A horse supplement is a way to enhance your horse performance by adding additional nutrients in his natural diet. Basically, forage is the main diet of horse and it has all vitamins, minerals, proteins and energy that help in maintaining your horse health. But, due to certain factors like high-performance stress, age, or to deal with separation anxiety your horse needs more supplements to enhance performance and health. Therefore, these additives have the ability to restore their body’s nutrients and minerals more rapidly than a natural diet. But, do you know the perfect way to feed your horse? Here, we have a complete guide for you:
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1. Right Way to Feed Forage
Forage(grass) is an important feed in the diet plan of every horse. Therefore, it can be fresh as well as harvested. Harvested Forage is further classified into two categories such as “legume” or “grass”. Where former is rich in calcium and proteins and the later has fewer nutrients but high fibre. Hay or called harvested forage helps in increasing digestion power and reduce the risk of choke. Remember, while feeding hays, it is important to check that the hay should not be mouldy as it can cause a problem in horse digestion. But, always keep in mind, there can be variation in hay nutrient level, therefore it is highly desirable to get the accurate idea of hay nutrients. For this, you can also send some sample of hay in labs for testing. You will get the idea for the lagging nutrients and can add horse supplements accordingly.
2. Go with Concentrates
Concentrates is made from the combination of both traditional grains and modern companies feed. Traditional meals involve oats, barley, corn and commercial grains combinations to fulfil horse fibre and energy requirements. Therefore, this feed is given to horses that need high energy requirements such as growing, performer or a senior horse whose requirement that cannot be fulfilled by hay alone. Therefore, feed companies offer a wide choice in this context.
For example, ration balance is given to the horses that are low in calories and sugar, in addition, their energy level requires more proteins. So, the supplements can easily fulfil their high protein and nutrient requirements. But always keep in mind, food which is high in starch and carbohydrates are harder to digest which can lead to the breakdown of bacteria in the cecum due to overproduction of lactic acid, so be little careful. And it's better to take professional advice.
3. Life-saver Water
Normally, people neglect the importance of water in the horse’s diet. Remember, adequate hydration plays an important role in normal organ function and it reduces the risk of colic. On an average 8 gallons of water is required by 1100lb horse. But, the quantity will go on increasing with the variation in factors like heat, humidity, pregnancy, or exercise, in such situations, the horse will definitely need extra water to maintain health. But, if your horse drinks less water then you can add electrolytes to encourage their drinking habit. Most importantly, always check the water for the horse must be always fresh and clean.
4. Power of Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements
If you want to build your horse’s equine performance then it is highly essential to add additional nutrients in their diet. For example, addition ration balance can boost protein level and for minerals and vitamins, you can go with additional supplements. But it is highly advisable to follow veterinarian advice, so as to eliminate the issue of over and under supplementation.
Bottom Line
Hopefully, the above clarification provides you with a brief guide for horse feeding. In addition to the above, you should also know the basic rules for horse feeding like:
- Feed them in a small amount more often, then offering large once.
- Always give them clean and fresh water and in winter warm water can motivate them to drink more.
- All horse prefers a fixed routine, so, if you want to make changes in their schedule then go with a slow process.
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