- Breeding
- Horse Breeding, Part 2: Breeding and Gestation
- Breeding Costs: Things to Consider
- The History of Horse Breeding
- Buying a Horse
- Cookies With a Clue For Your Horse
- What to Look For When Buying a Horse
- When Dealing With Horses Get It in Writing - Sign Up for May 16 FREE Webinar
- General Horse Articles
- Help Your Stiff Horse Bend
- Miniature Horses: Do Good Things Always Come in Small Packages?
- Nearly $7 Million Generated Annually for the District of Columbia
- Horse Feeding
- Ingredients in Feed that Affect Behavior
- Let's Talk About Equine Probiotics - Equitivia
- You’ve Got the Right Feed, Now What?: Proper Feeding Practices
- Horse Grooming
- What do do when the Panic is On to keep our Horses Safe!
- When Dealing With Horses Get It in Writing - Sign Up for May 16 FREE Webinar
- Mane Saving Ideas
- Horse Health Issues
- An Equine Electrolyte for All Seasons - Electro-Ryte™
- Old Habits Die Hard
- An Introduction to Equine Massage Therapy
- Horse Training
- Training Mythunderstandings: Teach Your Horse Anything in 3 Simple Steps
- When Dealing With Horses Get It in Writing - Sign Up for May 16 FREE Webinar
- Two-track to Slow Your Horse's Gaits
- Horses & History
- The History of Horse Breeding
- What do do when the Panic is On to keep our Horses Safe!
- Horses in Art: An Abridged History
- Horses & Sports
- Cookies With a Clue For Your Horse
- Equine Experts Send Us Your Best Tip - Win $750 Worth of KAM’s Healthy Horse Products and More
- What do do when the Panic is On to keep our Horses Safe!
Horse Nutrition: The Basics
05/26/2008
You love your horse, don’t you? Isn’t your horse’s health one of your top priorities? Here’s a refresher on how to ensure your horse’s health through what it consumes.
You love your horse, don’t you? Isn’t your horse’s health one of your top priorities? Here’s a refresher on how to ensure your horse’s health through what it consumes.
Horses need five main nutrients, like all other animals: water, energy (i.e. fats and carbohydrates), proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
Proteins
Many parts of the horse’s body use proteins: blood, hormones, muscles, hair, and hooves. Your average adult horse only needs 8% to 10% protein in their diet. This can easily be accomplished with alfalfa or other legumes in your horse’s hay.
Energy
A horse can get its energy from fats and carbohydrates. The amount of energy nutrients you provide your horse with is in direct relation to your horse’s energy needs: if your horse is exercised heavily, you increase its energy intake. With fat, a horse can only handle 15% to 20% fat in their diets, but they benefit only up to 8%. Plants have low levels of fat that can easily be included in a horse’s diet. Carbohydrates are obtained through grass, grain, and hay. Carbohydrates should be increased slowly and steadily, however: a sudden increase in carbohydrate intake can result in laminitis or colic.
Water
Like humans, it is critical to a horse’s life that it gets enough water. Without water, horses can only live a few days. It makes up over 60% of its body weight. An average adult horse needs 10-12 gallons of water per day. Water is a key component to a healthy digestive system. Some situations where this would increase include:
• Eating dry foods, such as hay or grain
• Consuming high levels of salt
• Hot weather
A lactating mare or a heavily stressed horse can consume up to four times the normal amount of water.
Vitamins and Minerals
Unless feeding low-quality hay or the horse is stressed, your horse will get all its adequate amounts of vitamins in their regular diet. If your horse is not getting the forage it needs, you can obtain a vitamin supplement to include in their diet. The same is true for your horse’s mineral needs. If your horse is not receiving the minerals it needs, it could develop a deficiency disease, so it is important to pay attention to the types of feed that you are using. As with the other nutrients, an increase in vitamins and minerals is needed when the horse is heavily stressed or training.
