25/01/2024
This is a really good list of things to think about with your horses diet and management! It’s always part of the whole picture but remember if the horse isn’t adequately provided for in its diet everything else is impacted. You can’t expect your horse to build topline and maintain strong and flexible muscles when they’re under weight or over weight!!
***ANSWERS TO THE TOP THIRTY MOST COMMON NUTRITION AND WORMING QUESTIONS***
I updated and added to this every year for a while, but I haven’t done that for a few years now! I’ve added to the list with some info about grass and pasture specifically as I’m finding that these are the things that horse owners struggle to understand the most.
1. If there isn’t adequate pasture, your horse needs hay. 1.5%-2.5% of its body weight per day. It’s all well and good getting what’s in the bucket right, but roughage is the key to a healthy gastrointestinal system and without a healthy gut you just can’t have a healthy horse! A lack of roughage can lead to colic, ulcers, a lack of condition and a whole range of other issues. In fact, even if you do have adequate pasture, chances are your horse will still benefit from some hay.
2. From an owner's perspective, the most difficult part of equine nutrition is understanding grass. Balancing the diet is relatively easy, but unless you understand pasture and its effects on individual horses then you’re going to struggle. Start your ‘learning about pasture’ journey now or get in touch with someone that can help you.
3. The sugar and starch in grass isn’t constant! If you’re having grass issues then the safest time to let your horse onto pasture is just before the sun rises as the grass has used up its sugars to grow overnight. Sugars are highest in the late afternoon just before the sun goes down. This makes the safest times to graze are between about 4am and 9/10am. Obviously you’re unlikely to wake up in the middle of the night to put the horse out, but letting your horse out for a few hours between waking up and going to work/lunch is a good start. *Note that if the temperature at night drops to below 5C this will cause the grass to 'shut down' and store/accumulate sugars. So if this is the case your horse shouldn’t be allowed onto grass for that day.
4. Plan ahead for all grass-related issues. Don’t wait until the spring grass has sprung, get sorted early. If your horse is affected by grass then it’s much easier to prevent the problem then it is to fix the problem. Like with all things horse (and life), prevention is better than cure!
5. Feeding your horses a VARIETY of roughages is beneficial. Every webinar about horse nutrition I have listened to lately has suggested that variety helps the gut to be healthy, and a healthy gut leads to a horse with less behavioural issues.
6. Further to the above; The brain and the gut are closely related, Google ‘gut-brain axis’ and enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole.
7. Horses are designed to graze and browse, this means that always feeding them at the same height isn’t mimicking their natural environment. Mix it up a bit and think about how this might assist with some ‘passive physio’.
8. Magnesium is not the answer to all your issues. Neither is turmeric.
9. Get creative with your paddocks. Use temporary fencing to restrict intake and keep horses on more mature grasses and reduce how they selectively graze. Incorporate a track system, use slow feeder nets, you can also add logs and natural obstacles to help your horse’s body and brain.
10. Lucerne isn’t high in sugar. Rye/clover, oaten and wheaten hay probably is. Teff, Rhodes and native hays are likely to be lower in sugar than ryegrass-based hays (often called pasture/meadow) and cereal hays, but unless it’s tested you can’t know for sure. I’ve seen high sugar Teff and low sugar oaten, so testing is the only way to know.
11. Your horse is very unlikely to be getting all it needs from grass/hay (no matter how good it looks). It very likely needs at least copper, zinc and selenium and also probably iodine, sodium and chloride. Find a supplement that contains AT least the first three/four and salt will replace sodium and chloride.
12. Mineral blocks are mostly salt and molasses - they do not and cannot replace the minerals your horse needs (i.e. the ones missing from grass and/or hay). None of them. Even the good ones. Your horse would have to lick for Australia to get what it needs.
13. Your horse probably needs salt added to its diet, almost certainly if it's in a lot of work and it's summer. A salt lick may be okay if your horse isn’t in very much work. If it’s in work and the weather is hot you should probably be feeding at least a tablespoon a day. Horses need electrolytes in winter too. Pool salt is probably fine in most instances, but it’s not food grade. Many horses prefer fine salt, but some find coarse perfectly acceptable.
14. Your horse doesn’t need any more iron. There’s plenty in everything they eat. Don’t buy a supplement with added iron in it.
15. Soy isn’t evil, but if you’re not keen on it, feed something else. Some horses don’t do well on soy, but some cope just fine. H**p meal is a great alternative to soy.
16. To put weight on your horse, first feed more hay. If you’re still struggling add lucerne hay. If you’re still struggling then you can try beet pulp, soaked cracked lupins, copra or soy hulls. If you can afford it, add up to 150ml of food grade flaxseed oil as well (not the furniture one, that one is for furniture). If you can’t afford 150ml of flaxseed oil use ½/ flaxseed oil ½ canola oil to maintain a decent omega 3:6 ratio.
17. Topline is a combination of a good diet containing adequate essential amino acids (such as lysine) and correct work. An under-conditioned horse can’t have good topline. If your horse isn’t getting enough protein and amino acids it can’t build or maintain topline. Beet and grains don’t contain enough protein. If your horse is in pain or has a poorly fitting saddle it’s also not going to be able to build good topline. If your horse isn’t moving well biomechanically it’s not going to be able to build good topline either. It’s not always the diet.
18. Ulcers are tricky. If you can afford it, have your horse scoped, it’s the only way to know for sure and it’s cheaper than omeprazole. If you really can't afford it then first get your diet right, provide enough roughage, reduce stress. Stop any grain and processed stuff. Try an over-the-counter product. If that doesn’t work try a vet prescribed omeprazole product. If that doesn’t have any effect your horse either doesn’t have ulcers or you need to scope.
19. There’s research to support that getting the omega 3:6 ratio in the diet right is important. This means it’s very likely that feeding flax or chia or h**p oil is a good idea. You also get a free shiny coat for your efforts! No other vegetarian oil besides flaxseed, chia seed or h**p oils (h**p is a little different, but still a great option) has the right ratio of omega 3 to 6 and may promote inflammatory conditions.
20. ‘Complete feed’ in MANY instances just isn’t that good, claims of ‘low GI’, ‘cool/calm conditioning’ and ‘laminitis friendly’ is mostly just marketing. Some of them are okay, but some are little more than expensive chaff. Yes, some people get good results sometimes, but doing some research and doing it yourself in most instances will get you better results, will be more affordable and give you more control over your horse’s intake.
21. If you’re looking to reduce your feed bill (because horses = poverty) then think outside the box. Net your hay (it lasts a lot longer), buy rounds and put it in nets, consider if your horse really does need that super expensive gut supplement ongoing (maybe it does, but maybe it doesn’t) and make sure your diet is balanced. If your horse isn’t getting minimum protein requirements then it’s going to struggle regardless of what else you’re feeding.
22. If your horse is overweight DO NOT rug in winter. This is your opportunity to reduce weight before spring comes and provides excessive sugary goodness to make your horse fat and footsore. If you have a normal-keeper then you may need to provide extra hay to keep it warm in winter. If you have a hard keeper you probably need a rug and more hay.
23. If your pony/horse has laminitis, lock it up completely off grass and feed actual tested low sugar hay at 1.5%-2% of its body weight per day. If you don’t have access to this hay, soak your hay for 30 minutes in warm or 60 minutes in cold water. This will also leach minerals so make sure you’re feeding a good quality mineral mix and salt. If it’s laminitic and thin see point 16 (noting that each horse is different and some won’t tolerate some feeds).
24. If you’re going to lock a horse up, you MUST feed it hay (see point 1). Slow Feeder nets are godsends for fat, greedy, bored ponies, so is exercise. Exercise will actually stimulate the insulin response AND cause weight loss. Diet alone can't do this.
25. If your horse is prone to laminitis it more than likely has an endocrine issue (Cushing's or Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)). Cushing’s and EMS are on a spectrum. If you’re spending the money on pergolide/prascend spend the money on asking a qualified nutritionist for a diet that’s specifically tailored for your horse and its needs. If your horse has an endocrine condition then diet MUST play a major part of the management strategy. An individual diet plan can be created for less than the price of a fancy saddle blanket.
26. If your horse has an endocrine issue then you must have a plan for spring/autumn grass and put it in place BEFOREHAND. It can reap a huge amount of damage in a very short space of time.
25. Many horses can't gain weight if they're in pain, under a lot of stress or have issues with their teeth, feet, saddle, stress. Good horse health always requires a multi-pronged approach.
26. Just because you don’t see parasites in your horse’s poo doesn’t mean it doesn’t have worms. Just because your horse looks fine doesn’t mean it doesn’t have worms. Just because it looks terrible, doesn’t mean it does have worms. 20% of horses carry 80% of worms. There are excellent odds your horse doesn’t need worming more than once or twice a year.
27. Dentists aren't farriers, bodyworkers aren't dentists and vets aren't nutritionists. Do you expect your GP to operate on you or manipulate your spine?
28. Worming is easy (promise!). Equest once a year after the first frost and do faecal egg counts in between (every 8-10 weeks unless you just wormed with Equest (moxidectin/praziquantel) and then you can wait 14-16 weeks). Rotational worming every 8-10 weeks is completely outdated; even pharmaceutical companies agree. If your vet doesn’t, find a new vet.
29. Pinworm often needs addressing from the inside (with a wormer) and the from the outside (diluted neem oil and/or vaseline spread around the a**s for several days each afternoon prior to and after worming). This is because adults lay eggs outside the a**s at night and crawl back in in the morning. Yep, gross.
30. Random people on the internet do not know what to feed your horse! Everyone has an opinion, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. Chopping and changing your horse’s diet based on what someone on Facebook says isn’t the answer. If you want your diet to be specifically tailored, or you have a problem that can’t be solved by the above, contact a qualified and independent nutritionist. Getting a diet made up by a feed company for free is great, but do you think they are going to recommend products other than their own?
