Why "a handful of this, a scoop of that" feeding is quietly wrecking more horses than people realise

[admin]

I've lost count of how many yards I've walked into where the feed room looks like a chemistry set gone wrong. Half a scoop of this, a cup of that, a supplement added because someone at the last show recommended it. Nobody's weighed a bucket in years.

The horse's gut doesn't care how confident we feel about our guesswork. It runs on fibre first, and most of what goes wrong (ulcers, loose manure, weight that won't shift, horses that spook for no reason) traces back to forage being an afterthought rather than the base of the diet. Hard feed should be topping up what forage can't provide, not replacing it because it's easier to pour from a bag than manage a paddock or a hay budget.

A few things that changed how I feed, for anyone who wants to compare notes:

• Weighing hay and hard feed for a full week, not just guessing off a scoop. Most people are out by 30 to 40 percent, usually on the low side for forage.
• Splitting feeds into smaller, more frequent meals rather than two big ones. The equine gut is built for near constant trickle feeding, not two large sittings.
• Treating supplements as the exception, not the default. If the diet and pasture are right, most horses need very little added on top.

Keen to hear how others are feeding, especially anyone managing horses on poor pasture through winter. What does your ratio of hay to hard feed actually look like once you weigh it out?

 

[Zimalia]

We rarely grained horses. They were always feed a good quality alfalfa hay. If they needed something else, they got it, but they rarely did. We kept studs and saddle stock in the barn, all the broodmares, young stuff and old retired stuff was out on pasture. In the winter, it was not unusual at all to go over a month without seeing any horses at all save for the ones in the barn.

I have wondered, is this a successful marketing ploy to give everyone the idea that horses "need" all that extra feed? Or is the hay quality just that poor in other parts of the country?

Another thing, horses are not born loving grain. If you would have put it in front of my broodmares, they would have looked at you like you were trying to poison them! They had never had it, didn't know what it was and didn't want it. In later years, when I weaned foals, I would introduce them to grain just so they would know what it was. Some had a very difficult time accepting it. They would spill it out of the pan, and walk away. It didn't interest them in the slightest.

I can show you photos of mares that had never had grain in their lives.