oil, and polyunsaturated fatty acids account for 38 g per 100 g of oil.
Effects of Rice Bran Oil on Horses
Rice bran oil acts as a kind of super-fuel in horse nutrition. It is particularly well-suited for horses with weak musculature, as well as for targeted muscle building during training. Especially for sport and high-performance horses with their high energy requirements, the energy-rich and easily digestible rice bran oil is an ideal dietary supplement. After all, a horse’s capacity to consume dry feed is limited to about three percent of its body weight: they simply cannot eat or digest any more, even if they needed more calories to meet their high energy requirements.
For young horses just starting training, rice germ oil for horses can also be a helpful dietary supplement for muscle building. After consulting with a veterinarian, rice bran oil can also be used for horses with metabolic disorders, such as PSSM, Cushing’s disease, or a tendency toward laminitis. For horses on an alternative diet due to grain intolerance, rice bran oil for horses can be a sensible option for meeting their energy needs.
Caution is advised for horses that are overweight or have equine metabolic syndrome: For these horses, rice bran oil should be fed only in very small amounts and only after consulting a veterinarian.
Rice Bran Oil for Horses: How Much and How Should I Feed It?
You’re probably wondering how much rice bran oil you should feed your horse. For the rice bran oil to be effective, the dosage should, of course, be tailored to your horse.
The rule of thumb is that
- an adult horse should receive about 25 ml of rice bran oil daily during muscle-building training.
- Foals, young horses, and small horses should receive 5 to 15 ml of rice bran oil per day.
- If your horse has increased needs—for example, due to particularly demanding training—you can double the dosage and divide it into two feedings.
Follow the dosage recommendations on the packaging.
You can easily add the rice bran oil as a feed supplement to your horse’s concentrated feed. If you start with small amounts and gradually increase the amount until you reach the desired dosage, you can observe whether your horse tolerates the oil well. If you add too much oil, your horse may no longer enjoy eating its feed as much. This is another reason why it’s better to proceed gradually.
Since oil has a high energy density, you must be sure to factor it into the overall energy balance of the feed ration. After all, 100 ml of rice bran oil contains a whopping 900 kcal! If you simply add it to your horse’s usual feed ration, there’s a risk that your horse will become overweight.
To benefit from the positive effects of rice bran oil as a feed supplement, you should give it to your horse for at least four to six weeks.
Is supplementing with oil unnatural?
If you value natural husbandry and feeding practices, you might wonder whether supplementing the diet with oil is unnatural. “After all, no one feeds oil to horses in the wild” is a common argument heard in the stable. So is oil in the horse’s trough really such a good idea? And: Can horses even digest oil?
First, it’s important to consider that the needs of ridden and driven horses differ from those of their natural lifestyle—which is why their nutritional requirements also change. Second, horses in the wild do in fact consume oils—specifically through the seeds of grasses and the fruits of shrubs. If horses are fed mainly hay that was mowed before flowering and/or graze on heavily grazed pastures, a deficiency in essential fatty acids can indeed occur. These fatty acids are vital. Horses’ bodies cannot produce them on their own, so they must be obtained through their diet. A deficiency in essential fatty acids can be quickly corrected with rice bran oil.
Other horse feeds also contain oil. Oats, for example, have an oil content of nearly 5 percent. In practical terms, this means that a horse consumes about 200 milliliters of oil when eating 4 kg of oats. Today, feed with a higher proportion of barley and corn is commonly used. Barley contains only half as much fat as oats. As a result, the carbohydrate content of the feed increases, while the oil content decreases compared to a diet based on oats. While carbohydrate- and protein-rich concentrates provide a lot of energy in small quantities, they can have undesirable side effects in high doses and disrupt the horse’s sensitive digestive system. When used in the recommended doses, rice germ oil does not place a strain on the digestive tract and is therefore, in many cases, a sensible addition to the feeding plan.
Don’t let yourself be misled if other horse owners argue that horses cannot digest oil because they don’t have a gallbladder. While the latter is true, horses still produce bile acids—specifically in their livers. There, they produce enough enzymes to break down the components of oils and incorporate them into their metabolism. An adult horse produces 3 kg of bile per 100 kg of body weight every day! This results in a considerable capacity for fat digestion. The fat-digesting enzyme lipase is also produced in the stomach and small intestine—primarily in the duodenum. Studies have shown that up to 15 percent of oils are pre-digested in a horse’s stomach. The upper limit for oil digestion per meal is about 75 to 100 ml. No more than 1 to 1.5 ml of oil per kilogram of body weight should be given per day.
The digestibility of oil for horses depends on its melting point. The lower the melting point, the better horses can digest it. Even though the term “melting point” sounds very scientific, it’s actually quite easy to identify oils with low melting points. The lower the melting point, the more liquid the oil is at or below room temperature.
Nevertheless, there are naturally limits to a horse’s ability to digest oil in its diet, and these limits are more restrictive for horses than for animals with a gallbladder. However, if you follow the recommended dosages, you won’t exceed them. Start with small amounts of oil and increase them slowly—this way, you can see how it affects your horse and whether it can digest the oil well.
Is feeding rice bran oil actually considered doping?
Studies show that feeding rice bran oil has benefits for horses’ performance. But don’t worry: rice bran oil is still ADMR-compliant. This means it meets the requirements of anti-doping and medication control regulations. So you can safely give your horse rice bran oil even before competitions. However, observe a 48-hour withdrawal period before the competition—this is in line with general recommendations. Stop giving the rice bran oil two days before the competition, and you’ll be on the safe side.
Are there other uses for rice bran oil?
In fact, rice bran oil offers additional benefits beyond boosting performance and building muscle, as well as improving coat, skin, and hoof condition through internal use. Due to its high content of vitamin E and linoleic acid, rice bran oil is also excellent for topical application on a horse’s skin. If your horse has dry, itchy, or inflamed skin, rice bran oil moisturizes, nourishes, and supports healing.
Do you have an active dog that accompanies you and your horse on long rides, for example? Great! You can also benefit your dog with rice bran oil! Of course, you’ll need to use a much smaller dose for your dog—depending on its size, weight, and activity level.
Rice bran oil is a high-quality natural product and is therefore also suitable for humans. Refined rice bran oil is heat-resistant and odorless, making it ideal for cooking. In Asian cuisine, rice bran oil is commonly used for sautéing vegetables, meat, and fish. If you’d like to buy rice bran oil, you’ll find it in the grocery section of well-stocked supermarkets—though at significantly higher prices than at equine supply stores.
In cosmetics, rice bran oil is recommended for dry and chapped skin; it can also be effective against eczema. The oil absorbs quickly and leaves no greasy film on the skin. In Japan, rice bran oil has long been considered a beauty product.
However, if you plan to buy the less expensive rice bran oils marketed for horses, you shouldn’t necessarily use them as food for humans or for cosmetic purposes, as they undergo less rigorous testing than oils intended for human consumption or cosmetics.
Rice bran oil for horses—how much should I buy?
If you’re planning to buy rice bran oil, you should first consider which size is best for you. Rice bran oil is available in 1-liter or 5-liter containers. The larger containers work out to be cheaper per single dose, so buying a larger quantity might be worth it. Keep in mind, however, that the oil gradually loses quality once opened. It has a shelf life of about twelve months after first opening. Therefore, consider how much rice bran oil for horses you’ll need per day—depending on the size of your horse or, if applicable, the number of horses you plan to feed. Then you can calculate how long the container will last before the oil is completely used up. For example, if you want to give your pony 15 ml of oil per day, a 5-liter container would last pretty much exactly one year. This rough estimate is the best way to determine how much rice bran oil you should buy.
It’s best to store rice bran oil in a dry, dark, and cool place. Light, oxygen, and radiation—such as sunlight—cause the oil to spoil. Oxidation is indicated by a rancid odor—though this usually doesn’t occur until the oil is in a very advanced stage of spoilage. Under no circumstances should spoiled oils be fed to horses: At that point, they no longer offer any health benefits and may actually be linked to the development of inflammation, cancer, and other diseases.
Horseandmore specializes in natural feed and herbs. Just stop by our shop and see for yourself. If you have questions about feed and herbs for horses or would like to purchase rice bran oil directly, we’re happy to help.
Your Horseandmore Team
