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Dr. Christine King Ph: (336) 608.8552 e-mail: king(at)animavet.com | ||||
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> articles - other tips | ||||
Other feeding tips. Here are some other recommendations for optimizing your horse's health and well-being, while ensuring that you spend wisely... | ||||
Other feeding tips Here are some other recommendations for optimizing your horse's health and well-being, while ensuring that you spend wisely: * feed some fresh plant material every day, as much as is available or advisable Factor in the content of simple carbs (starches and simple sugars) for all foods when dealing with a horse or pony who is overweight, laminitis-prone, or otherwise carb-sensitive. Fresh plant material can safely be fed to carb-sensitive individuals; in fact, in my opinion it is essential to their recovery and long-term health. However, it must be done carefully. Contact me or your primary-care veterinarian for specific recommendations. Also factor in good pasture management. That includes preventing your pastures from being cut up by horses' hooves when the ground is very wet or the grass is very dry or frozen. * feed primarily raw foods Highly processed and refined foods, especially those in which heat was used (including most pelleted feeds), generally are less nutritious than the constituent foods in their raw state. They can also be less safe. Horses are designed to live on plant materials in their unadulterated state - raw and, depending on the season, fresh or dried. In my experience, feeding domestic horses following the same principle yields the best results. * add calorie-dense foods only if needed Base the horse's diet on forages (pasture, hay) and add the more calorie-dense foods only if needed for work, pregnancy, lactation, growth, or recovery from serious debility. As an equine nutritionist and vet once said to me, "Grain should be fed only as a supplement." In case you missed it earlier, when fed at a rate of ~2% of body weight per day, good quality grass hay easily meets the average adult horse's basic calorie, protein, and major mineral requirements. [Here's the link again.] For horses in work, feeding as much hay as the horse will eat and adding a little grain (e.g. plain oats or barley) usually is enough to meet the calorie shortfall in all but intensively exercising horses. Because it is the healthiest way to feed any horse, the best strategy I've found is to base the horse's diet on good quality forages (pasture and/or hays) and feed anything else only as a supplement: only when necessary, only as much as necessary, and for only as long as necessary. * minimize wastage and satisfy hunger (and boredom) by feeding the total daily hay ration divided among at least 3 feedings By nature, horses are grazing animals; they spend much of the day and night browsing for food. Domesticated horses with limited pasture access do best when we aim to simulate grazing with our feeding strategies - as the old adage goes, "feed little and often." * follow appropriate parasite control and dental care programs so that the horse gets the most out of the food he eats * minimize competition for food by managing group-fed horses appropriately If necessary, feed underweight horses and those "low on the pecking order" separately. | ||||
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All content: Copyright Christine M. King, 2005-2011. Please contact me for permission & guidelines for reuse of any content. | ||
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