Read About Horse Nutrition

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Horse nutrition includes all aspects of your horse’s diet. Proper nutrition can help ensure the health and well being of your horse. Good horse nutrition includes the proper balance of forage, energy sources, proteins, vitamins and minerals. The exact needs for any horse vary based on the horse’s overall health, activity level, age and weight, along with other mitigating factors (such as pregnant or lactating mares). Balanced horse nutrition and plenty of clean drinking water are critical to your horse’s health.

Forage includes the grass and hay that should make up about 1% of the horse’s total body weight each day. The hay your horse eats should be green and fresh. The outside of the bales may be bleached by the sun to a light gold color, but the inside of the bale should be fresh-smelling and clean. If the entire bale is yellow and coarse, the hay was probably left too long in the field before being cut. While it is still safe to feed to your horse, it is not as good a choice nutritionally as fresher hay would be. Hay that is brown, black, or musty smelling is not only poor horse nutrition, but could actually be harmful to your horse.

Energy sources for horses include cereal grains such as oats, corn, wheat and barley. Young horses who are still growing need far more of these than average adult horses. Likewise, lactating mares require higher concentrations of these important grains. Energy requirements are often stated in terms of calories, since there is no way to measure energy itself. The most efficient sources of energy are carbohydrates and fats. Grain mixes are usually the sources of these in horse Imagenutrition.

Proteins are also energy sources, but are not nearly as efficient as carbohydrates and fats. The main purpose of proteins in horse nutrition is to build muscle in developing horses and to help replenish the tissue of athletic horses. Young horses as well as pregnant mares in their last three months of gestation have higher protein needs than average adult horses. A mare’s protein needs are even higher while she is lactating.

Vitamins and minerals are an important part of proper horse nutrition. If your horse is grazing on high-quality forage, it is likely most of his vitamin requirements are being met. As a general rule, the more fresh the forage the more plentiful the vitamins. Some vitamins, such as carotene that supplies Vitamin A, lose their efficacy over time as hay is stored. If your horse feeds on mature forage, or forage that has been stored for any length of time, vitamin supplements may be warranted to help ensure proper horse nutrition. Minerals such as calcium and phosphorous play important roles in the growth and development of horses. Most horse feed is balanced to ensure the proper amounts of these minerals as an important part of horse nutrition.

Horse nutrition includes everything your horse puts in her mouth, from alfalfa or hay to proteins and minerals in her feed. Proper horse nutrition means ensuring your horse receives the proper amounts of the building blocks of her health to meet her needs at each stage of her life. A horse is a major investment; proper horse nutrition helps protect that investment every day.