by Jennifer Dunlap, DVM
It can be hard to decide what to feed these days. There is a huge variety of feeds on the market and shelves of supplements that promise to help with everything from hair coat to weight gain. There are some basic rules to feeding though that can guide horse owners. What you feed, when you feed, and how much you feed are important considerations.
First, remember that a horse's GI (gastrointestinal) tract is designed for constant foraging and grazing: meaning multiple small meals all throughout the day rather than one to two big meals a day. While it is difficult to mimic Mother Nature exactly, there are some things horse owners can do to stick with what Mother Nature intended.
A horse's GI tract will do much better with a forage-based (hay or pasture) diet. Grain or pellets or a mix of the two are a necessity for most horse owners to keep their horses in good condition, due to limited pasture space and/or the jobs horses are asked to perform. Here again, there are some things that can be done to avoid the need for big meals of grain.
It is important to provide as high quality roughage and grain/pellets for your horse as possible. A good bale of hay should weigh about as much as its counterparts from the same cutting. If it is too heavy, it is too wet or moldy. A good bale should "pop" when the strings are cut, expanding in size by an 1/8th or so in length. Avoid feeding musty smelling hay or hay with a weird color or odor. At best your horse won't eat it, and at worst colic or founder could result. When choosing grains or pellets, your feed store can be as great a resource as can your vet. Most major manufacturers are eager to hear from horse owners and have special people in place to answer any feeding questions. Don't hesitate to call them.
Each feed bag should have a guaranteed analysis tag, and you should be able to identify the first few ingredients in the feed listed on the tag. These first few ingredients are contained in the largest quantities in the bag of feed and should be high quality and nutritional value! If the tag lists a lot of byproducts instead of easily identifiable ingredients, such as wheat middlings or dehydrated alfalfa meal for examples, it can be less nutritious and sometimes more expensive to feed in the long run since you have to feed more of it, or supplement it.
Feed is also classified as 10, 12, 14 or 16% protein. This applies to the protein level in the feed. It also implies richer feed as the other ingredients tend to be richer as well to go along with that increased protein level. However, protein level should not be the only consideration in choosing a feed. Fat content is also important, as harder to keep horses may require a higher percentage of fat, while easier to keep horses may need a lower percentage of fat in their diet. In general, feed should smell good, have no to minimal dust, and be the same consistency from bag to bag.
It is essential to literally take a hands-on approach to your horse's weight to help you determine proper feeding requirements. It can be easy to miss the horse who is doing poorly in the winter because his/her hair coat may be covering things up. Routinely run your hands over your horse's ribs. Your horse is likely at a good weight if you can run your hands over your horse's ribs and feel them with firm pressure back to the last few ribs which you should be able to feel with medium pressure (there are fewer muscle layers over these last few ribs.) There should also be soft sponginess over the topline/spine. A softly rounded appearance should be present over the pelvis. If there is a crest on his/her neck, fat pads over the shoulders, fat pads around the tail head and ribs are hard to feel even with firm pressure, your horse is likely overweight. A large belly is NOT an indication of obesity. There are very thin horses with large bellies. A large belly can be due to inactivity and a high amount of forage intake leading to abdominal muscle stretching.
General Guidelines:
1) Provide as much turnout as possible. If your pasture is poor, supplement with good hay to provide roughage. Spread hay out in multiple piles to encourage moving around. Moving around and grazing mimics nature and encourages good gut motility, and turnout lessens pent up energy while decreasing anxiety. Stall vices such as cribbing, weaving and windsucking are called stall vices because they develop when horses are left in stalls for too long periods of time without sufficient forage and nothing to do. Some horses may need to stay stalled for long periods of time either due to career choice or an injury. So for these horses, good quality hay fed at numerous intervals throughout the day is essential to prevent GI stress, ulcers and stall vices. I recommend keeping hay in front of them at all times.
2) Provide as good a feed as possible, and as you can afford, to supplement forage. Feed according to individual needs of the horse, as some are easy keepers and some are difficult to keep weight on. However, grain should not be overfed. It should be given in just the amount to keep your horse in good condition. Feeding a high quality feed will lessen the need for supplements. Too many supplements can unbalance a diet and cause more harm than good. The best way to feed is by weight. Keep a small scale in your feed room so it is easy to measure at each feeding. If feeding by the scoop, it is important that all feeders are aware of how much each horse gets. A heaping scoop to one person may be larger than another's heaping scoop. Break up your feedings into 2-3 times/day to make the portions smaller, lessening the risk of GI upset. If you keep your horses up during either the day or the night, feed your slow eater a smaller portion before turning out and the larger portion of his/her ration when he/she will be up for the day or night to allow him/her to get the entire ration. Feed hay about five minutes before feeding grain. This causes saliva to be built up as the horse chews the hay and will provide a lot of buffering for stomach acid, lessening the risk of ulcers.
3) Allow your horse plenty of time to eat. If your horse is fed in a herd situation and is a slow eater, separating him/her may be a good idea. If a horse is rushed while eating, choke could result or he may not get all of his feed before another comes up to run him off. Ideally a horse should get enough time to clean up all of his meal before being turned out. Your horse needs at least an hour to digest his meal before he is ridden. Blood flow is traveling to the stomach and intestines to digest his meal and if he is worked too soon, the blood flow is diverted to the muscles, preventing good digestion and possibly leading to gas build up.
Guidelines for Special Needs Horses:
1) Starving horses. Many of you who have opened your hearts and homes to abandoned, neglected and starving horses in our area and a big THANK YOU isn't nearly enough. I work with Dark Horse Rescue and, unfortunately, with this depressed economy the number of starving horses is on the rise. This group of horses is the most challenging to feed as their GI tracts are not operating normally by the time they get to the point of starvation. These horses need very small meals fed every few hours in the beginning, and then gradually increase feed volume over many weeks. This is all their GI tract and other organs can handle. I generally start with Purina Equine Senior because it is nutrient dense, easy to digest, and is alfalfa based. This helps buffer stomach acid as many of these horses have terrible ulcers due to lack of food. Fresh water, salt blocks and small amounts of forage round out their diet. Colic and choke are a high risk factors during the first few months of rehabilitation, but small meals help prevent this, as does putting the feed in a large pan to spread out the feed to keep each mouthful small.
2) Easy keepers. Feeding the insulin-resistant or easy keeper horse with metabolism problems can be difficult. Founder is a high risk with these horses. These are the horses who seem to "gain weight on air" and are obese even on small amounts of feed. This issue is definitely one to discuss with your vet. There are many ways to combat this condition. In general, hay should be substituted for lush pasture, which contains fructans, or plant sugars, that can be hard for an obese horse to metabolize, thus leading to laminitis or founder. There are two yearly surges in fructan: one in the spring and one in the fall. A grazing muzzle is ideal to allow turnout with their buddies while limiting their intake of pasture. Monitor the muzzle for wear and tear and the horse for rubs from the muzzle. Measure your horse's nose before buying a muzzle to get the right size. You should be able to fit two fingers between the grazing muzzle and nose. There are also feeds on the market to help manage glucose, such as Purina Well Solve feeds.
3) Horses with ulcers. Alfalfa can be a great way to help manage ulcers. It comes in the form of alfalfa pellets, soaked alfalfa cubes or alfalfa hay. Alfalfa provides a lot of buffering for stomach acid. Be sure to avoid long periods of time with no forage. Empty stomachs lead to ulcers in even a normal horse stomach if a lot of time goes by (12-18 hours) with nothing to munch on. Keeping hay or pasture available at all times is important to help manage ulcers via diet, along with any anti-ulcer medications your veterinarian may recommend.
4) Young, fast growing horses. With more and more pressure on youngsters to perform at an early age in the show ring, it can be difficult to avoid the pitfall of overfeeding to get that “show ring ready look.” But remember that your youngster will have those legs for the rest of his life. If he is in the young, fast growing breed group such as a Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse or Warmblood, balanced feeding is essential. Again, forage based feeding is the best choice, then add just enough feed to keep your youngster at a good weight. A little leanness at this age is better than being too heavy. Have your veterinarian show you the growth plates so you can monitor them for thickening; this can be the first sign of a problem of too fast growth. Thickened growth plates are inflamed growth plates; inflamed growth plates often grow at an uneven rate, leading to crooked legs. Have someone walk your baby up and down the barn aisle every few weeks so you can watch for straight leg growth. If you have a fast growing baby, get your farrier involved early on, even if it's just to rasp each hoof gently to keep growth on the right track. A lot can be done via diet and farrier care to keep your baby growing in a balanced fashion.
5) Elderly horses. Many elderly horses have dental problems, which make chewing difficult. Forage may not be a big component of an elderly horse's diet. Feeding a complete and balanced ration such as senior feed is recommended. You can also wet it to increase ease of eating. It's also important to remember that the metabolism of an older horse often skyrockets and extra calories may be needed. This is best supplied by a high fat supplement, such as corn or canola oil; feed up to 1 cup twice day. Purina Amplify fat pellet is another high fat supplement. Add fat gradually over 7-10 days to prevent a fatty diarrhea. A senior horse also tends to lose his/her sense of smell to a certain degree, which can make him/her a picky eater. Finding a feed that they will eat can be difficult. A senior feed topdressed with a couple of handfuls of sweet feed for taste may work. Older horses also tend to lose GI gut flora over time. Supplementing with a probiotic, such as Probios, can be a good idea.
Picking a feeding program does have a trial and error component, but is a very rewarding part of horse ownership. After all who doesn't love the sight and sounds of a healthy, shiny-coated horse happily munching away on his hay?
It can be hard to decide what to feed these days. There is a huge variety of feeds on the market and shelves of supplements that promise to help with everything from hair coat to weight gain. There are some basic rules to feeding though that can guide horse owners. What you feed, when you feed, and how much you feed are important considerations.
First, remember that a horse's GI (gastrointestinal) tract is designed for constant foraging and grazing: meaning multiple small meals all throughout the day rather than one to two big meals a day. While it is difficult to mimic Mother Nature exactly, there are some things horse owners can do to stick with what Mother Nature intended.
A horse's GI tract will do much better with a forage-based (hay or pasture) diet. Grain or pellets or a mix of the two are a necessity for most horse owners to keep their horses in good condition, due to limited pasture space and/or the jobs horses are asked to perform. Here again, there are some things that can be done to avoid the need for big meals of grain.
It is important to provide as high quality roughage and grain/pellets for your horse as possible. A good bale of hay should weigh about as much as its counterparts from the same cutting. If it is too heavy, it is too wet or moldy. A good bale should "pop" when the strings are cut, expanding in size by an 1/8th or so in length. Avoid feeding musty smelling hay or hay with a weird color or odor. At best your horse won't eat it, and at worst colic or founder could result. When choosing grains or pellets, your feed store can be as great a resource as can your vet. Most major manufacturers are eager to hear from horse owners and have special people in place to answer any feeding questions. Don't hesitate to call them.
Each feed bag should have a guaranteed analysis tag, and you should be able to identify the first few ingredients in the feed listed on the tag. These first few ingredients are contained in the largest quantities in the bag of feed and should be high quality and nutritional value! If the tag lists a lot of byproducts instead of easily identifiable ingredients, such as wheat middlings or dehydrated alfalfa meal for examples, it can be less nutritious and sometimes more expensive to feed in the long run since you have to feed more of it, or supplement it.
Feed is also classified as 10, 12, 14 or 16% protein. This applies to the protein level in the feed. It also implies richer feed as the other ingredients tend to be richer as well to go along with that increased protein level. However, protein level should not be the only consideration in choosing a feed. Fat content is also important, as harder to keep horses may require a higher percentage of fat, while easier to keep horses may need a lower percentage of fat in their diet. In general, feed should smell good, have no to minimal dust, and be the same consistency from bag to bag.
It is essential to literally take a hands-on approach to your horse's weight to help you determine proper feeding requirements. It can be easy to miss the horse who is doing poorly in the winter because his/her hair coat may be covering things up. Routinely run your hands over your horse's ribs. Your horse is likely at a good weight if you can run your hands over your horse's ribs and feel them with firm pressure back to the last few ribs which you should be able to feel with medium pressure (there are fewer muscle layers over these last few ribs.) There should also be soft sponginess over the topline/spine. A softly rounded appearance should be present over the pelvis. If there is a crest on his/her neck, fat pads over the shoulders, fat pads around the tail head and ribs are hard to feel even with firm pressure, your horse is likely overweight. A large belly is NOT an indication of obesity. There are very thin horses with large bellies. A large belly can be due to inactivity and a high amount of forage intake leading to abdominal muscle stretching.
General Guidelines:
1) Provide as much turnout as possible. If your pasture is poor, supplement with good hay to provide roughage. Spread hay out in multiple piles to encourage moving around. Moving around and grazing mimics nature and encourages good gut motility, and turnout lessens pent up energy while decreasing anxiety. Stall vices such as cribbing, weaving and windsucking are called stall vices because they develop when horses are left in stalls for too long periods of time without sufficient forage and nothing to do. Some horses may need to stay stalled for long periods of time either due to career choice or an injury. So for these horses, good quality hay fed at numerous intervals throughout the day is essential to prevent GI stress, ulcers and stall vices. I recommend keeping hay in front of them at all times.
2) Provide as good a feed as possible, and as you can afford, to supplement forage. Feed according to individual needs of the horse, as some are easy keepers and some are difficult to keep weight on. However, grain should not be overfed. It should be given in just the amount to keep your horse in good condition. Feeding a high quality feed will lessen the need for supplements. Too many supplements can unbalance a diet and cause more harm than good. The best way to feed is by weight. Keep a small scale in your feed room so it is easy to measure at each feeding. If feeding by the scoop, it is important that all feeders are aware of how much each horse gets. A heaping scoop to one person may be larger than another's heaping scoop. Break up your feedings into 2-3 times/day to make the portions smaller, lessening the risk of GI upset. If you keep your horses up during either the day or the night, feed your slow eater a smaller portion before turning out and the larger portion of his/her ration when he/she will be up for the day or night to allow him/her to get the entire ration. Feed hay about five minutes before feeding grain. This causes saliva to be built up as the horse chews the hay and will provide a lot of buffering for stomach acid, lessening the risk of ulcers.
3) Allow your horse plenty of time to eat. If your horse is fed in a herd situation and is a slow eater, separating him/her may be a good idea. If a horse is rushed while eating, choke could result or he may not get all of his feed before another comes up to run him off. Ideally a horse should get enough time to clean up all of his meal before being turned out. Your horse needs at least an hour to digest his meal before he is ridden. Blood flow is traveling to the stomach and intestines to digest his meal and if he is worked too soon, the blood flow is diverted to the muscles, preventing good digestion and possibly leading to gas build up.
Guidelines for Special Needs Horses:
1) Starving horses. Many of you who have opened your hearts and homes to abandoned, neglected and starving horses in our area and a big THANK YOU isn't nearly enough. I work with Dark Horse Rescue and, unfortunately, with this depressed economy the number of starving horses is on the rise. This group of horses is the most challenging to feed as their GI tracts are not operating normally by the time they get to the point of starvation. These horses need very small meals fed every few hours in the beginning, and then gradually increase feed volume over many weeks. This is all their GI tract and other organs can handle. I generally start with Purina Equine Senior because it is nutrient dense, easy to digest, and is alfalfa based. This helps buffer stomach acid as many of these horses have terrible ulcers due to lack of food. Fresh water, salt blocks and small amounts of forage round out their diet. Colic and choke are a high risk factors during the first few months of rehabilitation, but small meals help prevent this, as does putting the feed in a large pan to spread out the feed to keep each mouthful small.
2) Easy keepers. Feeding the insulin-resistant or easy keeper horse with metabolism problems can be difficult. Founder is a high risk with these horses. These are the horses who seem to "gain weight on air" and are obese even on small amounts of feed. This issue is definitely one to discuss with your vet. There are many ways to combat this condition. In general, hay should be substituted for lush pasture, which contains fructans, or plant sugars, that can be hard for an obese horse to metabolize, thus leading to laminitis or founder. There are two yearly surges in fructan: one in the spring and one in the fall. A grazing muzzle is ideal to allow turnout with their buddies while limiting their intake of pasture. Monitor the muzzle for wear and tear and the horse for rubs from the muzzle. Measure your horse's nose before buying a muzzle to get the right size. You should be able to fit two fingers between the grazing muzzle and nose. There are also feeds on the market to help manage glucose, such as Purina Well Solve feeds.
3) Horses with ulcers. Alfalfa can be a great way to help manage ulcers. It comes in the form of alfalfa pellets, soaked alfalfa cubes or alfalfa hay. Alfalfa provides a lot of buffering for stomach acid. Be sure to avoid long periods of time with no forage. Empty stomachs lead to ulcers in even a normal horse stomach if a lot of time goes by (12-18 hours) with nothing to munch on. Keeping hay or pasture available at all times is important to help manage ulcers via diet, along with any anti-ulcer medications your veterinarian may recommend.
4) Young, fast growing horses. With more and more pressure on youngsters to perform at an early age in the show ring, it can be difficult to avoid the pitfall of overfeeding to get that “show ring ready look.” But remember that your youngster will have those legs for the rest of his life. If he is in the young, fast growing breed group such as a Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse or Warmblood, balanced feeding is essential. Again, forage based feeding is the best choice, then add just enough feed to keep your youngster at a good weight. A little leanness at this age is better than being too heavy. Have your veterinarian show you the growth plates so you can monitor them for thickening; this can be the first sign of a problem of too fast growth. Thickened growth plates are inflamed growth plates; inflamed growth plates often grow at an uneven rate, leading to crooked legs. Have someone walk your baby up and down the barn aisle every few weeks so you can watch for straight leg growth. If you have a fast growing baby, get your farrier involved early on, even if it's just to rasp each hoof gently to keep growth on the right track. A lot can be done via diet and farrier care to keep your baby growing in a balanced fashion.
5) Elderly horses. Many elderly horses have dental problems, which make chewing difficult. Forage may not be a big component of an elderly horse's diet. Feeding a complete and balanced ration such as senior feed is recommended. You can also wet it to increase ease of eating. It's also important to remember that the metabolism of an older horse often skyrockets and extra calories may be needed. This is best supplied by a high fat supplement, such as corn or canola oil; feed up to 1 cup twice day. Purina Amplify fat pellet is another high fat supplement. Add fat gradually over 7-10 days to prevent a fatty diarrhea. A senior horse also tends to lose his/her sense of smell to a certain degree, which can make him/her a picky eater. Finding a feed that they will eat can be difficult. A senior feed topdressed with a couple of handfuls of sweet feed for taste may work. Older horses also tend to lose GI gut flora over time. Supplementing with a probiotic, such as Probios, can be a good idea.
Picking a feeding program does have a trial and error component, but is a very rewarding part of horse ownership. After all who doesn't love the sight and sounds of a healthy, shiny-coated horse happily munching away on his hay?
