Most horse owners enjoy feeding their horses. It can be fun watching your horse enjoy its meal and come running up when he spots you with its feed bucket! However, mistakes are easily made when planning their dietary needs; to prevent these common feeding errors. Here are 10 of them.
As horse owners, we understandably take great pleasure in caring for our companions, which includes offering them top quality feed. However, overfeeding can easily lead to problems of obesity such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome and ultimately cause laminitis in horses. If you find yourself becoming the master chef for an animal that does not require special feeding needs, such as those for horses with digestive problems, it could be possible that you could end up overfeeding it. Many horses only need a simple diet consisting of pasture or hay, with supplements added only when there is an apparent nutritional deficit. No need to devote hours each week to creating bran mashes and serving up elaborate meals! A hay test could reveal which supplements might be necessary to add to their diet.
Overfeeding can be a significant problem among young horses. While it’s tempting to keep a weanling or yearling looking their most adorable, too rapid growth may cause joint malformations. Your youngster would benefit from slow steady growth with regular parasite control medications and exercise that would maintain lean and fit muscle development.
Underfeeding can be a serious problem with senior horses and those working hard. While hard-working horses should look lean, they should not look gaunt. If hay or pasture alone won’t keep your working horse healthy enough, supplement it with concentrates as necessary; but remember that grass should make up most of his diet; underfeeding with grains or concentrates can cause colic.
Senior horses lose the ability to digest food efficiently, and may require extra assistance in the form of supplements and concentrates. Look for feed specifically designed for senior horses.