Horse Feed - Different Types

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.