Horse Feed

Horse feed can come in many forms and can differ based off the age, weight, and even exercise level of your equine companion. Sweet feed, pelleted feed, bran feed, and oat feed are some of the more common feeds used as horse food.

Make sure that your horse is getting the proper nutrition it needs by ensuring it eats correctly. Horses and ponies are grazing animals that need to be fed forage feed to keep their digestive systems functioning properly.

A horse or pony will need to consume about two percent of their body weight in feed each day. This will depend on their activity level and their age. At least half of the horse's feed should be forage feed.

For optimal health, a horse would need to eat all forage feed. Owners can do some research on feed ingredients to find the feed with the higher quality ingredients for your horse.

For older horses, or horses with lower activity levels, it is necessary to keep them on a diet of forage feed alone. For horses which consume just grass, they will still need to get forage feed additionally during the colder months of the year. For breeding horses and working horses extra forage food will probably be needed.

It is important to remember that a horse or pony that has exercise and then rest days will need less food during the rest to prevent Azoturia. All changes in feed should be avoided at this time.

Feed time is also an important factor in the horse or pony's health. There should be a regular feeding time. Time should be given after exercise before the horse is fed.

Hard exercise on a full stomach can cause stain on the heart and also breathing problems. The horse or pony shouldn't exercise and then be fed. Wait a few hours first.

Finally, water should be available at all times. In addition to the basic food, horse owners may wish to add salt, seaweed or bran as supplements. Other horse treats used by some owners are fruit, maize or cod liver oil. Following these feeding techniques will help to keep a horse healthy.

Useful Links:

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The page will tell you all about sweet feed.

Read this page to learn more about pelleted feed.

Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of oat feed.

Read up on the horse supplement.