06/03/2024
Our Open House event is next month!
We will be doing some posts to thank our sponsors for the event, and tell you a bit more about what we will be doing here for it!
Part of our Open House will be options to hear about our nutrition program and how we get our horses more comfortable through diet, so here is a brief overview:
A few guidelines we have here at our farm are:
⭐️Make sure as much of the horse’s diet is from forage as possible.
Does the horse seem to need weight? Add more forage. Does the horse seem ulcery and may not be absorbing nutrients well? Allow constant access to forage. Does the horse seem stressed? Make sure they have forage.
Of course, here where we do worry about hoof comfort, we make sure the constant access to forage is in the form of dry hay, since fresh pasture can cause problems with metabolic horses. We do have some horses that rotationally graze certain seasons, but overall, we allow 24/7 access to hay through slow feed nets and feeders.
⭐️Try to avoid monoculture.
I want the horse’s here to have a healthy gut microbiome, so I don’t want hay that’s been sprayed to death to make a monoculture that doesn’t give them access to various kinds of safe grasses and forages throughout the day. I want a variety of plants/grasses! Obviously, we watch closely to make sure anything they eat is species appropriate and horse safe as well as safe metabolically, but I don’t freak out if my hay grasses don’t look 100% the same in a bale. In fact, I kind of like that.
⭐️Test hay to know what your horse is and isn’t getting from it.
There’s absolutely no way to know what’s in your hay unless you test it. We test all our hay here, and check for things like digestible energy (calories), protein levels, major and minor minerals, moisture content, RFV, sugar and starch levels, and more. All of this information allows me to make decisions on what else each horse needs individually. Which brings me to my last point…
⭐️Make choices for each individual horse.
Obviously 24/7 hay that has a diversity of forage in it is a great starting point for our horses here. That being said in our hay tests, every single one I’ve done over the last 10 years has been deficient in minor minerals, and no matter how much the horse eats it won’t supply what they need at even the most basic level according to the NRC requirements. With my hay test, I then consider each horse’s weight, workload, age and metabolic status and more to decide what else to feed them to ensure they are getting what they need to thrive.
Right now, the horses at my rehab facility get a mix of minerals fed in a forage carrier, as well as vitamin E (since this isn’t available in hay, only fresh grass), and various options for calories, gut health, joint health, and more based on the individual horse.
My hay tests for the last few years in New England have all matched super well to Vermont Blend from Custom Equine Nutrition, as well as some extra copper and zinc and vitamin E (I use liquid micellized Emcelle for better bioavailability and cost effectiveness).
Nicole over at Custom Equine has been a huge help and just wonderful for helping as needed on the mineral side of things. I also want to give her a big shout out for sponsoring our Open House event here in Amesbury, MA on Saturday July 13! I do truly believe our rehab horses’ feet improve as much as they do because of her help and supplements.
We hope to see you all at our facility July 13th to learn more ☺️
