An Essay on Horsemanship: Horses eat like, ahh, horses! They like to eat, enjoy the time they spend eating, and require a fair amount of fodder to stay healthy and sound. A very general rule of thumb, and I mean its way too general to simply follow, is that an average horse needs around 2% of its body weight per day in good quality hay. Well, OK, what does good quality hay mean? That goes to the biological components of the plants that were put up as hay. It has to do with protein percentages and carbohydrates (sugars) and a bunch of other things, like minerals and oils and fats. Your hay source should be happy to provide you with all those values. Horses are designed and intended to eat grasses. Hay from grass is the most like what they would naturally take as forage. Grain hays are a very close second. Grain hays will generally have more protein and carbohydrates than grass hays. Way back from that are legumes, like alfalfa. Horses can have all manner of problems on a diet of alfalfa. Its cattle food and more appropriate for rhumenants. Horses arent equipped that way! Horses dont require much beyond plenty of good quality hay and some salt. Those that are on pasture should be carefully observed to make sure their forage is sufficient. Rule of thumb for that is 4 acres of good quality pasture per horse. And again, that rule is very general and theres a huge range of individual differences. Maybe, better to think of 4 acres as a bare minimum. Hay is significantly more concentrated than green growing plants. Thats due to the water content which bulks up growing plants, but doesnt offer any nutritional value. We have found that the appropriate amount to feed is better judged by how long it takes for the critter to clean it up. Weve come to feel that it should take about 3 hours. Quicker than that? Feed more. Stomping into the ground and wasting feed thats still on the ground at the next feeding? Feed less. Takes a bit to get know each critter. Because we feed ours in herds, the way the flakes are distributed and the extra flakes that are away from the main feeding spots are important. Its also really important to make sure the herds are made up of critters with about the same degree of aggression and competitiveness. We use some sack feed for our really old rascals. Sr. Equine sack feeds are generally safe and dont result in behavior problems. Feeding hot grains generally results in more energy, but not more weight. You might not like that unaimed extra horsepower or the added expense with no real improvement in condition. Grain is good for critters are being worked hard and need a boost in energy. Thats just not true for most of em. If youre having any doubts about feeding, your best source of good information would be the vet. I would beware of anyone that starts into the lists of supplements and additives recommendations. Theres always someone thinking they can do better than the Creator of these rascals that made em so they could eat grass and do just fine. Im not gonna call all of those little scoops of this and that snake oil powder, but that just might be what it is. Jim
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 14:49:27 +0000
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