In This Chapter
- Exploring different hays and pasture
- Discovering other types of horse food
- Finding out how often and how much to feed
You know that what you feed your horse is very important or you wouldn’t be reading this book. But what to feed your horse — that is the question. Horse feeds come in a number of different shapes, sizes, and textures. Each one is significantly different in terms of nutritional value and palatability to the horse.
In this chapter, we describe all
the feeds available to horses. You explore which types of feed are best for
your horse given his age, condition, and workload. How much to feed your horse
and how often will no longer be mysteries to you.
Hay Now! Choosing Hay for Your Horse
Why choose hay for your horse?
Remember
Unless you have a pasture to graze your horse, hay is the best choice of basic feed for your equine companion. Quality hay provides the horse with all the carbohydrates he needs to function. It gives him plenty of protein, and just about all the vitamins and minerals that his body requires. It also provides vital roughage to his diet, which keeps his digestive system working properly. (See Chapter The Building Blocks of Good Nutrition for more about all these building blocks of equine nutrition.)
Hay is also less expensive than
complete feeds (which we discuss later in this chapter), and it satisfies the
horse’s needs to chew. Watch a horse munching on hay and you can see how much
he enjoys it!
Looking at different types of hay
Everyone knows that horses eat
hay. But what is this mysterious stuff that looks like dried-up sticks but
makes horses salivate?
Basically, hay is made up of
plants that have been cut, dried, and baled. Each type of hay usually contains
one or two different plants, depending on the bale. (We discuss different types
of hay bales later in this chapter.)
You can buy three different types
of hay: legumes, grasses, and cereals. Each type has different nutritional
properties. Where you live, your horse’s individual needs, and your
veterinarian’s advice will help you determine which hays to feed to your horse.
Legumes
Legume hays (see Figure 7-1) are
rich in nutrients and provide plenty of energy to a horse’s diet. The type of
legume hay most available to you depends on where you live.
- Alfalfa is one of the most commonly fed legumes, and you can purchase it in many parts of the U.S., particularly the West. Most horses love it, although it has to be fed with some care because of its high calcium level in relation to phosphorus. You don’t want to create an imbalance of these important minerals in your horse; doing so will risk the health of your horse’s bones.
An excellent source of protein and carbohydrates, quality alfalfa usually provides more protein than horses actually need — a whopping 18 percent. (Horses typically need 10 percent protein in their diets.) High protein content is especially seen in dairy-grade alfalfa, which is harvested to be fed to dairy cattle. Alfalfa that’s cut earlier in the growing season has less protein, so it’s more suited as feed for horses; your hay supplier can tell you when your hay was cut. (When horses get too much protein, they urinate a lot and can become unmanageable because of excess energy.)
- Clover is another legume hay that’s often fed, and one that horses especially like. When eating it, they often select the most highly palatable clovers from the hay. This hay has a high energy content, and is a good hay for horses who get a lot of exercise. Different types of clover hay can be found throughout the United States.
Figure 7-1: Legume hays
are high in protein and calories.
Grasses
Grass hays (see Figure 7-2) are
generally lower in protein content than legume hays, and also provide less
lysine (an important amino acid) than legume hays. Some experts believe that
you should feed both a legume hay and a grass hay together, although coauthor
Audrey and many other horse owners feed their horses only grass hay and they do
just fine.
Figure 7-2: Grass hays have
a moderate protein content and usually can be fed free choice.
The fiber content of grass hays
is pretty high compared to other types of hays. These hays are usually lower in
vitamin E than legume hays.
Common grass hays that make good
food for horses include orchardgrass, coastal Bermuda, brome, bluegrass,
fescue, and timothy.
- Orchardgrass grows tall in cool seasons. It offers 8 to 13 percent protein, depending on when it’s cut. Coastal Bermuda has a 10 percent protein content. Brome has 12 percent protein, and bluegrass has 10 percent.
Warning!
- Fescue has 11.8 percent protein, but be cautious when feeding it. Many tall fescue grasses contain a fungal endophyte (a plant parasite) that grows inside the plant but has no visible symptoms in the plant. This organism can cause reproductive problems in pregnant mares, abortion, poor milk production, retained placentas, and reduced growth rates in young growing horses. If you want to feed fescue, look for hay labeled “endophyte-free.”
- Of all the grass hays, timothy is the highest in calcium and contains a greater amount of vitamins A and D. Timothy has a protein content of 7 to 11 percent.
All the grass hays mentioned here
have good nutritional value and can be fed in unlimited amounts to horses, as
long as it doesn’t cause a weight problem.
Cereals
Cereal hays get their name from
the grain heads that grow as part of the harvested plant. These hays aren’t fed
to horses very often because they can be hard to come by and don’t hold their
nutrition very long. (After the grain heads fall off as the hay matures, what’s
left is essentially straw, which has no nutritional value to horses.) Some
horses rely on these hays for their prime source of roughage, however, because
they can’t eat legume or grass hays because of allergies or digestion problems.
Here are three popular cereal
hays:
- Oat: Oat hay is the most commonly fed cereal hay and can be a good choice for older horses because of its lower protein level — 9.5 percent — when compared to legume and grass hays. (Older horses often have trouble metabolizing protein and produce large quantities of urine if they’re fed a higher protein hay.) One problem with oat hay is that many horses eat only the grain heads and leave the stems behind.
- Barley: This hay has a protein level of 9 percent. It can be lower in nutritional value than some other hays. For this reason, feed this hay only if your vet recommends it. She may also suggest that a vitamin and mineral supplement be fed in conjunction with barley hay (see Chapter The Building Blocks of Good Nutrition for more information on vitamins and minerals.)
- Wheat: With a protein content of 8.5 percent, wheat hay is high in fiber and can be a good choice for horses who can’t eat legume or grass hays. It can be lower in calcium than these other hays, however, so lactating mares and growing foals may need a calcium supplement. Discuss this issue with your veterinarian.
Distinguishing between different types of bales
Hay that has been harvested and
prepared for sale comes in two different forms: square bales and round bales.
Hay bales also come in small and large sizes:
- Small rectangular bales weighing 50 to 125 pounds are the most common bale size. These bales are great for most horse owners because they’re easy to handle and transport. Small rectangular bales are divided up into individual flakes, which makes them easy to feed in small increments. (The weight of each flake varies considerably from bale to bale and among different hay types.)
- Large rectangular bales and large round bales are also available, weighing from 800 to 1,200 pounds. These huge bales are practical for horse owners who have a lot of horses to feed, and can help minimize cost and labor. These large bales are usually placed in a pasture or paddock inside special feeders made specifically for them so that they don’t sit in accumulated rainwater. The feeders also help minimize waste by catching the hay that comes off the bale as the horses are eating. (We talk about basic feeders later in this chapter.)
Warning!
Large bales made up of grass hay are a good choice for a group of horses. However, coauthor Dr. Kate doesn’t recommend feeding big alfalfa bales to horses at all unless you can effectively keep the big bales dry and covered (alfalfa molds quickly in damp weather) and are willing to tear the bales apart for feeding. (Horses shouldn’t have free access to alfalfa hay because they’ll get fat!)
Warning!
Keep the following in mind when you’re feeding your horse from a bale: You don’t know whether anything else is in that bale besides just hay. Foreign objects such as trash or even dead and decaying rodents are occasionally found in hay bales. You’re more likely to find these potential dangers when you’re hand-feeding small square bales, so you can discard that bale if needed. Consider this just another opportunity to prevent your horse from swallowing something that can be potentially harmful.
Evaluating hay quality
Picking up the phone and ordering
hay from the feed store or just trusting the boarding stable to give your horse
whatever it buys from its supplier is so easy. But if you really care about the
quality of your horse’s diet, you should get more involved by personally
evaluating your horse’s hay.
You should consider a number of
factors when evaluating hay, including the following:
- Color: The ideal hay color is green. Beta carotene is greater when hay is green. A beige or brown color can indicate that the hay has been bleached and rain has leached nutrients after the cutting.
- Texture: The hay should be soft, leafy, and without lots of stems.
- Condition: It should be fresh, dry, free of dust, and without any trace of mold.
- Age: Buy hay that was harvested during the current year, if possible. (Ask you supplier for this information.) If you must buy older hay, be certain that it was properly stored in a covered and dry environment. (Many vitamins degrade with time, and old hay may not provide the amounts of vitamins your horse needs.)
- Weed content: Some weeds present in hay present no problems at all, and most hay bales contain some weeds. But too many weeds affect the palatability and nutrition of the hay you’re feeding.
Warning!
Be careful not to mistake bright green weeds for alfalfa. Even though they’re green, these weeds have a lower nutrient content than brown alfalfa.
- Bug free: Inspect alfalfa hay for blister beetles. Even just one of these tiny little beetles, which are sometimes accidentally baled in hay, can cause fatalities in horses. They’re often found in alfalfa hay grown in areas that don’t have a hard winter freeze. If your alfalfa comes from such an area, make sure that the hay producer sprays for blister beetles. (If you’re buying your alfalfa from a feed store, ask whether blister beetle prevention was taken.)
Remember
Be prepared to see hay prices go up and down. The cost of hay varies greatly depending upon availability (hay costs skyrocket during drought years). You may pay anywhere from $3 a bale to $25 a bale, depending on where you live and what type of hay you’re buying. Hay can quadruple in cost within a year when demand exceeds supply. Feeding poor-quality hay to try to save money can cost you plenty in terms of gastrointestinal upsets and poor health.
Hay and pasture help from a pro
A great way to learn about hay and pasture is through
your county extension office. Extension agents — who can be found in every
county in the country by looking in your telephone directory under
“Government” — can show you examples of forages, and even possibly direct you
to a local college that may have an animal husbandry course that has lots of
great info.
Many extension offices offer regular seminars on
how to live in the country, designed to educate new livestock owners about
how to take care of their animals. At these seminars, you get to see the
types of hay and pasture that are common in your area.
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Tip
If you have your own horse property and plenty of storage, buy a year’s worth of hay at a time, all from one source. Then, have your hay analyzed by your county extension agent for a small fee, and build your nutrition program based on your hay. The analysis tells you the amount of protein and total digestible nitrogen (TDN) in your hay. You find out how much “bang” you’re getting for your hay buck. On the other hand, if you board your horse at a stable, you have little control over the hay your horse is getting. Some stables do allow owners to supply their own hay, so if you don’t like the quality of the hay your horse is getting, discuss the possibility of supplying hay with management.
Storing hay
If you keep your horse — and your
horse’s hay — on your property, storing it properly is vital. Proper storage
involves keeping it dry and free from dust and mold.
Remember
Water is your hay’s worst enemy, so keeping it out of the rain is paramount. Store your hay indoors if you can. If you don’t have a barn or garage where you can keep it, cover it with a tarp before it rains. Don’t cover it with a tarp after it rains, however, because this encourages mold to grow. Instead, open the bales and spread the flakes out to dry. If you find mold on your hay, bite the bullet and throw it away. Feeding moldy hay can cause respiratory problems in horses, as well as colic (see Chapter Tackling Common Ailments for more information about these issues).
Tip
When storing hay, keep it elevated off the ground where moisture can accumulate. Wooden pallets are great for this. They keep your hay off the ground, and can be found for free or minimal cost at many big box stores and home repair centers.
Grazing Time: Providing Pasture for Your Horse
If you have access to pasture,
you and your horse are fortunate. Pasture is the best thing for your horse
because it’s the most natural environment for her. Horses evolved to graze, and
pasture enables them to do that. Pasture that’s well planted and maintained can
also provide horses with excellent nutrition. However, keep in mind that poor
pasture or toxic pasture is much worse than no pasture at all.
A variety of grasses can be grown
for horses, including all the types also made into hay (which we discuss
earlier in this chapter). If you have existing pasture and want to make sure
that it’s good for your horse, read on. If you’re planning on growing and
maintaining your own pasture from scratch, see Chapter Growing
Your Own Food for details.
Why choose pasture for your horse?
When horses live the way nature
intended them to, they spend many hours a day grazing. They walk around, slowly
picking their way through the various plants in their environment, nibbling and
chewing as they decide which pieces to eat and which to leave behind.
Remember
When you put your horse on pasture, you give her the opportunity to behave the way she was born to do. Eating and walking, eating and walking — this is what horses are really all about. The result of this natural environment is a happier, healthy horse. If you keep your horse on pasture, she’ll be less likely to develop stable vices, leg problems, and digestive problems.
Surveying different types of pasture
Pasture grasses come in pretty
much the same types as hay. Fescue, orchardgrass, Bermuda, bluegrass, and brome
are all common hays seen in pastures, depending on which part of the country
you’re in.
Remember
As a general rule, grass is the only type of pasture that you want for your horse. Horses grazed on alfalfa and clover quickly become obese because of the higher calorie content of these hays. They’re also at greater risk for developing colic and laminitis when they graze on pasture that’s too rich.
Evaluating pasture
Before you put your horse out on
a pasture (either grown on your property or provided by a boarding facility),
you need to make certain that the grass is of the right quality. The plant
species should be appropriate for horses, and no toxic weeds should be growing
among the pasture plants. (You can find out about the grass quality by
contacting your county extension agent.)
You also need to know how
productive the pasture is. Vibrantly green, lush-looking acreage can be full of
weeds and plants that your horse won’t eat. Horses have been known to starve
standing knee-deep in what an owner mistakenly thought was edible grass. If you
aren’t sure of the productivity of your pasture, ask your extension agent for
help.
Pastures change with the seasons.
Quick growth in the spring — with plants full of water after a lot of rain —
has a different nutritional value than the same pasture in the fall with mature
grasses that have concentrated sugars and nutrients. This latter growth,
although more nutritious for the horse, can also be less palatable.
To make your late-season pasture
grass more palatable, manage your pasture correctly all through the season.
Keep manure piles down by removing them or spreading. Mow stands of mature
grass. Practice good rotational grazing, and keep weeds under control at all
times so good grass doesn’t have to compete.
Switching your horse from hay to pasture
The equine digestive system
doesn’t take well to sudden changes in diet. So if your horse has been eating
hay only and now has access to pasture, you need to make the change gradually.
Start by allowing your horse to
graze for one hour a day on the pasture, while continuing to feed her a normal
diet of hay. Do this for three days in a row. Then extend the grazing time to
two hours per day for a few days as you reduce the amount of hay she’s getting
(talk to your vet about how much to cut back). Using this system, gradually
work your way up to having your horse spend all day on pasture with little or
no hay supplementation, depending on the quality of your pasture. (Your vet can
tell you if your horse still needs hay.)
Warning!
If horses aren’t used to being on pasture, they sometimes gorge themselves when you first introduce them to this new type of feed. Watch to make sure that your horse isn’t grabbing huge mouthfuls and not really chewing before swallowing. If she is, leave her on pasture for only 30 minutes a day to start with and go up in 30-minute increments.
If your horse begins to grow fat
while she’s on pasture, reduce the amount of time she spends grazing. Pasture
grass can be richer in the spring when it’s new, so though your horse may need
to graze less in the spring to keep her weight down, she may be okay grazing
all day in the fall.
Warning!
Lush green grass can be a cause of colic or laminitis. In some areas of the country, many horses shouldn’t be turned out on pastures during the early grass-growing season for more than 30 minutes per day, if at all. It may be safer to start acclimating your horse to the pasture when the summer starts and the pasture growth slows.
Considering Other Feeds
The staples of your horse’s diet
should be hay and/or pasture. You can add other feeds as well, depending on
your horse’s situation. Your veterinarian can guide you on which types of the
following feeds, if any, you should give to your horse.
Grains for active horses
“He’s feeling his oats!” You may
have heard this expression, which harkens back to the days when horses were
everywhere and cars had yet to be invented.
Oats and other grains like corn
and barley have become synonymous with vigor in horses, and with good reason.
These feedstuffs provide plenty of carbohydrates, which convert into energy in
the horse’s body:
- Oats: Of all the grains, oats provide the greatest nutritional boost. They’re a good source of fiber and much less likely to develop mold or mycotoxins than other grains. Oats don’t have to be processed at all for horses to get the available nutrition, and because they aren’t processed, they don’t spoil as easily as corn or barley.
- Corn: Corn is now the most popular type of grain fed to horses because it’s inexpensive and provides a lot of energy. It’s nutritious and very palatable to horses. It should be fed in moderation, though (your vet can tell you how much is right for your horse). Because corn doesn’t have a hull, it’s lower in fiber than oats, but it’s also higher in density and digestible energy than oats. One pound of corn has twice the energy of one pound of oats.
Warning!
Overfeeding corn can cause laminitis, colic, and diarrhea (see Chapter Tackling Common Ailments for more information about these issues). Corn also is more expensive than oats and barley.
- Barley: Barley has the same protein content as grass hay and should be fed only in rolled or crushed form. The most widely cultivated of all cereal grains in the world, it looks similar to oats but is very hard and therefore more difficult for horses to chew. It’s also less palatable than oats or corn. Buy barley that has been crimped or rolled because it’s easier to chew.
Barley has more fiber than corn
and more energy density than oats. However, less of its starch is digested in
the small intestine, so you should feed it with caution to avoid founder. Your
vet can tell you how much is right for your horse.
Warning!
Grain may not be necessary to your horse’s diet. In fact, if you don’t do too much with your horse, he probably doesn’t need grain included in his daily rations. Giving him grain gives him more energy, and if you don’t ride him much, all that energy may be channeled into unwanted behavior (like spooking).
Complete feeds for the old and young
Complete feeds (see Figure 7-3)
are commercially prepared diets that contain all the nutrients horses need to
survive. These types of feeds are usually given to older horses. Senior horse
diets, which are labeled specifically for use in older horses, are designed to
meet the special needs of older horses who may have dental issues and require a
diet that can be easily chewed and assimilated. (See Chapter Helping
Your Horse Age Gracefully for details on
caring for senior horses.)
Complete feeds are also used for weanlings and for horses who have certain medical conditions (such as equine metabolic syndrome; see Chapter Tackling
Common Ailments) that require a closely monitored diet.
Figure 7-3: Complete feeds contain all the nutrients a horse needs.
Tip
Some horse owners use complete feeds to mix with supplements (see Chapter Special Considerations for Your Horse’s Diet) or medications (see Chapter Staying Prepared with Equine First Aid). These feeds tend to be very tasty to horses, making them more willing to take their medicine if it’s disguised within a bucket of complete feed.
Remember
Healthy adult horses shouldn’t be fed an exclusive diet of complete feed. Even though these feeds are nutritionally complete, the horse’s innate need to chew and biological need for roughage dictates that some kind of forage be a significant part of the horse’s diet.
Before you give your horse a
commercial feed, it’s important to read the feeding instructions and
nutritional information on the bag. Consult with your veterinarian and your
feed dealer to know what you’re buying and whether it’s appropriate for your
horse. For example, some senior feeds are formulated to include roughage and
may need to be fed in greater volume to provide a horse with adequate forage
intake. Other senior feeds are formulated to be fed in conjunction with pasture
or hay.
Warning!
You get what you pay for when it comes to commercial feed. The cheapest bag of feed may be just that. Many vitamins degrade with time, and feed that has been sitting in a warehouse before appearing at a discount farm supply store may not contain all the nutrition it once did. Also, cheaper prepared feeds tend to use cost-based rations rather than a recipe-based formulation; the ingredients listed on the feed tag can be included in any amount that will contain the listed amounts of protein, fat, and fiber if the feed were to be analyzed in a laboratory. Therefore, the actual ingredients may vary from one batch of feed to another.
Feeds for special circumstances
Over the centuries, horsemen have
developed a lot of different types of feeds for horses. Each of these has
different reasons for being fed, and may be of use to you and your horse in
certain situations. Some special feeds include:
- Hay pellets: Made from either grass hay or alfalfa that’s finely ground and pressed into 3⁄4-inch pellets, this form of hay is a type of concentrated feed. It’s an ideal choice when a horse is suffering from a respiratory ailment that makes him sensitive to the dust found in baled hay.
Warning!
Hay pellets (see Figure 7-4) are cheap to feed but shouldn’t make up the main part of your horse’s diet because they lack roughage and don’t satisfy the horse’s urge to chew. In fact, horses fed a diet of only pellets can develop stall vices like cribbing and wood chewing. (See Chapter Connecting Your Horse’s Behavior to Health for more information on stable vices.) Pellets also aren’t good for the horse’s digestive tract, and when they’re dry, they can cause choking; soak them before feeding.
- Hay cubes: Concentrated blocks of coarsely chopped hay, usually 2 x 1 1⁄2 inches in size, are called hay cubes. They’re easy to store and transport, and can be good for senior horses who have trouble chewing hay because the cubes break easily. (Some types of hay cube producers recommend soaking cubes in water before feeding to make them softer.) Horses with respiratory problems can benefit from a diet of cubes as well because they’re less dusty than baled hay. Cubes are also good at putting weight on horses who have trouble keeping meat on their bones. Cubes aren’t the ideal diet for a healthy horse, however, because they don’t satisfy the horse’s need to chew.
- Beet pulp: High in protein, beet pulp is a byproduct of the table sugar industry. The sweet stuff is removed from the sugar beet, leaving the sugarless pulp behind. Horses like beet pulp, and when soaked, it can make a good treat for mixing supplements or medication. Some people feed it to help put weight on horses who are perpetually thin.
- Bran: Bran is a popular treat for horses who live in cold climates. Horses love a warm bran mash on cold days and owners love to provide it. (Warm, soupy bran mixed with pieces of carrot and apple is the earthly equivalent of heaven for a horse.) Although bran is fine as an occasional treat, it’s not beneficial on a regular basis. The hull of the grain left over after milling (usually wheat or rice), bran has very little nutritional value. It also can cause impaction if it’s fed regularly and then abruptly discontinued.
Figure 7-4: Hay pellets should
be given only as a treat.
Remember
These other feeds are fine on occasion or under special circumstances, but should never take the place of hay or pasture as the basis for your horse’s diet.
Feeding Your Horse Properly
If you want your horse to be
healthy and happy, you should do everything you can to provide an environment
that’s as close to nature as possible. Horses are best off when they can live
the way they evolved to do over time. When it comes to feeding, you have the
opportunity to mimic the horse’s natural environment in a few different ways,
including providing feeding at the right frequency and in the right amounts.
The right frequency
Remember
Because horses were designed to eat for about 18 hours a day, the more often you can feed your horse, the better. The exact frequency of feeding depends on whether your horse eats hay or pasture:
- If your horse is stabled and eating hay, feed her at least twice a day — more if possible. Break up her daily ration into smaller portions so that she has less time between meals. Try to feed around the same time each day, too. Horses seem to have an internal clock that lets them know when it’s feeding time, and they can become quite stressed if the food doesn’t come when it’s supposed to, especially if they’re confined to stalls and don’t have much to do all day.
- If your horse is on pasture, let her graze as much as possible. If your pasture has a shelter, she can be on it round-the-clock regardless of the weather. This is the most natural situation for a horse.
The right amount at each feeding time
For your horse’s digestive tract
to function at its best, she should consume a minimum of 1 to 2 percent of her
body weight per day in long-stem dry matter, either pasture or hay. That means
that the typical 1,000-pound horse should eat 10 to 20 pounds of forage daily.
Tip
If you aren’t sure how much your horse weighs, buy a weight tape from your local tack-and-feed store. This tape allows you to measure your horse’s girth and find her approximate weight. See Chapter Sizing Up a Healthy Horse for details on figuring your horse’s weight.
The weight of a flake of hay
varies from bale to bale (see Figure 7-5), so it’s important to get a sense of
how heavy a flake is before you feed it to your horse.
Figure 7-5: A flake varies
in size, depending on the bale and type of hay.
In most cases, the amount of
hours per day that your horse spends on pasture determines how much pasture
grass she’s consuming. Watch your horse’s weight closely. If she’s gaining
weight, she may be getting too much pasture. If she’s losing weight, she may
not be getting enough to eat. Ask your veterinarian to help you evaluate your
horse’s condition when she’s on pasture.
The right feeders
You see all kinds of feeders for
horses on the market. The type of feeder you buy is determined in large part by
your horse’s enclosure. If you have your horse in a pasture with other horses
and feed from a large bale, you need a big bale feeder. If your horse lives in
a stall, you need a stall feeder.
Remember
Because horses are meant to eat with their heads down, using a feeder that enables the horse to eat close to the ground is best (see Figure 7-6). You don’t want to put the hay directly on the ground because it encourages the horse to pick up dirt as she eats, which in turn can cause sand colic. (See Chapter Tackling Common Ailments for more on this problem.)
Figure 7-6: Ground level feeders
allow horses to eat in a more natural position.
Breaking down the significance of enzymes |
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Horses are nonruminant herbivores (they don’t chew
cud and they eat only plants), and derive their nutrition from forages. How?
With the help of important elements called enzymes. They’re responsible for
helping the horse break down all that tough feed (have you ever chewed on a piece
of hay?). The reason enzymes are important is a bit complicated, but if
you’re a horse owner, understanding the biology behind it is a
good idea.
Here’s how it works: Forages that horses eat have
two carbohydrate components: soluble and insoluble. Soluble carbs are broken
down into packets of energy by digestive enzymes that break bonds between the
glucose molecules. The horse himself makes these digestive enzymes, which are
very specific in the job that they do. When the enzymes break down soluble carbs,
the carbs are absorbed in the small intestine along with minerals, vitamins,
fats, and proteins. But the insoluble carbs, which the horse can’t digest so
easily, pass along into the fermentation vat known as the cecum.
Horses don’t have the enzymes necessary to break
down insoluble carbs, but they do have a great relationship with many
different species of microorganisms that do have the enzymes that can break
down insoluble carbs. Previously unusable food stuff can be used by both the microbe
and the horse. The result of this fermentation is the production of energy
packets called volatile fatty acids (or VFAs), certain microbial proteins,
other digestive enzymes, and vitamins like vitamin K and B vitamins.
These microbe populations can be rather
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unstable, especially in horses who are stressed, or who quickly change from one diet to
another as in the case of grain overload. These circumstances can cause
changes in the microbial environment. And if the change is rapid and
significant, a large number of these beneficial microbes die, often with dire
consequences.
Here’s an example of what can happen when the
upset occurs: The resident microbe population is happily doing its job,
digesting a diet of primarily hay with a small amount of grain. Suddenly,
there’s big change. The horse gets out of his stall, wanders into the feed
room, and eats a large amount of grain. Some of the grain is digested by the
small intestine, and a small amount of soluble carbs are absorbed, but because
the horse’s stomach is very small, the excess soluble carbs speed through the
small intestine undigested and land in the cecum.
The microbes aren’t prepared for this upset, but some
bacteria thrive on the sudden change of food, and begin to multiply. The
excess production of lactate by these organisms changes the acidity of the
environment, causing death to a lot of other bacteria. When some of those
bacteria die, they release endotoxins, which are absorbed into the
bloodstream and can cause laminitis, colic, and — if severe enough — death.
Keeping your horse’s enzymes balanced by making
only slow and gradual introductions to new feed is vital. And because stress
can cause an upset in the microbial population of your horse’s digestive
system, the use of probiotics in stressful situations can help keep your
horse healthy. For more information on supplementing your horse with
probiotics, see Chapter Special
Considerations for Your Horse’s Diet.
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Feeders at ground level come in a
variety of different styles, so simply pick one that appeals to you (you can
ask your vet for advice on the safest types of ground feeders). Coauthor Audrey
likes to feed her horses from big black rubber bins that are attached to a
corner of the paddock.
Choosing to feed alone or in a herd
If your horse lives in a pasture
or in a paddock with other horses, she’s part of a herd situation. If she eats
only pasture grass, you don’t need to worry about whether to feed her alone or
with the group because she’s already eating with company. If your horse eats
hay and lives in a large paddock with other horses, however, you need to decide
whether you want to feed her separately. Although horses enjoy eating together,
they also become territorial about their food. Because herds have a hierarchy,
one or more horses inevitably become the low men on the totem pole and end up
being chased away from the food.
If your horse is getting picked
on when she tries to eat with the group — or if she’s bullying another horse —
it’s a good idea to separate her at mealtimes. You can feed her in a stall and
wait until she and the other horses have finished before returning her to the
herd.
by Audrey Pavia with Kate Gentry-Running,DVM,CVA
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