What Do Horses Eat?

Horses have very specific dietary needs because they are herbivores and have a unique digestive tract quite different from ours. Their long digestive system requires a highfiber diet that is consumed in small amounts over a long time period 1 Rather than a few large meals like humans typically eat horses usually eat many small meals throughout the day. Horses actually spend most of their time eating! Here is a quick rundown of what horses eat and a few things they shouldnt.
Pasture Grass and Tender Plants

The natural diet of the horse is pasture grass and tender plants. Good pasture contains most of the nutrition a horse requires to be healthy. It also contains silica which is important for dental health. Primitive horses can live on sparse rations and often have to make do with less than ideal pasture and living conditions. This is likely why problems like obesity equine metabolic syndrome and laminitis are rare in wild horses but occur frequently in modern horses. Pasture grass isnt necessarily the problem the types of horses that humans developed and the lack of exercise are.
Horse owners with easy keepers need to limit the amount of fresh grass their horses have access to. Introducing lush pasture suddenly to a horse not used to it can cause serious problems as well. For the horse that is a hard keeper however good pasture provides the best nutrition.
Hay
Many people dont have the luxury of being able to let their horses graze on pasture throughout the whole year. When grass isnt available hay is the next best choice. Finding good horse hay can be tricky. It helps to have hay tested so any shortfalls in vitamins and minerals can be compensated for with supplements. For some horses rich hay can be a problem in the same way rich pasture grass can be. Easy keepers may need to be restricted from 247 access to a bale feeder.
Grains
Oats are a traditional grain fed to horses. However horses may also be fed small amounts of other grains like corn. Some grains such as wheat arent always good for horses. The seed head of grasses would be the closest thing a wild horse would come to eating grains in their natural environment.
Grains that are grown harvested and processed using modernday methods are not natural foods for horses. It is easy to feed too much grain to horses. Grain also doesnt require a similar length of