When purchasing hay for your horse, assess its freshness; it should not be dusty or smell moldy or musty. Moldy hay contributes to respiratory ailments in horses. The more mature the hay is when it’s harvested, the more stemmy...
Grazing
Good-quality pasture is a wonderful source of energy, protein, fiber and vitamins. Horses enjoy grazing and are designed to move around, eating grass in a herd situation. In most areas, however, pasture space is limited and careful maintenance is...
Fiber
Unlike humans, horses are able to extract energy from the fiber in their diet. The fiber is converted to volatile fatty acids (VFAs) by a bacterial fermentation process in the hindgut; the VFAs are then used to synthesize glucose...
Q: Can you feed a purebred Arabian straight alfalfa? I have an 8-year-old Arabian mare who is underweight. The vet said to put her on alfalfa and grain, but the owner of my boarding stable says that straight alfalfa...
If you are a pleasure rider or only work your horse hard occasionally, his diet will differ from that of a high-performance competition horse.Both types of horses need to have a dietary foundation of high-fiber roughage—either hay or pasture....
Demands placed on high-performance horses couldn’t be more varied, from reining spins to cross-country jumping. But there are lots of similarities in the way horses at the highest levels of equestrian sports are managed—and that includes the basic principles...
Day in and day out, your horse eats the same thing. Boring… yes. Unbalanced… definitely. You’d like to add some fresh fruits to his diet, especially this time of year with all the summer variety available, but he’s already...
Digestion
The digestive system of a horse works very differently from that of a human. Food passes quickly through a relatively small stomach designed to take in frequent meals throughout the course of the day. In the small intestine, enzymes...
Concentrates
Concentrates are grain mixtures formulated specifically for horses as a concentrated source of energy (calories). They provide much more energy per pound than hay or pasture, so be careful not to overfeed these. The horse’s digestive tract is not...
Beet Pulp
Beet pulp is a high-fiber roughage source that is easily digested by horses. Since it is purchased in dry form and expands when wet, you should soak it for a length of time before feeding it to your...
