Horse Feed – 5 Tips For Balanced Nutrition
Maintaining a healthy feeding routine for horses is a major challenge for owners and breeders. This is because horses are large and have a very delicate digestive system – which requires fractional feeding in small portions throughout the day, including the intake of a large amount of water.
We have separated some tips that will help you to maintain a balanced diet for the horses.
- Be aware of the amount of food per day
A horse weighing up to 500 kg must ingest throughout the day up to 2kg of feed, which needs to be divided into small portions. Thus, there is the intake of vital nutrients, which are beneficial to the animal’s body.
If you are training your horse for sports or other special purposes, then you should provide a balanced food. You can order balancers, nutrients rich feed and other horse accessories at Zoo-bio.co.uk.
- Feed properly
Large animals like horses need to be properly fed. Different body weights require different portions, so care needs to be given when handling and measuring out feed. An adult horse ingests 0.5 to 1% of its total weight in feed a day.
For this reason, it is very important to adapt the diet and complement it with other components, such as good quality grass and hay. However, this dosage must also be fractionated throughout the day.
- Keep the horse hydrated
It is necessary to provide a large amount of water for the horse to consume at will. However, the way to hydrate it is also important: water ideally should not be ingested straight after continuous physical exercise. The horse should be allowed to rest first and then drink the water.
- Consult a qualified professional
In addition to providing good nutrition and hydration for the horse, it is important that the animals are seen periodically by the veterinarian, as only the professional can diagnose diseases, request tests and make a performance evaluation.
- Check the essential nutrients in the food
The healthy diet of the horse must be combined with components rich in nutrients that provide physical well-being. For this reason, it is important that some items are present in the diet:
Fibres – found in grain husks, usually in corn, to increase the volume of the feed and improve digestion;
Cereals – They are commonly found in oats, barley and corn;
Forage – Normally bailed, and weighed out before consumption;
Carrots and apples – They should be consumed sporadically and can be given as an appetizing flavour.
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.