This advice about the best diet for your barefoot horse is generic; and is a good ‘base’ to start from. Specific issues should be referred to an Equine Nutritionist such as Clare Macleod.
The quality of your horse’s hoof horn is your main guide as to wether your horses diet is balanced. If the horn is irregular, weak and looks unhealthy, that is a huge indicator that the diet needs a revisit.
So, the most important part of your horses diet is:
1. Forage – pasture/hay & haylage must be provided ad lib. The horse’s hindgut is designed to have food moving through it continuously; letting the horse go for greater than 4 hours without eating is not good. There’s a greater chance of colic, and because the horse has nothing to do, its more likely that they’ll develop stable vices.
Good forage – Late cut hay and haylage contain the lowest sugars and are the best feed for your horses hooves. For fatty horses/ponies, adding straw to the hay so that the feed is consumed over a long period of time is a good option.
OK forage –Unfertilised pasture in the spring/summer can contain high amounts of sugar and should be restricted. Earlier cuts of hay/haylage should be soaked to remove the sugars.
Problematic forage. Fertilsed pasture (all year, but especially spring). Alfafa is also higher in sugars than meadow hay.
2. Balancer. Most of the UK grassland is deficient in the same vitamins and minerals, irrespective of local geography, therefore feeding a broad spectrum balancer is advised. Do feed the correct amount for the size of your horse/pony, or the diet will not be balanced.
3. Then. If you have a problem with keeping weight on your horses you have a number of options about how to provide more energy in their feed.
a. Improve the forage. Look for an earlier cut of hay/haylage. Since forage is the foodstuff that they will be eating the most of, improving the forage is the best option.
b. Provide compound feed. These are already balanced (as long as the correct dose is fed), so don’t continue feeding your balancer!
c. Oils. Linseed oil is a good source of additional energy.
And dont forget.. foodstuffs to be avoided.
a. Cereals. Barley wheat oats corn should be avoided (there is some debate about wether oats should be included in this list, but I’ll leave that to those more expert than me).
b. Sugar: Molasses, fructose are not absorbed well in the gut, and are believed to contribute to laminitis. Horses get their energy from fibre (forage) without the side effects of sugar.
c. Starch: The horses stomach can process only a small amount of starch, after that it overflows into the gut where it causes imbalances in the gut microflora. Side effects can be as mild as diarrhoea, or as serious as laminitis and colic.
Last thoughts.
Changing feeds slowly. Because of the unique design of the horses hindgut ( a fermentation chamber full of bacteria -read more here), it is important to change feeds over slowly to allow the microbial balance to adjust to the new food.
Its not ‘you are what you eat’ its actually ‘you are what you digest’ so if there are any problems in your horses gut, then they won’t get the nutrition from their diet. If you are providing a good diet, but the horse is not thriving then there may be more going on..
Think about ulcers – even if you’re providing the most nutritionlly balanced diet, ulcers can cause disruptions in how the nutrients are processed by the horse’s stomach/hindgut. n. Discuss with your vet Consider trying a course of Gastri-X from Hilton Herbs to see if it makes any difference.
For a fabulous exploration of the horses digestive system, check out this video 3D Horse Digestion Guide
