A New Low Starch Feed Has Come to the DC Area: Introducing CoolStance

A Disastrous Show

At the beginning of my show season this spring I suffered the humiliation of getting a 50% score in dressage. Though capable of much better, my home-bred gelding was spooking and acting up so badly that the judge couldn’t see any movement worth awarding higher points to.

The Search for a Calming Feed

While conducting extensive internet research, I discovered an Australian product made by Stance Equine called CoolStance which said it was “packed with ‘cool’ energy from coconut oil and fibre from copra meal.” Copra meal is the white part of the coconut.

Paul Christy, the representative for Stance Equine in Pennsylvania, (see below for details) drove down in May to Maryland with two free bags for me to try.

I haven’t given my horse any other feed since.

The Big Difference

This summer, for the first time in seven years, I competed my gelding at shows without any calming supplements. Our scores were in the high 60s and we even got a couple of 70s when performing the very same test that we’d embarrassed ourselves with in the spring!

CoolStance Has Come to Maryland

As of this week, CoolStance is now available in Maryland (see below for details). It is one of many low Non Structural Carbohydrates (NSC) feeds available today and has a high fat content.

How do low starch and high fat help horses (and their owners)?

Benefits of Low Starch

Many behavioral and metabolic disorders in horses result from feeding them too much sugar and starch (Non Structural Carbohydrates or NSC). Tying up, laminitis, colic and excitable behavior are examples.

Too much NSC – over 12% for horses not working enough to warrant a higher percentage - is thought to increase blood glucose levels, which over time causes insulin resistance, especially in obese equines.

GoStance has been developed for hard working performance horses, and contains an NSC level of 23%.

Benefits of High Fat

Fat is an Efficient Energy Source:

Fat produces 2.25 times more energy than starch or protein, resulting in less feed intake being required. It is also highly digestible, and horses on supplemental fats have a greater capacity for high intensity work.

An added bonus, according to Dr. Robert A. Mowrey, Extension Horse Husbandry Specialist is that “adding fat to a horse’s diet permits safe weight gain while reducing the chance of colic or founder.”

Writes Amanda Carney of the Stance Equine Media Room: “Horses exhibit a preference for vegetable oils over animal fats,” and “readily accept oil-supplemented rations, provided that the oil is of high quality, not rancid.”

Horses can take between three and four weeks to adapt to their new oil-supplemented diet.

Benefits of Fat to Horses in Hot Climates:

Dr. Mowrey states: “Digestion of fat yields less body heat when compared to high carbohydrate or protein diets.”

Ms. Carey adds that “fat metabolism yields almost twice the water of protein and carbohydrate metabolism (Kohnke 1998). This may benefit horses that sweat profusely.”

The inference being that high fat in the diet can reduce heat stress in horses living and performing in hot climates.

Fat is ‘Cool’:

Ms. Carney states that by reducing the horse’s starch overload and replacing his energy needs with fat, the latter “can provide a ‘cool’ source of energy, which is of consequence for performance horses that have a tendency to be excitable.”

Benefits of Coconut Oil as a Source of Fat:

The lauric acid in CoolStance’s coconut oil has ‘antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal and antiprotozoal actions’ according to research performed by Ms. Carney.

She states that coconut oil is a medium chain triglyceride (MCT) and therefore absorbed intact by the horse. It is ‘readily oxidized, and can thus provide a source of ready energy.’

Coconut oil does not become rancid, and therefore stores well.

There are many low starch feeds available for horses but CoolStance is the one which I have used and can highly recommend. My horse has changed from a spooky, disobedient animal into a manageable horse with a good disposition, and we are finally enjoying each other’s company.

P.S. This is a voluntary endorsement of CoolStance, based purely on my personal experience with the product, and I am not being paid by Stance Equine to write it. I promise you - not one red cent!

Where to Find CoolStance:

R & D Cross

15610 Marlboro Pike, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

Tel: (301) 627-4411

Stance Equine Representative:

Paul Christy

Malvern, Pennsylvania 19355

Ph: (610) 247 7584

Mobile: (610) 247 7584

Email: paul@stanceglobal.com

Resources & Information:

Hi gh Fat Diets for Horses by Dr. Robert Mowrey