What are the best feeding practices for horses with high energy demands?

Horses with high energy demands, such as those involved in heavy work, lactation, or growth, require specific feeding practices to maintain their health and performance. These practices involve balancing pasture forage, harvested roughages, and concentrates to meet their nutrient requirements. It’s also essential to avoid moldy or dusty feeds due to horses’ susceptibility to forage poisoning and respiratory complications.

What Are the Best Feeding Practices for Horses with High Energy Needs?

Horses require a well-balanced diet that includes pasture forage, harvested roughages, and concentrates to meet their nutritional needs. The specific and exact nutrient requirements of horses are poorly understood. However, understanding the types of feed and how they contribute to a horse’s diet is crucial.

Types of Feed for Horses

• Pasture: Grasses and legumes are a significant feed source for horses, offering a cost-effective way to provide nutrients during the growing season. Lush, early spring pasture, high in water and protein, may require supplementation with a high-energy source like grain for horses performing medium to heavy work.
• Roughages: This includes pasture grasses, hays, silage, root crops, straw, and stover (cornstalks). High-quality legume hays, like early bloom alfalfa, are preferred, especially for growing or lactating horses.
• Concentrates: High in energy value, concentrates include fat, cereal grains and their by-products (barley, corn, oats, rye, wheat), high-protein oil meals or cakes (soybean, canola, cottonseed, peanut [groundnut]), and by-products from processing of sugar beets, sugarcane, animals, and fish. Oats are often the preferred grain due to their bulk, but corn, barley, wheat, and milo can be used if they are more cost-effective.

How Much to Feed

Weanling foals need about three pounds of feed per hundred pounds of live weight daily. As they get closer to adulthood, this drops to one pound of feed per hundred pounds of live weight daily. Horses usually reach their mature weight before they turn four, and they reach 80% of their mature weight before they turn two.

Other key feeding considerations

• Supplementation: Late fall and winter pasture forage, low in water and protein, may need protein and vitamin A supplementation.
• Avoiding Harmful Feeds: Moldy or dusty feeds and silages of all sorts should be avoided because horses are extremely susceptible to forage poisoning, respiratory complications, botulism, and digestive upsets.
• Complete Horse Rations: 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.

People Also Ask (PAA) Section

How do I adjust feeding for a horse in heavy training?

Horses in heavy training need a diet that supports their increased energy expenditure. Supplementing pasture and roughage with high-energy concentrates such as grains is essential. The amount should be adjusted based on the horse’s body condition and performance level.

What are the specific nutrient requirements for lactating mares?

Lactating mares require high-quality legume hays, such as early bloom alfalfa, to support milk production and maintain their body condition. These hays are rich in protein and other essential nutrients needed for both the mare and foal.

How important is water intake for horses with high energy demands?

Adequate water intake is crucial for horses, especially those with high energy demands. Water aids in digestion, nutrient absorption, and temperature regulation. Dehydration can lead to decreased performance and health issues, so always ensure horses have access to fresh, clean water.

Feeding horses with high energy demands requires a balanced approach that considers the type and amount of feed, as well as the horse’s individual needs. By providing a diet that includes quality pasture, roughages, and concentrates, owners can ensure their horses remain healthy and perform at their best.

Want to discover more about specific supplements or alternative feeding strategies for horses with unique dietary needs?