What should I feed my horse?Updated a year ago
What Should I Feed My Horse?
Forage
The majority of horses will maintain weight and perform best on a forage-based diet, including those with high energy requirements. Horses have evolved to graze constantly on fibrous feedstuff and how the gastrointestinal tract is designed and functions reflects this.
The bulk of your horse’s diet should be forage, including pasture or hay. As a rule, your horse requires a minimum of 1.5% of their body weight in forage per day to maintain normal gut function. Due to the nature of pasture and hay, both long stem fibre sources, horses are required to chew these for longer compared with alternate forage sources like chaff, hay cubes etc which are comprised of short stem fibre. Increased chewing encourages more saliva production, naturally buffering the stomach and its contents. Increased time spent chewing long stem fibre forage sources also maintains a steady flow of feed into the stomach for a longer period. These long stem fibres also contain what is known as effective fibre, which is fibre that remains undigested as it passes through the gut. Effective fibre is important for allowing the horse to produce manure and shift unwanted material like sand out of the hindgut.
Forage, which is comprised mostly of fibre, provides a major source of energy for your horse. While your horse itself cannot digest the fibre, the billions of bacteria in its hindgut do the job for it. During fermentation of fibre, volatile fatty acids (VFA’s) are produced which are absorbed by the horse and utilised by the body to form energy. As well as providing the horse with energy, important vitamins like B1, biotin and vitamin K are produced during bacterial fermentation of fibre in the hindgut.
If you’re providing adequate high quality forage and your horse and desired body condition is not achieved, you can increase your horses energy intake further with various ingredients.
High energy fibres
Including soybean hulls, copra meal and sugarbeet pulp. These feedstuffs are similar to pasture and hay, however the fibre they contain is more readily digested by the bacteria in the hindgut meaning they contain a similar amount of calories as cereal grains. These feeds are particularly well suited to horses that become excitable and hyperactive when fed grain based feeds.
Cereal grains and grain based feeds
Cereal grains are well known as being high energy feeds and are useful in the diet of horses that have increased energy demands such as horses in heavy exercise, broodmares in late pregnancy or early lactation and some growing horses.
However, some grains and grain based feeds are more suitable than others. When selecting grains to feed it is critical that the starch within the grain (which is the high energy component) is digested in the small intestine. Grains that are digested in the small intestine will provide your horse with more calories and ensure your horse avoids problems with hindgut acidosis. To ensure the starch is digested in the small intestine, select grains or grain based feeds that have been cooked/micronised/extruded.
Cereal grains should not be used in the diets of horses with Cushing’s disease or those susceptible to laminitis.
High fat feeds and oils
Are the highest energy feedstuffs you can give a horse. Fats and oils hold two major advantages over high energy fibrous feeds and cereal grains. The first is they are energy dense meaning you don’t have to add large quantities to the diet.
The second advantage of high fat feeds and oils is they don’t tend to make a horse as hyperactive as the same quantity of energy supplied in the form of cereal grains. In addition, they do not carry the risks of digestive upsets that accompany cereal grains.
Vitamins and Minerals
Lastly, make sure your horse’s diet is balanced from a protein, vitamin and mineral perspective. We recommend using the Feed Assist program available on our website
Feed Assist AUS, or FeedXL Horse Nutrition Software or seeking independent nutritional advice to help balance your horse’s diet. Additionally, always read the labels of any feed or supplement you are using, so you know it is suitable for your horse and tells you exactly what you are putting in your horse’s mouth.