How does forage support a horse’s immune system?

Forage provides essential nutrients, like protein and energy, that support a horse’s overall health. Good quality forage can maintain adult horses and pregnant mares, while specific types of forage, such as grass-legume pastures and legume hays, offer unique benefits. Avoiding moldy or dusty feeds is crucial to prevent health issues in horses.

How Does Forage Support a Horse’s Immune System?

While the specific nutrient requirements of horses are not fully understood, forage plays a vital role in their diet. Forage typically includes pasture grass, harvested roughages, and concentrates, which can supply the necessary nutrients to keep a horse healthy. Good quality grass-legume pastures with iodized or trace-mineralized salt provide adequate nutrients for adult horses performing light work or for mares during pregnancy.

What Types of Forage are Best for Horses?

High-quality legume hays, such as early bloom alfalfa, are particularly beneficial for horses, especially those that are growing or lactating. Grass hays like timothy, prairie grass, orchard grass, and bluegrass were preferred by early horsemen because they were usually free from mold and dust.

Why is Avoiding Moldy or Dusty Forage Important?

Moldy or dusty feeds should be avoided because horses are extremely susceptible to forage poisoning and respiratory complications. Silages of all sorts should also be avoided since horses and mules are extremely susceptible to botulism and digestive upsets.

How Does Forage Intake Change as Horses Mature?

Weanling foals require three pounds of feed per hundred pounds of live weight per day; as they approach maturity, this requirement drops to one pound of feed per hundred pounds of live weight daily. Horses normally reach mature weight at less than four years of age and 80 percent of their mature weight at less than two years of age.

What if Sufficient Roughages Cannot Be Grown?

A large and ever-growing number of horses stabled in cities and suburbs where sufficient roughages cannot be grown provide a large market for complete horse rations, including roughage, which are tailored to the total needs of specific animals according to their particular function at a given time, such as growth, pregnancy, lactation, or maintenance.

Forage is a cornerstone of a horse’s diet, providing essential nutrients and energy. Selecting high-quality, mold-free forage and adjusting intake based on the horse’s life stage and activity level are key to maintaining their health and well-being.

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