Understanding and selecting from the various types of horse feeds is essential to provide proper nutrition and maintain your horse’s overall health. Horse feeds can be categorized into four main groups: fodder, concentrates, alternative feeds, and supplements. This guide not only outlines each feed category, but also provides examples of feed options within each group.
Fodder: The Foundation of a Horse’s Diet
Fodder serves as the bulk of a horse’s ration, providing essential fiber necessary for normal equine digestion. There are a few common types of fodder, including:
- Fresh grass: Grazed by the horse directly from the pasture.
- Hay: Dried grass, typically baled for preservation and easy storage.
- Legume hay: Alfalfa, clover, or other legume-based varieties.
- Grass hay: Timothy, orchard grass, brome, or other grass-based options.
- Haylage: Partially fermented forage, wrapped in plastic to preserve moisture.
Good quality fodder ensures horses receive adequate amounts of protein and energy. For horses engaging in regular exercise with increased nutritional demands, a more concentrated form of food, often referred to as “hard feed,” is needed.
Concentrates: Meeting Increased Nutritional Demands
Concentrates provide additional energy and protein to support increased activity levels in horses. These nutrient-dense feeds supplement the horse’s diet, accounting for any deficiencies that cannot be fulfilled by fodder alone. Common forms of concentrates include:
- Cereal grains: Oats, barley, corn, and other high-starch grains.
- Processed feeds: Extruded or pelleted feeds designed for specific equine needs.
- High-fat feeds: Rice bran, flaxseed, and oil-based options for additional energy.
Alternative Feeds: Adding Variety and Balance
Alternative feeds can be used to replace a portion of the fodder or concentrate rations, ensuring a well-rounded diet and keeping horses interested in their food. A few examples of alternative feeds are:
- Beet pulp: A byproduct of sugar beet processing, providing digestible energy.
- Chaff (chopped forage): Oftentimes, a mix of straw, grass, and legumes used as a partial fodder substitute.
- Soaked feeds: Bran or mashed feeds, designed to promote hydration and reduce the likelihood of digestive issues.
Supplements: Essential Nutrients for Health and Performance
Supplements play a crucial role in a horse’s diet by providing essential nutrients, such as minerals, trace elements, vitamins, amino acids, and electrolytes. Many pre-made compounded rations contain these essential ingredients in the correct amounts. If you are preparing your own feed rations, be sure to include a suitable supplement. Examples of supplements include:
- Mineral and vitamin mixes: Balanced blends to support overall health.
- Electrolyte solutions: For replacing lost salts and minerals in high-performance or heavily sweating horses.
- Amino acid supplements: Focused on specific essential nutrients like lysine or methionine to promote muscle development and growth.
By understanding these categories and their examples, you can create a well-rounded dietary plan for your horse, catering to their individual needs and preferences.
Understanding the Role of Grass in a Horse’s Diet
Grass forms a considerable part of a horse’s natural diet, providing essential nutrition during the summer months. However, the availability and quality of grass can fluctuate with the seasons, sometimes necessitating additional diet adjustments to maintain the horse’s health and energy levels.
The Influence of Seasons on Grass-Based Diets
During summer, the rich abundance of grass should meet all your horse’s nutritional needs. In contrast, winter presents a different scenario. The colder months yield lesser amounts of grass, and additionally, the nutritional quality of the available grass decreases. Therefore, to ensure your horse’s dietary requirements are met during winter, supplementary feed in the form of hay and concentrate food becomes a necessity. The exception to this rule might be the hardiest native ponies who can endure cold weather conditions with less dietary adjustment.
Grass: A Bulk-Provider with Limitations
While grass can supply sufficient energy for a horse’s maintenance and light work tasks, its bulky nature presents an interesting challenge. A digestive system full of grass is not conducive to exercise, meaning that if your horse exercises regularly, it might be beneficial to limit their grazing time part of the day. Instead, consider substituting a portion of their grass intake with a small amount of concentrate food. This strategy reduces the bulk of the food, helping to make your horse more comfortable during their exercise sessions.
The Nutrition Value of Different Grazing Conditions
It’s crucial to remember that not all grass provides equal nutritional benefits for your horse. The nutritional quality can vary based on the condition of the grazing area. Typically, horses fare best on well-maintained permanent pastures, where deep-rooted grasses and plants provide the necessary minerals and trace elements.
On the other hand, newly sown grass or grazing areas treated heavily with nitrogenous fertilisers don’t make ideal grazing grounds for horses. This precaution applies even more strictly to ponies, who are highly prone to suffer from laminitis, a painful hoof condition, when consuming such grass.
In conclusion, understanding the role of grass in your horse’s diet and how to manage their grazing routines based on seasonal changes and physical activity levels, can significantly contribute to their overall health and well-being.
The Role and Value of Hay in a Horse’s Diet
Hay is an effective substitute for the bulk and fibre that horses naturally obtain from grass. Hay of good quality can take care of a horse’s fundamental nutritional requirements, even allowing them to perform slow, light work.
Understanding Hay Quality and Varieties
Hay quality can differ greatly, with well-made and properly stored hay holding significant nutritional value. On the other hand, poorly made or stored hay can be useless or even harmful to your horse.
The types of hay—clover, meadow, and seed hay—tend to vary more in terms of individual preference than nutritional value. Some grass varieties, like Timothy grass, are particularly nutritious. Hay made from permanent pasture often includes deeper-rooted grasses, boasting a higher mineral content than the shallower-rooted plants found in new leys.
Concerns with New Hay
While old hay is generally considered safer, new hay poses a risk as it is still undergoing a chemical change, or “making,” which can cause digestive issues, such as colic. Despite this, negative effects are rare, and new hay can be used safely as long as potential issues are monitored. In the forage business, hay is usually classified as “old” once it’s been stored beyond Michaelmas Day (September 29). Generally, though, “old” hay refers to the previous year’s cut, which is 6-18 months old.
Identifying Good Hay
Recognizing good hay involves paying attention to its appearance, smell (or “nose”), taste, and feel. Among these, the smell is particularly indicative of hay quality. Well-made meadow hay should have a strong, sweet aroma, which lessens with age. On the other hand, wet, poorly made hay carries a “fusty” odor, indicating harmful mould growth that can seriously impact a horse’s health. Such hay should never be fed to horses.
You can discern the distinct types of hay by their color—meadow hay appears greenish and slowly fades with age, seed hay is lighter, and clover maintains a darker hue. Dark-brown or black patches in hay often indicate dampness and mould growth. Good hay should taste slightly sweet, never bitter, and its texture should be soft for meadow hay and harsher for seed and clover varieties.
When purchasing hay, it’s crucial to ensure that it’s free from poisonous pasture weeds, such as ragwort and horse-tails (Equisetum).
Physical Characteristics of Hay
Hay is usually sold in bales, with roughly 50 bales equating to a ton. A ton of hay typically occupies about 10 cubic meters or yards, but this can change depending on the bale size, hay dampness, and how much it was compressed at baling.
Potential Health Risks from Hay
Despite its benefits, hay—particularly poor quality, “fusty” hay—is known to pose serious health risks. For instance, it can induce an allergy leading to lung problems and a chronic cough, conditions referred to collectively as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Even good-quality hay emits some mould spores, which may trigger symptoms in sensitive horses, especially in poorly ventilated stables.
One way to mitigate the risk of mould spores is by soaking hay in water for about five minutes before feeding. However, for horses allergic to these spores, the most effective measure might be to switch to fodder alternatives that do not produce them. Modern farming practices—favoring the creation of silage or large hay bales—sometimes make it hard to find small bales suitable for horses. In such cases, considering fodder alternatives is also advisable.
The Nutritional Value of Lucerne Hay
Lucerne hay, also known as alfalfa, is an excellent source of nutrition for horses.
Nutritional Superiority of Lucerne Hay
Lucerne hay stands out for its higher feed value, particularly its protein content, in comparison to ordinary hay. This unique quality makes it an advantageous choice for horse feed.
Availability and Alternatives
Although Lucerne hay is not commonly found in the U.K., its excellent nutritional benefits make it worth seeking out for horse owners. For those who might encounter difficulty in sourcing it, dried Lucerne products are a suitable substitute. These alternative forms of fodder carry the same nutritional benefits and are a good addition to a horse’s diet.
The Significance of Chaff in a Horse’s Diet
Chaff, reflecting its place as finely chopped hay or oat straw, plays an essential role in a horse’s diet.
Understanding Chaff and Its Preparation
Chaff is essentially hay or oat straw that has been finely chopped. It can either be freshly cut at the stable using a chaff cutter or bought pre-made, designed to add variety and additional nutrients to a horse’s diet.
Benefits of Chaff in a Horse’s Diet
Horses engaged in extensive work and consuming large levels of concentrates often have chaff mixed into their rations. The addition of chaff serves a dual purpose: it introduces fiber into the diet and slows down the animal’s eating pace.
Because chaff slows down the eating process, it helps prevent the digestive complications that can often arise when a horse “bolts” or rapidly consumes its food. By encouraging a slower, more deliberate feeding pace, chaff can play a crucial role in maintaining digestive health in horses.
The Benefits of Dried Grass in Horse Feeding
Dried grass, served as a meal or nuts, presents an effective solution for feeding horses.
Dried Grass: It’s Preparation and Use
Dried grass as a meal or nuts, which must be soaked overnight before feeding, is an often overlooked yet valuable feed option for horses. The process of overnight soaking ensures that the feed is soft and easier for the horse to digest.
Nutritional Value and Health Benefits
Dried grass is highly nutritious and proves especially beneficial for horses and ponies performing light work. Its richness in nutrients allows it to meet the dietary needs of the animals effectively, facilitating their overall health and vigor.
What’s more, dried grass is particularly suited to and popular among horses that have developed allergies to the mould spores present in hay. By substituting hay with dried grass, owners can bypass the allergy triggers without compromising on the nutritional intake of their horse.
Using Silage as Horse Feed
Silage, a type of preserved grass, is a plausible option for feeding horses.
Introduction to Silage
Silage, which is essentially grass conserved through fermentation, is an acceptable feed choice for horses. This method of preservation inhibits the growth of undesirable organisms while maintaining the nutritional quality of forage.
Silage Products for Equine Use
There are individually packaged silage products available on the market which are specially designed for equine use. These products come handy particularly for horses suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a condition exacerbated by the presence of mould spores in hay.
Contamination Concerns with Silage
Despite its benefits, the usage of silage may invite potential issues, particularly contamination. Damaged or punctured bags are prone to contamination and should be discarded immediately. Ensuring the integrity of packaging is crucial in guaranteeing the quality of feed provided to the horses.
Larger silage bales—often referred to as “big bales”—should never be fed to horses due to their high risk of soil bacteria contamination. This concern is significant enough to warrant noting that fatal cases of botulism have occurred where horses were fed with big bale silage.
However, clamp silage, a different form of fermented forage stored in a specific environment known as a “clamp,” does not appear to present the same contamination risks. This variation of silage has been safely used as an alternative fodder option for horses.
The Role of Oats in a Horse’s Diet
Historically, oats have served as a robust, energy-rich source of hard feed for horses.
Oats: Its Digestibility and Energy Value
Oats stand out from other grains due to their inherent quality of being easily digestible and providing high energy value for horses. These attributes have earned oats a favored spot in horse feeding routines for centuries.
Ideal oats for feed should be plump, short, hard, and dry, carrying minimum husk. Year-old oats are generally preferable as the maturation and drying out period renders them safer for horse consumption.
Feeding Oats: Preparation and Caution
Oats can be fed to horses in a variety of ways. They can be given whole or steamed by adding boiling water. Be aware that directly boiling the grains can destroy their nutritional vitamins.
Whole grains present the risk of passing through the horse’s digestive system undigested. To tackle this, oats are typically rolled or crushed. This, however, raises another concern. Once processed this way, oats cannot be stored for any length of time as their nutritional value declines. If not used within three weeks, the nutritional benefits significantly decrease.
Oats are rich in energy and need to be fed strictly according to a horse’s work level. It’s unclear why oats may cause some horses to become overenergetic or “hot up,” but this unpredictability necessitates cautious feeding practices, especially to ensure horses and ponies remain manageable.
Overfeeding and Potential Problems
Overfeeding oats can lead to digestive issues and other health complications. If a horse can’t exercise for any reason, the amount of hard feed, including oats, must be reduced immediately. Failing to do this may result in problems such as azoturia and lymphangitis.
Unpacking Compound Feeds: Nuts and Cubes
Compound feeds are a meticulous mixture of various ingredients designed to provide a balanced diet for your horses.
Advantages of Compound Feeds
Using compound feeds can simplify equine feeding by removing a lot of the guesswork involved in home-mixing rations. While employing a traditional system—where the feeder prepares rations from ‘straights’ like oats and other ingredients—the quality of each ingredient’s batch needs continuous assessment, a process that gets bypassed with compound feeds.
Manufacturers of compound feeds buy high-quality ingredients in bulk, ensuring consumers receive value at competitive prices. Moreover, these manufacturers conduct thorough analysis and tests on their products to maintain nutritional consistency—a problem commonly faced with home-mixed rations.
Quality of Ingredients and Manufacturer Reputability
Despite the advantages, the components of compound feeds vary, and some locally-made products might use inferior feeds compared to larger, commercial manufacturers. Therefore, it’s essential for horse owners to opt for feeds from trusted and reputable manufacturers.
Understanding the Production Process of Compound Feeds
The production of feed cubes involves a process of mixing, milling, and adding binders such as steam or molasses to compress the mix into a pelleted form. While horses might reject less palatable ingredients when given home-made rations, the uniform nature of compound feeds prevent such selective feeding. However, ensure your horses chew the cubes adequately before swallowing to avoid issues like ‘Choke’ and other digestive problems.
During the manufacturing process, appropriate amounts of minerals, trace elements, and vitamins get included in the feed, eliminating the need for separate supplements. Always adhere to the manufacturer’s instructions regarding the feeding quantity based on the horse’s weight.
Interestingly, horses and ponies fed on compound feed types such as nuts and cubes usually consume more water than those fed on ‘straights,’ and this should be factored into their overall hydration provision.
Tailoring Feeds to Specific Requirements
Customized feeds are available for equines at different life stages or engaged in varied types of work. They are usually labeled as ‘Horse and Pony Nuts,’ ‘Racehorse Cubes,’ ‘Stud Cubes,’ ‘Coarse Mixes,’ and so on. You can typically group these feeds into five basic types, each with different protein and fibre content:
- A low protein (10%), high fibre (15%) nut suitable for feeding with hay, for horses and ponies engaged in light work.
- A high protein (14%), low fibre (9%) nut designed for horses making hard efforts.
- A high protein (15%), low fibre (5%) mixture for young, rapidly-growing horses, and mares during the last trimester of pregnancy.
- A low protein (10%), high fibre (40%) coarse mix designed to meet the comprehensive dietary needs of horses and ponies in light work, often fed with little or no hay. If the animal’s work intensity increases, it’s advisable to supplement this ration with a low fibre/high protein concentrate.
- A grain balancer aimed to complement the conventional diet of hay and oats, thus balancing the ration.
These compound feeds are carefully formulated to provide a balanced diet. Consequently, adding extra ingredients when feeding nuts or cubes at the suggested rate is usually unnecessary, and could disrupt the nutritional equilibrium of the diet, potentially harming the horse’s health.
Alternative Feeds for Horses
Everyone wants their horse to be healthy, full of energy, and shiny. Various feeds can help with that. Each has unique benefits and uses which suit different circumstances and horses’ needs. Let’s delve deeper into understanding these feeds.
Barley: A Subtle Substitute
Barley is sometimes used as a substitute for oats. Similar to oats, barley offers comparable nutritional value. It does, however, have the upper hand since it’s less likely to make a horse overexcited. The grains need to be processed, like crushing or rolling, for easy digestion. Boiling barley, which involves simmering for 4-6 hours until the grains split, creates an ideal treat for horses after a strenuous day at work. It can also be used to address the nutritional needs of thin horses or for shy eaters.
Bran: The Gentle Regulator
Bran, made from wheat husks, is traditionally served alongside oats. Depending on its state—dry or wet—bran can act as a constipator or a mild laxative. To alleviate constipation, horse keepers often provide wet bran mashes, prepared through a thorough mix of boiling water and dry bran. Bran is also frequently used to hide medications or encourage sickly horses to feed. Despite having a high amount of phosphorus, bran only contains trace nutrients but serves well as a diet bulker.
Maize: The Weight-Gainer
Known for its high carbohydrate content but somewhat low protein levels, Maize is another grain often used in horse feeds. Whole maize grains are generally hard to digest; hence, they are usually soaked, boiled or flaked before feeding. Maize helps weight gain and functions well in conditioning lean horses. However, for horses in heavy work, maize is not recommended.
Wheat: The Frequently Overlooked
While being a well-known cereal grain, wheat is relatively indigestible, ranging it a less suitable horse feed.
Linseed: Bright Coats and Weight Gain
Hailing from the flax plant family, linseed is rich in protein and oil but lacks in some amino acids. Linseed works wonders in weight gain and enhancing the horse’s coat quality. Remember to always boil linseed before feeding, as fresh seeds can be harmful. Linseed is normally soaked for 24 hours, boiled, allowed to cool, and fed as a mash.
Sugar Beet: Fiber Powerhouse
Sugar beet, dried and soaked for 12 hours, is a favored alternative feed due to its high energy and fiber content without making the horses too excited. Overfeeding sugar beet might result in laxative effects, and insufficient soaking can lead to issues like “Choke” and colic, making soaking a crucial step.
Field Beans: Protein Warriors
Field beans, rich in protein, serve well in rations, especially to add protein value to the diet. However, these can make the horses too energetic and so must be fed in moderation.
Molasses: Sweetener Tempter
With its high-energy content, molasses in liquid or meal form serves as a tasty treat for horses. It’s especially handy to persuade shy or ill horses to eat.
Succulent Foods: Fresh and Crunchy
Adding fresh green feed to a stabled horse’s diet sparks their interest in food and supplements some vitamins to their diet. Vegetables like carrots, beetroot, turnips, and apples, upon washing and slicing, can add variety and nutrients to the diet. Remember not to feed them in square or round pieces to prevent “Choke.” Starting with half-a-kilo and then gradually increasing to 1 kg is usually a good way to introduce these succulent foods.
Additives and Supplements for Horses
Horse care is not just about the main feed – sometimes, we need additional minerals, amino-acid, vitamins, and electrolytes to guarantee their complete wellbeing. It’s crucial to note that these constituents should be properly portioned and incorporated, keeping the horse’s individual conditions in mind. Here, we’ll go into detail about various supplements and what role they play in maintaining our equine friends’ health.
The Rationale behind Supplements
Different mineral, trace element, amino-acid, vitamin, and electrolyte supplements are produced specifically for horses. If you prepare their rations at home, it’s a good idea to include a mineral, trace element, and vitamin supplement. However, comprehensive commercial feeds, if given correctly, will likely make separate supplements obsolete.
For performance horses that have a high-impact routine, specific supplements can be incredibly beneficial for maintaining their peak form. Some horses, especially those who eat a lot of oats (known for their low lysine content), could gain better muscle functionality from lysine supplements. Similarly, those prone to muscle issues may find relief from Vitamin E and selenium supplements. But it’s worth noting that healthy, fit horses fed appropriately might not necessarily need these supplements—endurance horses being an exception.
Supplement for Specific Needs
Supplements often come into play when wanting to enhance certain aspects, like improving skin or hoof health, or correcting bone issues. In such scenarios, it’s prudent to consult a veterinarian for professional advice regarding the necessity and type of supplements. Pregnant and growing horses require an extra intake of minerals and trace elements, which should be integrated into their diets.
The most common problem is bone troubles due to calcium deficiency. Therefore, adding a limestone supplement to these horses’ diet, including brood-mares and growing stocks, is typically beneficial. Working horses might also require limestone supplements if their calcium/phosphorus balance is off, which could be a result of eating high phosphorus feeds like oats, bran, or maize.
Salt: The Essential Additive
Our horses need to maintain a balanced intake of salt to stay healthy. However, natural fodder often falls short in providing enough salt, necessitating a supplementary source.
Allowing the horse to regulate its salt intake usually works best. This can be achieved by providing a salt lick or offering rock salts in their manger. Alternatively, a measurable amount of salt, around 30 to 120 grams (1-4 oz), can be mixed daily into their ration as a caution for insufficiencies in their diet.
