How to Make the Best of Horse Feeds and Supplements
Horses have highly specialized food requirements especially horse feeds since they are herbivores with a bit different and complicated digestive mechanism. Their lengthy digestive system needs a high-fiber horse feed diet taken in little amounts over a long period. Horses consume mostly tiny meals in more frequency than at a huge meal.
The horse’s natural diet consists of grazing grass and plants but just as we need supplements to build our growth, horses as well need horse feed. The majority of the nourishment required by a horse to be healthy is found in good pasture or horse feeds. It also has silica, which is beneficial for tooth health.
The majority of horse owners like feeding their horses with horse feeds as it is beneficial. It’s fun to see your horse enjoy its tasty horse feeds and run to you when it sees you with the feed bucket. However, it is simple to make a mistake while determining your horse’s nutritional requirements. Avoid few frequent feeding blunders mentioned below:
Excess Feeding
As horse owners, it frequently includes feeding your horses the best horse feeds available. It’s easy, though, to go overboard with the horse feeds. Overfeeding can cause obesity in horses, including equine metabolic syndrome.
There’s no need to spend time preparing bran, chopping vegetables, or preparing complicated meals. Having your hay analyzed or switching to proper horse feeds is a smart idea since it will tell you what supplements you should add to your horse’s diet.
Under Feeding
With elderly horses and horses who work hard, underfeeding can be an issue. While hard working horses should appear slender, they should not appear haggard. If hay or pasture alone isn’t enough to maintain their health in excellent shape, horse feeds can help. Keep in mind, though, that grass or hay along with horse feeds can be an excellent combination.
Senior horses lose their capacity to digest food properly and may require vitamins and horse feeds to aid them. Look for horse feeds designed specifically for elderly horses and it will do wonders.
Inadequate Pasture Grass
When you look at a pasture from afar, it’s tempting to imagine it’s lush and green. However, a deeper look may indicate that your pasture is being overrun by unwanted weeds.
As a result, horses will have to work more to locate enough food, and they may begin to consume less nutritious and occasionally deadly plants. Maintain your pastures well or you can switch to quality horse feeds so that your horses have access to a quality diet.
Calculating the Volume as well as the weight
It’s critical to feed hay and quality horse feeds and concentrate by weight rather than volume. You can estimate the weight of horse feeds from your horse diet from tiny square bales.
Horse feeds manufacturers, encourage feeding by weight and calculate appropriate quantities based on body weight. At the very least, weigh the horse feed diet to determine the amount, and then mark each scoop to ensure that you serve the same amount each time.
Over-Supplementing
Over-supplementing horse feeds is a waste of money. In the worst-case scenario, over-supplementation might result in mineral or vitamin imbalances. It is advised that before adding vitamin or mineral supplements in the horse feeds get your food examined and check the components of your concentrates.
Also, salt is necessary to keep your horse’s electrolyte balance in check. Some horse owners use loose salt in their horse feeds. But it is highly advised to keep a check on the proportion of salts to prevent overdoing it.
