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Four horses were randomly fed a diet containing rolled, micronised or extruded barley; the barley intake was adjusted to supply 2 g starch/kg bodyweight per day. During a 10-day acclimatisation period the horses were also fed 1 kg grass hay/100 kg bodyweight per day. Samples of blood and breath were collected at the end of each period after the test meal of barley had been fed after a 12-hour overnight fast. The glycaemic and insulinaemic responses of the horses were measured as an indication of the pre-caecal digestibility of starch, and postprandial breath hydrogen and methane were measured to detect microbial fermentation of starch. The highest peak serum glucose and serum insulin concentrations were observed after feeding the extruded barley, lower concentrations were observed after feeding the micronised barley and the lowest concentrations were observed after feeding the rolled barley. Breath hydrogen increased within four hours of feeding all the barley diets, and the mean (sd) peak hydrogen concentrations were 98.3 (55.2) ppm for rolled barley, 59.3 (31.5) ppm for micronised barley and 96.1 (51.9) ppm for extruded barley. There were wide variations within individual horses but these concentrations were not significantly different. Breath methane concentrations were very variable and, although there were no significant differences, there was a trend for higher methane concentrations after the feeding of rolled barley.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding oats alone before or after feeding chopped alfalfa or, in admixture with the alfalfa on the glycaemic and insulinaemic responses of horses as well as post-prandial breath hydrogen and methane excretion. Horses were fed in a randomized order, chopped alfalfa as a source of dietary fibre and unprocessed oats as a source of starch. Chopped alfalfa intake was adjusted to a crude fibre intake of 0.5 g/kg bodyweight (BW) per meal and the oats intake was adjusted to a starch intake of 2 g/kg BW per meal. The feeds were offered in three different ways: (i) alfalfa followed by oats (A/O), (ii) oats followed by alfalfa (O/A) or (iii) a mixture of alfalfa and oats (A + O). Oats alone were used as a control. Blood and breath were collected after the test meal was fed at the end of a 11.5-h overnight fast following a 10-day acclimatization period. The highest glycaemic and insulinaemic responses were measured when the A/O and O/A diets orders were fed, whereas most hydrogen was produced after feeding oats alone. It was concluded that adding alfalfa chaff to a meal of oats prolonged the pre-caecal digestion of starch, but there was no evidence for any effect on pre-caecal starch digestibility.

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