Active horses require a balanced diet of essential nutrients to maintain their health, performance, and overall well-being. These nutrients include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water. Supplying these nutrients through a combination of pasture, harvested roughages, and concentrates ensures that active horses receive the necessary building blocks for energy, growth, and repair.
What are the Key Nutrients for Active Horses?
The specific nutrient requirements of horses are not fully understood. However, a diet of pasture forage, harvested roughages, and concentrates can economically supply these nutrients. Horses require a variety of nutrients to sustain life processes, support muscular activity, and maintain overall health.
Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats
Carbohydrates and fats are the primary sources of energy for horses, fueling their activities and maintaining bodily functions. When energy intake exceeds requirements, the surplus is stored as body fat, which can be utilized later as a source of energy if less food becomes available. Protein also supplies energy, particularly if carbohydrate and fat intake is inadequate or if protein intake exceeds the needs of the body.
Minerals
Minerals are essential for various physiological processes, including bone development, nerve function, and enzyme activity. Key minerals for horses include:
- Calcium and Phosphorus These are needed for bone, milk, and eggshell production and are available in bonemeal, dicalcium phosphate, and defluorinated phosphates.
- Common Salt (Sodium Chloride) All farm animals generally need more common salt than is contained in their feeds, and they are supplied with it regularly.
- Copper and Cobalt In some areas, soil and forage are deficient in copper and cobalt, which are needed along with iron for the formation of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying pigment of the red blood cells.
- Iodine Small amounts of iodine are needed by animals for the formation of thyroxine, a compound containing iodine, secreted by the thyroid gland.
- Iron Iron, used in hemoglobin formation, is amply supplied in most animal feeds, except milk.
- Magnesium
- Manganese Manganese is essential for animals, and the usual diets for all farm animals supply sufficient quantities.
- Potassium
- Selenium While trace amounts of selenium are necessary for normal health, excessive amounts, which can be found in forages and grains in some regions, are toxic and may cause death.
- Sulfur
- Zinc Normal diets for swine are often deficient in zinc, especially in the presence of excess calcium.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic compounds that play crucial roles in metabolism, immune function, and overall health. Key vitamins for horses include:
- Vitamin A Vitamin A, the one most apt to be lacking in livestock feeds, is required for growth, reproduction, milk production, and the maintenance of normal resistance to respiratory infections.
- Vitamin B Group The vitamin B group is not important in the feeding of cattle, sheep, and other ruminants, because the bacteria in their rumen synthesize these vitamins.
- Vitamin C Vitamin C, which prevents scurvy in humans and guinea pigs, can be synthesized in the bodies of most other animals and need not be supplied in their food.
- Vitamin D Vitamin D enables animals to use calcium and phosphorus; a deficiency causes rickets in young growing animals.
- Vitamin E Vitamin E is necessary for normal hatching of eggs and plays a role along with selenium in preventing muscle stiffness and paralysis (dystrophy) in lambs, calves, and chicks under certain conditions.
- Vitamin K Vitamin K is synthesized by bacteria in the intestinal tract and can be absorbed, and, if livestock can ingest feces, a dietary supply is usually not important.
Water
Water is often overlooked but is arguably the most critical nutrient for horses. It is essential for hydration, digestion, nutrient absorption, and waste elimination.
People Also Ask (PAA)
How much should I feed my active horse?
The amount to feed depends on the horse’s weight, activity level, and life stage. Weanling foals require three pounds of feed per hundred pounds of live weight daily. 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 are good sources of roughage for horses?
Good quality grass-legume pastures, in addition to iodized or trace-mineralized salt, will supply adequate nutrients to maintain an adult horse at light work or mares during pregnancy. High-quality legume hays, such as early bloom alfalfa, are preferred for horses, especially those that are growing or lactating. Grass hays, such as timothy, prairie grass, orchard grass, and bluegrass, were preferred by early horsemen, especially for race horses, because they were usually free from mold and dust and tended to slow down the rate of passage through the intestinal tract.
Are there any feeds I should avoid giving my horse?
Moldy or dusty feeds should be avoided because horses are extremely susceptible to forage poisoning and respiratory complications. Silages of all sorts should be avoided since horses and mules are extremely susceptible to botulism and digestive upsets.
Providing your active horse with a balanced diet that includes the right amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water is crucial for their health and performance. Understanding these essential nutrients and how to provide them will help you keep your horse healthy.
Would you like to explore specific feeding strategies for different activity levels?