Description
Forage should make up the largest portion of the horse’s diet and is therefore essential for physical and psychological wellbeing. Inadequate forage intake can exacerbate and lead to a range of clinical issues, including ulcers, colic and general microbial dysbiosis.
Forage can vary in nutritional quality and therefore dictates what needs to be fed alongside it to ensure a balanced diet. With the likelihood of it also being in short supply, this winter, the feeding of alternative fibre sources as forage replacers may be necessary.
What are the options that clients should consider, and which are most appropriate when clinical issues are involved?
Learning Objectives
- Calculating a horse’s minimum fibre requirement and why meeting this is important for physical and psychological health and wellbeing, focusing on gastric ulcers and the gut microbiome.
- What nutrients are likely to be lacking from average forage and what do we feed to meet those shortfalls?
- How do we provide enough fibre when there’s a forage shortage?
- Suitable fibre alternatives, looking at calories, digestibility and water-soluble carbohydrates when dealing with clinical considerations like obesity, ulcers, colic, poor dentition, laminitis, EMS and PPID.
