Forage
What can I feed if my horse can't or won't eat sufficient forage or grass? ↓
Since the fibre provided by pasture and forage such an important element of the horses's diet, it's essential we provide fibre or forage alternatives when a horse of pony is not eating sufficient forage or grass. These are often referred to as "forage replacers" and can include alfalfa chaffs or pellets, straw-based chaffs, beet pulps and chopped grasses or pellets.
They should be fed in buckets separate from the horse's normal mix, cube or balancer as a "haynet in a bucket", and offering several different options at the same time can encourage natural foraging behaviour and an increase in overall fibre consumption.Find out more in the following article:
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Can I just feed forage alone and no compound feed? ↓
Whilst good-doers may look well and happy on fibre "feeds" and forage alone, our extensive analyses of pastures and forages, over the past 15 years, show that the nutritional profiles of grass, hay and haylage can vary and are highly likely to be deficient in some vitamins and minerals. Beet products and even alfalfa, which can provide as much energy as a low energy concentrate, are not fully balanced with vitamins and minerals and can over provide some nutrients whilst under supplying others. To ensure the horse has everything he needs a vitamin and mineral supplement, concentrated balancer or the recommended quantity of a fully balanced feed should fed.
When a horse needs more calories than forage alone can supply, it makes sense to provide a small volume of a concentrated, highly digestible source so as to take up as little of his appetite capacity as necessary. This allows him to continue to eat large volumes of lower energy forage to satisfy his physiological need to chew and provide bulk for the efficient functioning of the digestive system.
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Feeding at Grass; Why Bother?
All About Balancers
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No.14 Lo-Cal balancer
No.19 Performance Balancer
Stud BalancerWhen should I soak hay and for how long? ↓
Most hay carries some dust and pollen so soaking is generally advisable to avoid causing respiratory problems. Soaking for about 20 minutes is recommended, as this is the time where the balance between nutrient losses and the reduction of dust are optimum. For laminitics or good-doers, soaking for around 8 hours, weather permitting, will leach out a large proportion of water soluble carbohydrates (wsc) from the hay, so that it provides few calories whilst still supplying valuable fibre.
Find out more in the following articles:
Forage; All a horse needs?
Forage; the Long and the Short of it!
To find out how much to feed your horse try our Feed FinderShould I avoid feeding haylage to a laminitic? ↓
A lot depends on the quality of the haylage in question! It is entirely possible for a soft, leafy, early-cut hay to provide more calories, and have higher soluble carbohydrate levels than a stalkier, later-cut haylage. As a general rule, haylage can be more digestible than hay so horses and ponies tend to do better on it and, due to its increased moisture content, the nutrients are more available to the horse.
So, when choosing forage for a laminitic, go for stalkier, less digestible hay or haylage which will have a high fibre content and lower sugar/soluble carbohydrate content. When controlling calorie intake to encourage weight loss, make a smaller amount of forage last longer by using small-holed haynets or one net inside another.
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Laminitis - What it is and How to Avoid itShould I feed less haylage than hay? ↓
Whilst the increased water content of haylage means certain nutrients are more available to the horse, giving the impression that it is more nutritious, it also means that haylage weighs more than the same volume of hay. For this reason, you need to give your horse more haylage, by weight, than hay to ensure he is still getting plenty of fibre. Limiting the amount of haylage a horse is given is more likely to result in digestive upsets and behavioural problems due to boredom.
Find out more in the following articles:
Forage: All a horse needs?
Forage; the Long and the Short of it!
To find out how much to feed your horse try our Feed Finder.How much forage should a horse have daily? ↓
Despite its ability to graze for long periods, a horse has a limited appetite and can only consume the equivalent of 2 - 2.5% of its bodyweight as food per day. Ideally, as much of this as possible should be forage. Those who need to lose weight and for whom forage is the main source of calories, may have their forage ration limited to 1.5% of bodyweight and fed in small-holed nets or using other ways to make the reduced amount last the horse longer.
Apart from its nutritional contribution to the horse, forage is also of physiological and psychological importance to the horse. The digestive system is designed to have a constant steady flow of fibre-rich food flowing through so access to ad lib forage will ensure it continues to function healthily. The horse is designed to graze for 18 out of every 24 hours and being deprived of forage or pasture for any length of time will cause stress as well as digestive upset. Also chewing releases saliva, which helps neutralise the acid constantly produced by the horse’s stomach, so any period without forage leaves the stomach vulnerable to ulceration.
To find out how much and what to feed your horse try our Feed FinderDo I need to add chaff to my horse's feed? ↓
If your horse gets ad lib forage (grass/hay/haylage) and eats this well, he will be fulfilling his fibre requirements so the small amount added to a concentrate feed in the form of chaff, is insignificant. Adding chaff can be useful, however, to encourage greedy horses to chew and to "bulk out" small volumes of feed or balancers so the horse has more to chew.
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