Understanding the Natural Diet of Horses
In their natural state, horses meet all their nutritional needs from grazing on grass. They have the freedom to change pastures and search for the best sources of food. Typically, horses move at a walking pace while grazing, with occasional bursts of speed to escape predators. However, with domestication, these requirements have changed over time.
As domesticated horses have grown in size and are now used for various forms of work, their dietary needs have evolved. They require a more concentrated and balanced diet to maintain their larger bodies and provide the extra energy needed for completing tasks.
Essential Components of a Balanced Ration
To determine the right balance in a horse’s diet, it’s crucial to understand the five primary components of food necessary for animal feeding.
- Proteins: Proteins are crucial for the growth and repair of body tissues. They also play a role in producing hormones, enzymes, and antibodies for a robust immune system.
- Carbohydrates: As the primary source of energy, carbohydrates fuel a horse’s daily activities and help to maintain a healthy weight.
- Fats: Fats are concentrated sources of energy and are vital for supporting healthy skin, coat, and hoof condition. They also aid in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.
- Vitamins & Minerals: These essential nutrients support various biological functions, including metabolism, bone development, and immune system health.
- Water: An essential part of any diet, water plays a vital role in a horse’s overall health and wellbeing. It helps regulate body temperature, lubricate joints, and support digestion.
While providing concentrated nourishment is important to support a domesticated horse’s larger body and energy needs, it’s not enough on its own. Horses also require sufficient bulk or fiber in their diet to cater to their unique digestive system.
Understanding the Role of Proteins in a Horse’s Diet
Proteins are critical components of a horse’s diet. As nitrogenous compounds, proteins go through a digestion process that transforms them into a form that can be absorbed by the bloodstream. The primary role of proteins is to replenish worn-out tissues and support growth. A lack of protein in a horse’s diet can lead to the body metabolizing muscle protein to compensate, while excessive protein intake can disturb digestive processes, create skin issues, cause intestinal irritation leading to diarrhea, and put stress on the kidneys. Nonetheless, a little surplus can be stored by the body as an energy reserve.
Traditional and Modern Sources of Protein
Historically, cereals, particularly oats, have been the go-to source of protein for horses. However, the protein content in oats can fluctuate significantly, ranging from 6% to 13%. Presently, manufactured horse feed such as cubes or nuts have become popular due to the ability to strictly control their protein content. This precision in protein concentration allows for tailoring the diet to each horse’s individual protein needs.
For instance, a “creep feed” meant for a growing foal (which has a high demand for body-building proteins) might contain 16% protein. Lactating mares, which also have high protein requirements, would be given feed containing approximately 15% protein. In contrast, concentrate feed for a racehorse or an animal undertaking similar intense exercise would typically contain about 14% protein. Meanwhile, horse and pony nuts given to adult animals engaged in light work might only need to contain around 10.5% protein.
Regulating Protein Intake Based on Workload and Condition
Even though working horses need additional protein, increasing protein intake can sometimes hyperactivate them and lead to behavioral challenges. If a horse’s diet contains an overdose of protein, this could lead to digestive, circulatory, and muscle issues. As such, it’s crucial to carefully regulate a horse’s protein intake daily, depending on their work level and overall condition.
For instance, if a horse can’t get its usual exercise due to lameness, bad weather conditions, or any other unforeseen circumstances, it’s essential to reduce its protein portion accordingly. Failing to readjust the protein ration in such situations can potentially lead to health complications.
The Role of Fats and Carbohydrates in a Horse’s Diet
Fats and carbohydrates are vital components that play significant roles in a horse’s nutrition. Although different in structure, their functions in the body overlap considerably. Both are crucial for generating heat to maintain body temperature, providing energy for various activities, and contributing to the reserves of fat and energy in the body. These nutrients are found across a spectrum of common feeds, from fresh green foods to various types of grain.
Fats in Equine Nutrition
One of the primary sources of fats in a horse’s diet is Linseed, also known as flaxseed. Whole linseed is notably high in fat content, boasting a percentage of 35-40%. Even after processing into linseed cake, it retains approximately 10% fat content. Apart from serving as a dense source of calories, fats also play a role in absorbing fat-soluble vitamins and maintaining a healthy skin and coat.
Carbohydrates as an Energy Source
Just like fats, carbohydrates are a significant source of energy. They exist in relatively high concentrations in foods such as oats, barley, and maize, with their content ranging from 57% to 70%.
Oats stand out due to their balance of both carbohydrates and digestible oils, making them an excellent energy source for horses. Carbohydrates fuel ordinary muscle activity and sustain the horse’s overall energy levels throughout the day. Ensuring an adequate intake of both fats and carbohydrates is essential for a horse’s health and performance.
The Importance of Minerals in a Horse’s Diet
Minerals are essential, albeit required in small amounts, to maintain a horse’s health. While grazing, horses typically get sufficient quantities of minerals from the pasture, but when stabled, these need to be supplemented through their feed. Concentrate feeds produced by manufacturers typically cover a horse’s mineral needs, including trace elements. However, if a horse’s feed is being mixed independently, it is necessary to add a mineral supplement to compensate for the mineral intake that would naturally occur while grazing.
Fundamental Minerals and the Need for Supplementation
Key minerals involved in bone formation, particularly calcium, are required in relatively larger amounts than others. This explains why limestone-rich soils, which are high in calcium content, are preferred for horse breeding. Limestone supplementation can be beneficial for growing horses and horses fed certain diets while stabled.
Note that some feeds, especially bran, maize, and oats, contain high levels of phosphorus but are low in calcium. Excessive phosphorus can interfere with calcium absorption, which could justify the need to add a calcium supplement, such as limestone, to balance the calcium to phosphorus ratio in the diet. The correct proportion is approximately 1.5:1.
Horse diets naturally tend to be low in salt, so an additional salt supplement can be beneficial. Although regular table salt can work (around 30 grams, or 1 oz daily), mineralized salt supplying other essential trace elements can be more beneficial. The presentation of this added salt, whether it’s a salt lick, lump of rock-salt in the feed, or mineralized salt added directly to the food, is really a matter of personal preference.
Understanding the Need for Minerals and Electrolyte Supplements
Significant physical exertion accompanied by heavy sweating can lead to considerable fluid, mineral, and electrolyte loss in a horse. It is therefore recommended to provide a mineral and electrolyte supplement for all horses involved in regular strenuous exercise. Long-distance endurance rides, in particular, can result in significant depletion of minerals and electrolytes.
Such losses, if not promptly and adequately addressed, can lead to serious consequences, including lethargy, collapse, or even death. It’s crucial for anyone involved in this kind of endurance riding to engage a veterinarian for advice on the need for and administration of mineral and electrolyte supplements, both before and during the ride.
The Key Role of Fibre in a Horse’s Diet
Fibre, while providing some measure of energy and fat, primarily functions as a bulk provider, assisting in the digestion of concentrated foods. Its importance lies not only in facilitating digestion but also in creating a feeling of fullness throughout the horse’s spacious stomach and intestines. Ensuring sufficient fibre in a horse’s meal intake helps maintain averts bad habits and stable vices which develop when a diet consists almost entirely of rapidly consumable concentrates.
Fibre’s Impact on Horses’ Behaviour and Digestive Health
Typically, chewing fibre-rich foods would naturally occupy most of a horse’s day. A decreased fibre content in the diet, consequently, leaves the animal with less to do, potentially leading to behavioural issues arising from boredom.
Another essential advantage of fibre is its impact on the horse’s gut health. By providing bulk, it stimulates efficient digestion of other feed components, helps regulate starch digestion in the small intestine, and supports microbial activity in the hindgut.
Fibre Sources in Equine Feeding
Hay and straw are the primary sources of fibre, containing between 25-30% fibre. These feeds provide bulk and promote that all-important feeling of fullness. While hay holds nutritional value, it’s important to note that straw—one of the bulkiest foods—offers negligible nutritional benefits aside from fibre. Nonetheless, when combined with other nutrient-dense feeds, it can contribute effectively to a balanced diet.
In other words, while straw cannot be the cornerstone of a horse’s diet due to its low nutritive value, it can still play an instrumental role in your horse’s overall health and behaviour. Most importantly, straw can help ensure that your horse’s digestive system operates effectively and that boredom, which may lead to behavioural issues, is staved off.
The Indispensable Role of Water in a Horse’s Diet
Water, as simple as it sounds, is the most commonly consumed and crucial element in a horse’s dietary plan. Its value is such that animals can survive longer without solid food than without water. Aiding in digestion and many internal bodily functions, water makes up a significant portion of certain feeds like grass and vegetables (70-90%). However, the majority of a horse’s water needs should be met through direct drinking.
Water Intake and Its Influence on Health and Well-being
Horses usually consume between 36 and 67.5 litres (8-15 gallons) of water daily, depending largely on their size, diet, activity level and environmental conditions. Under most circumstances, horses should have unrestricted (ad lib.) access to water, allowing them to self-regulate their intake as per their needs.
Keep in mind that adequate water intake not only ensures proper digestion but it also aids in nutrient absorption, temperatures regulation, waste elimination, and overall normal physiological functioning.
Characteristics of Suitable Drinking Water for Horses
Interestingly, horses can be somewhat finicky about their water. They prefer water that is clean, odor-free, fresh, and unsoiled by any taint. Soft water is generally preferred over hard water, with the latter being recommended for growing horses due to its lime content.
That said, providing fresh and clean drinking water, and ensuring the water source is free from potential contaminants is key to prevent health problems and promote good hydration habits for your horse. Lastly, any drastic changes in water taste or quality could potentially disrupt a horse’s drinking routine, which, in turn, could impact their overall health and well-being.
The Importance of Vitamins in a Horse’s Diet
In addition to the essential nutrients mentioned earlier, a horse’s diet must contain appropriate amounts of various vitamins. These are naturally acquired when grazing, but a significant portion of the vitamin content can be lost when grass is conserved as hay. Consequently, it is highly beneficial to provide fresh vegetables (such as carrots, apples) to horses in stables. Here, we briefly detail the vital vitamins and their importance for horses:
Vitamin A – Growth and Infection Protection
Vitamin A plays a crucial role in promoting growth and protecting a horse’s immune system from infections. Notable sources of this vital vitamin include green foods, such as fresh grass and pasture, and vegetables like carrots.
Vitamin B – Growth, Nervous System, and Heart Health
The Vitamin B group supports a horse’s growth, nervous system function, and heart health. Green foods, along with roots and grains, serve as natural sources of B Vitamins.
Vitamin C – Healthy Blood Supply
Vitamin C is primarily responsible for maintaining a healthy blood supply in horses and contributes to optimal tissue and wound repair. Good sources of Vitamin C include green foods and high-quality fresh forage sources.
Vitamin D – Healthy Bones and Teeth
Essential for maintaining strong bones and teeth, Vitamin D is particularly critical for growing horses. Notably, cod liver oil is an excellent source of Vitamin D and can be a valuable addition to the diet of growing stock. However, exposure to sunlight is the primary way horses synthesize Vitamin D, making access to daylight and, if possible, outdoor spaces all the more important.
Incorporating these essential vitamins within a balanced diet is fundamental to a horse’s health and well-being, promoting optimal growth, development, and overall performance.
Crafting Balanced Rations for Horses
A balanced ration for horses needs to contain the right proportions of proteins, fibre, carbohydrates, and fats, mixed with the necessary amounts of vitamins and minerals. Commercially manufactured concentrated horse foods (such as nuts or cubes) streamline this process. The manufacturers work diligently to ensure the nutrients’ proportions are balanced. Your role then only requires deciding the ratio of fibre to concentrate that fits your horse’s needs. If crafting your own rations, you must balance the multiple components to fully cater to your horse’s dietary needs.
The Art of Feeding and Crafting Rations
Feeding horses is more of an art than a strict science. Although nutritional guidelines offer a useful starting point by suggesting suitable feed quantities and relative nutritive values, each horse’s unique needs necessitate an individual approach to feeding, assessed daily.
Factors such as weather conditions, workload, the horse’s physical condition, and individual digestive nuances all require frequent ration adjustments. The effectiveness of a feeding regime fundamentally lies in how the horse looks and behaves. For novice horse owners, achieving this balance can be challenging, making pre-formulated “balanced” rations an essential tool to reduce guesswork. Nonetheless, the need for constant minor adjustments remains crucial.
Considerations in Determining Feed Quantity
The first factor to take into account when creating a ration is determining the total food quantity required. A rough measure of the horse’s weight serves as a helpful guide. Weighbands, which measure a horse’s girth and provide an estimated corresponding weight, are widely available and user-friendly.
For those not equipped with such tools, the following calculations can give a fairly precise weight estimate:
Weight in kg = (girth in cm² * length from shoulder point to hip point in cm) / 8400
Weight in lbs = (girth in inches² * length from shoulder point to hip point in inches) / 241.3
Typically, a horse requires a daily feed amounting to 2-3% of its body weight. The minimum feed necessary for maintaining a horse’s body is 2% of its weight. Even horses not involved in work should receive this minimum to stay healthy and in good condition.
Seasonal Impact on Equine Nutrition Needs
When it comes to feeding horses, the seasons play a significant role in defining their dietary needs. During summer months, if the grazing is abundant and not overstretched, horses’ maintenance requirements are typically met by grass alone. However, winter brings a reduction in both the quantity and nutritional value of the available grass. Therefore, adding hay to the diet of horses wintering outdoors is almost always necessary.
Factors Affecting Dietary Choices for Stabled Horses
When horses are kept indoors for all or some of the time and not actively working, their maintenance requirements might be adequately met with high-quality hay alone. However, these needs can be impacted by the season, and the individual animal’s unique needs might necessitate a concentrate supplement, which could comprise 20-30% of the total feed. Recognizing whether your horse’s maintenance needs can be met by hay alone or whether they need concentrates – and if so, to what extent – is part of good horse feeding practice.
Meeting the Additional Nutritional Needs
Horses’ nutritional requirements increase beyond their basic maintenance needs when they are growing, pregnant, lactating, or working. In such scenarios, not only do horses need a larger quantity of food (2.5-3% of their body weight), but the feed composition also significantly changes. Just fodder alone will not be able to provide the additional protein and energy demands. These are compensated by giving concentrated feeds like nuts, cubes, oats, and other alternatives.
The ratio of roughage to concentrate varies from 70:30 for a horse engaged in light work, to 40:60 for a horse undergoing regular heavy exercise. Specific physiological states like growth, pregnancy, and lactation exert added demands on the horse’s body, necessitating higher protein intake. For instance, a growing or pregnant horse may need more food for maintenance than a similarly sized non-gestating, mature horse, with up to 60-70% of their ration comprising concentrate feed. Moreover, concentrate feeds for breeding animals and young stock typically contain higher protein content (approximately 15%).
Calculating Feed Requirements for Horses
Deciding on the right quantity and composition of your horse’s feed revolves around their daily work level. Here’s a simple, general rule to follow:
For Maintenance Purposes
When the goal is merely to maintain body systems, weight, temperature, and muscle tone, along with ensuring minimum exercise for heart health, efficient lung function, and overall health, the daily feed requirement would be around 1% of their body weight. In such a scenario, the roughage to concentrate ratio would be approximately 70-100:0-30.
In Case of Light Work
For instances where maintenance is supplemented with light exercise, such as daily walking for around 30 minutes or an hour’s leisurely ride thrice a week, the feed requirement would be about 2% of the horse’s body weight. The roughage to concentrate ratio, in this case, would be 60-70:30-40.
For Light to Medium Work
When the daily routine includes quiet hacking for around an hour or a 30-minute schooling session (50% trot, 50% canter and walk), the horse falls in the light to medium work category. The daily food requirement here would be 2-2.5% of the horse’s body weight, and the roughage to concentrate ratio would be 60-70:30-40.
Medium Work
In case the horse engages in daily hacking for about 1-2 hours, which includes some cantering and jumping or 30-60 minutes schooling (50% trot, 50% canter and walk), it belongs to the medium work category. Here, the horse would require about 2.5% of its body weight in feed, with a roughage to concentrate ratio of 50-60:40-50.
Medium to Heavy Work
Active daily hacking of two hours (including some cantering and galloping) or up to three hours of light hacking, or a divided schooling session, each of an hour’s duration, along with cross-country schooling, falls under medium to heavy workload. Here, the feed requirement would be roughly 2.5% of their body weight, with the roughage to concentrate ratio being 40-50:50-60.
Heavy to Strenuous Work
In situations where the workload includes daily active hacking of two to three hours’ duration, and schooling for around 40-60 minutes, which includes some jumping, or hunting two to three times a week, or competitive marathon driving, flat racing, three-day eventing, and long-distance training, falls in the heavy category. Under these conditions, the horse would require about 2.5% of their body weight in feed, and the roughage to concentrates ratio needs to be 30-40:60-70.
Growth and Pregnancy Phases
During their first year up to 18 months of age, growing horses require about 2.5-3% of their body weight in feed, with a roughage to concentrate ratio of 30:70. For 18 months to 3-year-old horses, the feed requirement would be around 2.5% of their body weight and the roughage to concentrate ratio would be 50-60:40-50. During the final 90 days of pregnancy, a mare would require 2.5-3% of her body weight in feed, with a roughage to concentrate ratio of 30-40:60-70.
Feeding Recommendations for Horses
Feeding recommendations serve as a useful starting point, but it’s important to remember that individual circumstances play a significant role in determining the ideal feed plan for each horse. Various factors, such as age, breed, and temperament, may require adjustments to the general guidelines to suit the individual’s specific needs.
Taking Age into Account
Older horses, typically those over 16 years old, tend to require more substantial feeding than their younger counterparts. Metabolic changes that occur with age may lead to increased nutritional demands to maintain their overall health and wellbeing.
Adapting Feed for Weather Conditions and Grooming
During colder seasons, thin-skinned horses and ones that have been clipped may need extra rations to help them maintain their body temperature and stay warm. These additional rations can provide essential nutrients and energy to help them cope with harsher conditions.
Breed-Specific Feeding
It is crucial to consider the breed and type of horse when formulating a feeding plan, as there can be significant variation in their ability to convert food into energy. Some ponies, for instance, may put on weight even with minimal feeding, while others, like Thoroughbreds, often require more substantial feeding to maintain ideal condition – regardless of the quantity of food they consume.
Factoring in Temperament
A horse’s temperament plays a part in determining the appropriate feeding strategy. Phlegmatic horses typically require less feed than highly-strung individuals, which often need increased feed amounts to remain in good condition. Adjusting the feed plan based on their temperament helps ensure they receive the optimal nutrients for their needs.
