Lisa Unleashed: Hay Is For Horses Part II
Knowing how much extra to feed your horse in cold weather starts with knowing what to feed him year-round to keep him in good weight depending on his age, breed, exercise level, and his general overall health. In the wild, horses free feed themselves exclusive on forage or pasture grasses and plants. In today’s modern world of stabled horses, free-feed pasture has been replaced by limited feed of hay and concentrated feed like whole grains like oats or corn or a processed pelleted feed.
Experienced horse people have an “eye” to know when their horse is too thin or too fat or just right. Similarly, they know when a horse or pony has too much energy — like putting a saddle on a rocket ship as he bucks his way to Mars — or too little.
Horse sense, commercially prepared feeds, and our veterinarians provide most owners and professionals with the tools to feed our horses proper rations. But what if we want to be more scientifically sure of our feeding program provides our horse with what he needs? Or, what if our horse is starting to exhibit signs of losing weight, respiratory distress, skin abnormalities, or other symptoms? Hay testing can help provide the answer to both these questions.
Testing your current hay supply is a great option for owners seeking optimal nutrition, and who want to know exactly how much to supplement their hay with grain. And, conversely, testing hay for mycotoxins, like Aflatoxins, and other molds and fungus that can make your horses sick from eating moldy hay can be a life saver.
What Are Your Horse’s Needs?
One of the best websites I’ve found to explain hay (forage) and concentrate (grain) requirements for horses is equi-analytical.com, This website has a wealth of overview information to help you get started into the world of testing horse food. I found excellent charts that show what you should be feeding your horse based on activity, function, breed, and so forth.
First you need a baseline to know what your horse needs. Let’s use the thoroughbred breed as our example for a free-feed horse. His daily need of DMI (Dry Matter Intake), also known as food, should be about 1.6 percent of his body weight. That means an average weight thoroughbred (1,102 pounds) would need is 18.1 pounds of DMI a day.
If you only feed hay, then you can feed him about 18 pounds of hay a day (if it contains all the nutrients and protein required). This is why we weigh hay bales. If you have a 40-pound bale, you know that about half a bale a day will keep him in good weight.
Now let’s look at a limited feed example. In that DMI, let’s delved into the crude protein (CP) requirement of the same 1,100-pound thoroughbred. Let’s say you feed your horse 16 pounds of hay daily which delivered 6 percent of the crude protein he needs, along with 6 pounds of grain with 12 percent of crude protein. Between these two rations your horse gets 762 grams of daily CP.
However, a mature thoroughbred in regular pleasure riding work needs 820 grams of CP a day, based on body weight, activity level, growth stage, and reproductive quality. If you do the simple math, 820 minus 762 means your limited feed ration is lacking 58 grams of crude protein your horse needs for optimal health to maintain his weight. The cure? Buy a grain with a higher crude protein so you can feed about the same amount of concentrate, or up the amount of hay you feed him to increase his crude protein. But the only way you can do this is by testing the hay to see what CP it is already delivering. Unlike commercially prepared feeds which list crude protein on the label, hay needs to be tested to get the same information.
Where To Go
A premier testing facility is Equi-Analytical Laboratories. For more information visit equi-analytical.com.
Another great testing lab is Soiltest Farm Consultants, Inc, which also offers helpful tips on how to collect samples of your hay for analysis; visit soiltest.org.
A great resource for many labs around the country is the industry group the National Forage Testing Association, which provides a list of approved labs at foragetesting.org.
And visit the University of Connecticut College of Agricultural, Natural and Health Resources, Animal Science division website, animalscience.uconn.edu/extension/publications/hayanalysis.htm. It has extensive fact sheets on horse management, include one on hay analysis that is quite detailed.
Lisa Peterson, a lifelong dog and horse lover, has worn many hats as a communications professional: writer, journalist, columnist, blogger, podcast host, pet safety and dog breed expert. She has won numerous writing, public relations and journalism awards. She lives in Newtown with her husband and three Norwegian Elkhounds. Contact Lisa via Twitter @LisaNPeterson or elvemel@gmail.com or visit her blog www.lisaunleashed.com.