WHAT’S TRENDING IN HORSE FEEDING

WHAT’S TRENDING IN FEEDING   Most of us don’t think of feeding horses as something that goes through trends. As we learn more about our horses’ needs and try to solve feeding issues though, it helps to know what information and resources are available. Today we’ll look at some of the current ideas and practices in feeding horses. This isn’t to suggest that you should try everything: some may work for you, some may not. It’s up to you to decide what is useful for your barn. WE ARE CHANGING OUR FEEDING ROUTINES: We’ve learned that horses have rather small stomachs despite their large size. They are built to take in small amounts of forage constantly. The best diet is one that relies on forage, with ration balancers and commercial feeds to cover what forages lack. When we change their natural routine, keep them stalled, and give them a few meals a day of a concentrated feed, we invite problems. Among these are ulcers, colic, and behavioral problems such as chewing. Simply put, the horse is happiest when he has free access to forage and can pick and choose when he wants to eat. You may be thinking “My horse would eat himself to death! And what about founder?” While most horses self-regulate, some simply won’t or can’t. It may be a metabolic issue, or their genetics, or their personality. Slow feed hay nets, muzzles, and frequent small feedings work well for these guys. If you choose to use nets, make sure that they are horse-safe, and that hooves can’t go through them, shoes can’t get hooked on them, halters can’t get clipped onto them, and that they won’t entangle legs. Horses are very good at finding accidents! As always, talk with your vet and feed store if you have concerns and questions about feeding. WE’RE FEEDING MORE ROUND BALES: Round bales used to be a common sight in front of cattle, but less so in front of horses. Now horse people frequently use them. There are a couple reasons for this, and the first is one you may not realize. More hay farmers are purchasing round balers instead of square balers, and this is usually driven by the lack of help. Not many kids want to spend their summers throwing bales. As the price of fuel, fertilizers, tractors, and equipment increase, farmers are hard pressed to find affordable help. Increases in minimum wage also affect the farmers’ bottom line. Baling hay in rounds means that fewer people are needed to get the hay from field to barn, because tractors do more of the work. No kickers, no wagons, and no kids needed to stack the bales. More people are feeding round bales because it’s an easier way to keep forage in front of horses constantly. It’s also an easy way to feed several horses in one paddock, as long as there are no dominant ponies preventing other horses from eating. We all know that pony, right? Round bales don’t work for everyone though. They can be difficult to store and move. They should be covered and protected if the weather is wet. If you don’t cover them, you’ll find that they may go moldy before the horse’s finish eating them. It’s also much harder to determine how much hay your horse is eating. If you are pulling hay off a round for feeding in the barn, it can be difficult to judge how many pounds you are giving out. One solution is to get a hanging scale and weigh the amount in a hay bag. After doing that for a few days, you’ll have a good feel of how many pounds you are feeding. Horses with free access to hay love to make it into bedding. To help prevent that, there are several products on the market. There are slow feed nets that go over a bale, round bale feeders, hay huts, and other ideas. My personal set-up is a slow feed net over a bale that is inside a round bale feeder. As an added bonus, using a slow feed net can keep horses busy with hay and not squabbling with each other. If you have a horse that just can’t seem to leave the round bale, you may wish to place a round bale outside your pasture and pull off what your horse needs during the day. Remember to keep it protected from the elements though. Hay is too expensive this year to waste! WE’RE ACCEPTING THE IDEA OF RATION BALANCERS: I’m repeating myself, but I really want to get this point across. Ration balancers are not feed, they are supplements. They provide the protein, vitamins, and minerals that your horse may need because the rest of his diet is forage, or you are not feeding enough of the commercial feeds, or you are feeding straight grains such as oats. Ration balancers are not meant to increase weight; in fact, they only tend to have 1000-1200 kcals per pound. (A 1000-pound horse at leisure needs roughly 16,000 kcals/day.) They are not a fiber source and won’t replace hay. They may seem expensive compared to commercial feeds, but you feed much less per day, so the cost per feeding is less than you think. WE’RE REALIZING THAT WE MAY NEED MORE FORAGE OPTIONS: We all know that hay is becoming more expensive due to increases in the farmer’s production cost. It’s also becoming harder to find in places, as more hayfields become house lots and the extreme weather prevents or delays cutting and curing. We’re starting to use more chopped forage in bags, more pelleted fiber sources, and more feeds that contain fiber sources such as beet pulp. Chopped bagged forage is more expensive per pound than a bale of hay, but it has the advantage of being clean, of consistent quality, and usually comes with a nutritional analysis too. I like to use it for minis because it is easy to control how much they are getting.