How to get the most out of the protein in your hay

We all want the best hay for our horses, but sometimes good hay isn’t available and we buy what we can get. At times, we are disappointed that the hay is fairly low in protein. Trying to source affordable   protein, such as whey protein or pea protein, is difficult. Many of us are also concerned with the sugar content of the added protein.

One of the more affordable ways to get the most out of the protein in your hay is to add the limiting amino acids to the horse’s nightly bucket. How can this help the protein level available?

The limiting amino acids are those that are in the shortest supply compared to how often they are used. Imagine stringing beads on a necklace. You have four colors, red, blue, green and yellow. You have 5 red beads, 5 blue beads, 5 green beads, but only 2 yellow beads. If you try to string them on the necklace in order, you find that you can only do two of the sequence, then you’re out of yellow beads. You still have left over red, blue, and green beads, but they aren’t used because the sequence isn’t right. In this case, if you provide extra yellow beads, you can get the whole sequence.

Which are the important amino acids to add? Lysine, Methionine, and Threonine. My Best Horse offers these in a combo called Top 3 Aminos.

We also offer Top 4 Aminos. The extra amino acid is Leucine. This has been added because leucine is an important signaling molecule to maintain the muscle. It signals for muscle development, as well as to delay muscle breakdown.

Try it today. https://mybesthorse.com/products/top‐4‐aminos

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