Information on Basic Horse Nutrition
December 1st, 2008
The idea of feeding a horse may seem easy but may horse owners are uninformed about the fundamentals. It is a fact that there is no golden rule relevant involving the nutritionary requires of a horse, as it largely depends on the age, body weight and the level of activity, which the horse goes through. Pasture is the primary ingredient of any horse diet. This incidentally is one of the most important components of his diet, which keeps his digestive system functioning correctly, and when we say pasture we are meaning a combining of natural grass and cut hay.
The amount of food a big horse requires is close to 2 to two point five% of their body size, so when a horse weighs a thousand pound, it would require 20 to 25 pounds of feed per day. Feeds rich in nourishment are what horses need and high-fiber feeds should not be give to them, as it may upset the digestive system. In fact, a horse would be happy if you fed him with a feed of hay/pasture grass amounting to one percent of his body size. If your horse doesn’t do much work, they will do nicely on strictly forage, with no grain thrown in. However, horses which are at the developing or breeding stage or they are very active would need to have supplements to their pasture diet, like grains or concentrated supplement. Thus, for the correct growth and development of the animal, his everyday diet should consist of pasture amounting to one half or more of his size.
Before you can feed a balanced “meal” to your horse, you have to know the nutrient content and quality of your forage. When you are aware of this, you can easily figure out the proper amounts of nutrients that would meet his specific needs. One of the best and most affordable sources of summer feed is pasture, which if it is good quality, can satisfy all the nutritionary requisites of the horse. How do you figure out how much pasture is needed to feed a horse? Here is a rough guideline to help you: (using a weight of 1,000 - 1,200 pounds). According to this guide: a mare and foal would require 1.75 to 2 acres; yearlings would require 1.5 to 2 acres and weanlings 0.5 to 1 acre.
Winter-food could comprise of cut hay, but please control its quality. Ensure that the hay is leaf-like and green in colored and cut in a systematic way, free of dust, moulds weeds or stubble. There is plenty of proteins, vitamins and minerals contained in this food. While alfalfa hay is food for a growing horse as the protein content is very high, but you have to be careful as it contains excessive calcium in comparison to its phosphorus content. Overdose of calcium is not recommended for growing horses; so in case you have any doubts, get the hay quality analyzed.
