If you own a horse, you know how many many many different opinions there are on feeding horses. This article is not going to tell you what to feed your horse. My goal is to simplify all the nutrition information that is out there into something useful.
If you are looking for in-depth articles about specific horse nutrition questions, I have listed a few websites that I have found helpful below. I do not necessarily agree with every single thing on every single page of these websites. I find them to be useful overall and hope they help you as well.
Equine nutrition websites
- harmanyequine.com
- www.shady-acres.com/susan (equine nutrition veterinarian)
- www.understanding-horse-nutrition.com
The articles on these websites will give you a good basic understanding of horse nutrition. At least, the current understanding of horse nutrition.
Horse nutrition extras
What I’d like to mention is how little we actually know about horse nutrition. Nutrition is a young science. Human nutrition studies only began about 60 years ago. Some horse nutrition assumptions have been extrapolated from human nutrition.
Let me give you an example. A colleague of mine was doing some PhD research on finding out what horses actually like to eat. We’ve assumed sweet feed was high on their list, because who doesn’t like sugar cereal?
But, it was found that horses —given free choice of over 30 grasses, herbs, etc — prefer a bitter taste. At least, we think it tastes bitter. Maybe it tastes different to them. Just a thought.
In addition, horses in the wild will forage on whatever they can find. When their bodies tell them that they are needing something (nutritionally deficient), horses will travel for miles to find a specific weed. Or start eating some bark, or flower, or dirt. Horses know what they need to eat instinctively (unless sick or debilitated in some way)
Making horse feeding simple
So what should you do? Just make it simpler. And let the horse help.
Hay
Feed whatever good quality hay you can find. Alfalfa hay by itself is too high in calcium and is not recommended for horses. Can you add a little bit of alfalfa as a caloric supplement? Sure. Do you have to balance it with something low in calcium? Maybe. Hold your horses on that and keep reading. :)
Salt
Be sure your horse has access to salt. Plain salt by itself and NOT in a block. Blocks are made for cows. Cows have very rough, strong tongues for those blocks. Horses do not and may have difficulty getting the right amount. If your horse eats right through those blocks (salt or mineral mix), then he or she is missing some nutrient and is trying to get it.
If you feed a mixture of salt with minerals, horses will only eat that mixture until their body has enough salt. Then their body tells them to stop eating it—even if they didn’t get enough minerals.
Vitamins and Minerals
Lastly, let your horse balance his or her own nutrition by offering free-choice vitamin and mineral supplements. Free-choice means that you offer your horse the minerals, not automatically add them to every feeding. This way your horse can choose whether or not–and which ones—to eat.
If you can, offering free-choice minerals in their naturally occurring groupings is better. So, for example, you would offer calcium & phosphorus together in a separate container. Selenium & vitamin E together, and so on.
As an example, I recommend Advanced Biological Concepts Complete Free-Choice mix for my clients. Any reputable company with good quality products that you can find with a similar free-choice vitamin and mineral product would be great.
And that’s it.
Good quality hay, salt, vitamins and minerals. That is all an average working horse should need.
What about…hard working horses, skinny horses, fast metabolism horses…can I give them some grain?
Sure. You can add grain (no molasses, please), rice bran, beet pulp, anything you want. Just start with a small amount and gradually move up to the desired amount.
Your horse will balance out her vitamins and minerals with the free-choice supplements you offer her. So it’s no problem to add some feed supplements to a good quality hay diet.
Be sure your horse also has had his or her teeth floated, is on a proper deworming schedule, and gets probiotics if he or she needs them. Doing these things will help make sure your feed efficiency is optimum.
For more information on horse weight gain and horse weight loss, click here. [coming soon]
For more information on horse probiotics, click here. [coming soon]
Thanks for reading,
