Free-Choice Feeding is Not the Answer to Equine Obesity

Returning horses to their natural state is the argument given in favour of free-choice feeding, even for obese horses. The fact of the matter is that, unless you have 200 acres of scrub pasture available, you cannot replicate an equine natural state. Traveling double-digit miles every day to find adequate food is the major difference. A paddock paradise set-up does not even come close to the miles needed. Only horses in endurance training and racing come close to the exercise level of a natural state. 

To obtain weight loss safely, ECIR has always used the starting point of 1.5 percent of actual weight, or 2 percent of ideal weight, whichever is larger, as the target daily hay intake (i.e., 2 percent = 20 lbs for a 1000 lb horse). It may need to be adjusted down a bit for higher calorie hays. This rule of thumb is nothing new. It’s straight out the National Research Council (NRC) recommendations for feeding horses. It works quickly and effectively.

To give you some perspective, the most recent edition of the NRC added an easy-keeper category to their calorie requirements. An inactive 500 kg (1100 lb) horse is estimated to require 15.2 Mcal/day in calories. If your hay has 0.9 Mcal/lb, that’s only 16.8 lbs of hay a day. In contrast, a horse on pasture is estimated to consume 5 to 7.5 pounds of grass an hour. Left to their own devices, horses have the capacity to eat much more than they need when the food is a more concentrated calorie source than fresh grass.

To help keep them at ideal weight, as much exercise as possible is indicated: turn-out in a paddock or out in a pasture with a muzzle, hand walking, and progressive riding once all evidence of laminitis is gone. The calculated daily hay allotment can be provided in a slow-feeding set-up, like small-hole hay nets to reduce boredom — but is never given free-choice. The outcome is as predictable as unlimited zero-carb pork rinds for a human battling an excessive appetite.

The battle of the bulge isn’t fun for man nor beast. Giving in to the compulsion to eat is not the answer.