Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 4 of 5

Guideline 5: Roughage Is A Must, Type Is Flexible

While we would all ideally love to feed our horses perfect, leafy grass hay, such hay is getting more difficult to find and more expensive to buy every day. This is less of an issue if you have a 300 pound pony who needs 6 pounds a day. If you have a 1300 pound warmblood who needs 26 pounds a day, you're in for a headache or two.

Alfalfa hay/cubes/pellets, chopped oat straw, beet pulp, and bran are also roughages that can be used to supplement your horse's grass hay and concentrates to ensure that your horse gets enough bulk in his diet without breaking your pocket book. We as horse people simply have to be aware of the issues involved in each.

• Alfalfa hay and products made from it are well tolerated by most horses, provided they are slowly weaned onto it. It is also not acceptable as an unlimited feed for anything other than perhaps pregnant/lactating mares or horses under 2 years of age. Be aware that Alfalfa is much higher in protein and carbohydrate than Grass so you will need to adjust your horse's diet accordingly and it may not be acceptable for horses that are prone to founder. Also, alfalfa cubes have been linked to choke in some cases, so you may want to soak them in water first if your horse has choked in the past or if your horse has a tendency to bolt his feed.

• Beet pulp must be soaked prior to feeding because it absorbs water and expands as it does so. If a horse eats a large amount of dry beet pulp he will colic as a result. The plain pulp must be soaked in an equal volume of water until all water is absorbed, the pelleted kind must be soaked in 3 times the volume of water. It usually takes about 2 hours to soak beet pulp so plan ahead.

• Bran is high is phosphorus, so its feeding should be avoided in horses under two years of age, and in pregnant/lactating mares. Even then I would avoid feeding it in amounts greater than 1% of the daily diet unless you have calculated the calcium/phosphorus balance of the proposed diet and supplemented accordingly.

• Chopped Oat Straw (Chaff) is a commonly used forage in Europe, but sadly nearly impossible to find in the United States. Long stem straw straight out of a bale shouldn't be fed to horses as it has been linked to impaction colics. But chopped straw is a different story. If you can find it, without the mollasses coating, it is a great fiber addition to your horse's diet that adds very few calories and very little starch. I've also heard of pelleted hay products that contain straw, and these would likely be similar.
  

Guideline 6: Keep It Clean

We wouldn't eat off dirty plates or cook in a filthy kitchen, but often we seem to think our horse's don't care. Dirty feed rooms and filthy buckets do nothing but attract rodents and bugs. I'm not saying we ought to run our horses' feed buckets through the dishwasher or scrub the feed room floor with bleach (though that'd be really thorough). But a little soap and water goes a long way.

• Feed & Water Buckets: One thing that has worked for me in the past is to keep a small bottle of dish detergent and a bucket scrub brush hooked next to the hydrant closest to the feed storage. Then before I put fresh feed in the bucket I give it a quick scrub. For slimy water buckets try scrubbing with a splash of chlorine bleach. Just rinse extra carefully...and avoid wearing your best breaches when you do this (been there).

• Immobile Stall Feeders: Personally I loathe these, almost entirely because they are a chore to clean. Best method I've found? Get a wet dry vaccume. Vaccume out all the dust and dirt while the feeder is dry, then add a spot of soap and a cup or so of water and scrub away. Vaccume out the dirty water, add clean water and scrub again. Rinse and repeat until clean. Takes forever, and you'll never get them as clean as you would a bucket, but it's better than nothing.
  

• Feed Room: I've never been really together on cleaning, but what has worked for me is when I buy new grain, the bin gets dumped and the feed room floor gets swept. Then at least the floor doesn't build up too much filth, and the old feed dust doesn't spoil the new feed.

Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 2 of 5

Guideline 2: Never drop below 2%

The old standard has always been that your horse should be eating at least 1-3% of his body weight in food every day. I use 2-4% from personal experience because I believe strongly that horses without enough bulk to their diets are more prone to colic, ulcers, and behavioral issues like stable vices. Horses are physically and mentally intended to eat for most of the day. The more overall material we can give them, the better.

While sometimes 1% is necessary for founder prone easy keepers, I would rather try to cut calories and starches by making swaps in what they were eating than to cut the overall amount first. Seriously, have you ever tried to put a 1000 pound horse on a 10 pound a day feed plan? Trust me, it isn't pretty. You end up with a horse that is convinced they are starving and will likely start stall kicking or other undesireable behavior, which is likely to give you a bad case of rattled nerves. So, unless you have made all the swaps you can, and you absolutely must restrict intake further, I would stick with 2% or more.

I should say, that before calculating your 2%, you will need to remember that we need 2% of the horse's ideal weight, not their actual weight if there is a difference. This means that you will need to add or subtract approximately 50 lbs from your horse's actual weight for every BCS score other than 5. This is why it is necessary to know both those numbers. So if your horse's actual weight is 1250 pounds and his BCS is a 7, you will want to do your 2% calculation based on 1150 pounds (1150 = 1250 Actual Weight - 50 (BCS of 7 to BCS of 6) - 50 (BCS of 6 to BCS of 5)) When you calculate 2% a small 800 pound horse would need at least 16 pounds of total feed daily while a larger 1300 pound warmblood would need 26 pounds of total feed daily.

Guideline 3: Never more than 40% concentrates.

Research has shown time and time again that horses whose rations are 40% or more concentrates (grain, mixed and/or pelleted feeds) are much more likely to suffer from colic, ulcers, and behavioral issues. So after you do your 2% total feed calculation, take 40% of that, and make sure your concentrates never exceed that number. You will keep your horse physically and mentally healthier, and avoid wasting your money.

Can we get rid of horse feeding extremism please?

Many modern horse owners seem to fall into one of two extremist categories when it comes to horse feed. The first category seems to be those who have embraced the natural horse keeping ideal of unlimited pasture or grass hay and nothing else. Or they go buy a bag of mixed feed and feed a bucketful in the morning and a bucketful at night with a couple flakes of hay thrown in just for good measure.

Both will work fine in some cases for some horses. But lately I have run into several horse owners who refuse to deviate from their chosen extreme even when they are aware that it is not working for their horses. Not all horses are the same, not all situations are the same. If it works for the other 8 horses in the barn it doesn't mean it will work for your horse. If you expect to take good care of your horses you must be willing to change tactics when what you are doing isn't working. You also must be willing to do your research to find optimal solutions instead of just what is easy.