The food which we feed to
horses should meet seven essential requirements:
- Energy. It should give
enough energy (calories) to meet the requirements of the horse. If the weather
becomes colder or even the horse is utilized more regularly, the amount of food
will need to be increased accordingly. Likewise, when winter becomes summer or
when the horse is less active, the amount of food will need to be minimized.
- Minerals and Vitamins.
Besides from energy, horse feed must produce a several kinds of important
vitamins and minerals, in the required quantities.
- Bulk and High Fiber. The
equine digestive system has changed to process grass, which happens to be high
in fiber and bulk. Food which is concentrated (e.g. grain) could produce the
necessary energy and minerals, but doesn't have the bulk which the digestive
system needs, that greatly increases the probability of ulcers along with other
diseases. Research on horses which a diet rich in grain as well as other
concentrated foods show that 50% to 90% of these horses have ulcers.
- Digestability. Food
that's poorly consumed gives limited food benefit and may trigger serious
health problems (e.g. impaction colic). This is a particular problem for the
older horse, in which dental wear reduces his capability to chew food and aging
has reduced his capability to breakdown particular foods. See 'Feeding Senior
Horses' below for details. Furthermore, horses may eat improper things (e.g.
straw) which do provide food value but due to difficulty in digestion can also
result in problems.
- Safety. Almost any food,
given in an incorrect quantity or fashion, can lead to health problems. A list
of the normal mistakes to prevent is provided below.
- Continuous Feeding.
Although a horse does not eat regularly (e.g. it spends part of its time moving
about and other actions), it requires to eat regularly. It requires a minimum
of 2-3 meals per day to keep its digestive system healthy, but more frequent
eating is preferable. Many small meals are a lot better than a number of large
meals. This is one of the reasons that horses which graze on pasture during the
day are often much healthier than horses which have their food (e.g. hay or
grain) given to them once or twice per day.
- Stimulation. A horse's
main stimulation and occupation originates from looking for food and eating
(typical forager activity). Restricting it to short and infrequent feedings
will result in a bored and unhappy horse, which can be likely to develop stress
related behaviours such as cribbing or repetitive movements.
