How to provide your horse with a good diet

Forage should form the largest source of nutrition in your horses diet. This is because forage is the foundation of horse diet and can be fed fresh in the form of grass or preserved in the form of hay and haylage. In the wild horses forage on a variety of different plants grasses trees and shrubs to fulfil some of their nutritional needs. However kept horses often dont have access to these and so we owners need to compensate and ensure that they receive such essentials through forage and hard feed.

If we think about how horses evolved as trickle feeders they have an innate need to chew for 1618 hours every day explains independent equine nutritionist Donna Case. When a horse eats grass hay or haylage they have to chew for longer than when eating a typical mix or cubebased hard feed which results in more saliva to help buffer the stomach and reduce the risk of gastric ulcers. This is just the very start in the role that forage plays in horse diet.
It should be no surprise then that forage is not only crucial in maintaining good digestive health but also overall health and wellbeing.
When health problems occur perhaps a horse has lost or put on weight or colicked people often turn to check the hard feed ration but we must always ensure the forage ration is correct first says Donna. If your horse isnt receiving enough you may find that they struggle to maintain condition. Painful gastric ulcers become a high risk due to lack of saliva production and an empty stomach alongside other issues such as colic.
How much forage should be in a horses diet?
The amount of forage you will need to give will depend on its nutritional value and your horses overall condition and weight. The more nutrients you can supply from forage the healthier they are likely to be.
Total diet should be between 1 5 and 2 5 on a dry matter basis of a horses bodyweight in a 24hour period advises Donna. Horses with a moderate condition score typically require around 2 those dieting around 1 5 and those working harder or who struggle to maintain weight normally 2 5. If you are able to and your horses body condition score allows it feed adlib forage.
As a guide Donna suggests that a 500kg horse on a 1 5 ration would require around 9kg of hay