Balancing a horse’s diet
A comprehensive, scientific, deep knowledge of equine nutrition is not required to feed a horse well, with a correctly balanced diet. There are some simple steps to follow – even if you’re not a nutrition expert - which take the worry out of feeding your horse correctly.
My simple 6-step guide to feeding horses correctly can be found in my Equine Nutrition Learning Centre (the ENLC), and is explained and demystified in the Confident Horse Feeding Course.
This week’s blog will explain more about the bucket feeds or supplements that are used to balance the (inevitable) essential nutrient shortages in forages. There is some nutribaloney going around the internet that horses don’t need their forage balanced if you find the right type of hay. But that’s not true because it’s the nature of grass forages that makes them short of some essential minerals (notably selenium, zinc, copper and iodine) and short of vitamins (A and E) when they’re conserved, i.e. made into hay or haylage.
‘Essential nutrients’ are only given that term because research has shown that a horse or pony’s health will suffer long term if not fed all the essential nutrients they require. These deficiencies may take some time to become apparent and it is not possible to assess a horse’s body status of most nutrients from either looking at them or taking a blood test. We assess the dietary intake as the best way of ensuring all the essential nutrients are supplied in adequate amounts.
After the horse has been assessed for energy requirements (from their body condition) and an appropriate forage chosen or adapted (steamed, soaked, mixed, for example), a product needs to be fed to balance that forage. Which type of product a horse or pony needs depends on their individual energy and protein needs. Below is a simple guide on how to choose the correct product for a horse or pony, based on what they are missing from their forage.
1. If the horse is maintaining their weight and condition on forage-alone, then they simply need a vitamin and mineral supplement, usually fed at around 50-100g per day (for a 500kg horse; 10-20g per 100kg bodyweight (BW) daily). Mix with a few handfuls of any feed the horse likes. Soaked feeds can help the supplement to mix well and ensure the entire amount if eaten up. A list of good vitamin and mineral supplement can be found in the ENLC. Buyer beware because not all multi-vitamin and mineral supplements balance forage (annoyingly).
2. If they need a little more than just a supplement, or their protein supply is marginal, then you need a ‘balancer' which is a concentrate feed usually fed at around 500g daily (for a 500kg horse; 100g per 100kg BW). These can be mixed with chaff to encourage chewing or add fibre, or fed alone, dampened.
3. If they need a regular concentrate feed because they are not maintaining weight, condition or performance on forage plus supplement or balancer, then they need a concentrate compound feed (the easiest option) or concentrate straights plus a vitamin and mineral supplement and possibly extra calcium. If nuts/cubes are chosen, a chaff can be added to encourage chewing. These feeds will be required at a level of around 3-5kg (600g-1kg per 100kg BW) daily for a horse with high nutrient requirements. The full recommended amount must be fed to ensure adequate vitamin and mineral intake, and if this is too much, then option 2, the balancer is a better choice.
Salt for working horses and therapeutic (health-promoting) supplements are added only after the basic diet is correctly balanced, from one of the 3 choices above. Specific choices of feeds can be made depending on the individuals’ specific requirements e.g. high or low protein, succulence, extra digestible or chewable, low sugar/low starch, low calorie to keep them busy whilst herdmates are eating. But thinking first about which of the 3 types of product is chosen to balance the forage before considering everything else is a good way to ensure each individual horse or pony has a well-balanced diet for optimal health, happiness and well-being.