“Feeding a horse is more complex than a coffee can of grain twice a day.”
That was the greatly simplified message presented by Sarah Leonhard at the Horse Owners Workshop in Garnett.
With three decades of experience in developing livestock rations, the Purina animal nutritionist detailed importance of knowing exact feed ingredients.
“A horse is unlike a cow in that it eats plants, but does not have a rumen for digesting them,” Leonhard said.
Equine nutrition was reviewed step by step. Feed is chewed which stimulates saliva production, making dental care important to have improved consumption.
When feed passes through the esophagus, there is no belching or vomiting. The feed remains in the small stomach only a couple of hours with very little absorption.
The small intestine is a two-inch, 70-foot tube with 12-gallons capacity. “Feed moves through the small intestine in 45-minutes to eight-hours with digestion and absorption of proteins, fats and carbohydrates,” Leonhard detailed.
In the hind gut, the large intestine houses the cecum and colon with slow feed passage. There is microbial fermentation synthesis of fiber, cellulose, and vitamins.
Horses are grazing animals, which owners feed for convenience, Leonhard emphasized. “That creates challenges to overcome,” she said. “Undigested feeds pass from the foregut to the hindgut with increased microbial fermentation and gas production causing colic and founder.”
Yet, solutions are not that complicated. “Feed more frequently, never more than one-half-percent of the horse’s body weight at one feeding. That’d be six pounds of high quality grain for a 1,100-pound horse,” Leonhard said.
High quality hay should be fed with the grain. “Long stem hay requires more chewing which slows passage and increases digestible fibers,” according to Leonhard.
“Make sure your horse gets 10-to-12-gallons of clean water every day. Water is necessary for all body functions.
“Protein, vitamins, minerals and energy are also essential nutrients for horses,” Leonhard emphasized.
Composed of amino acids, protein is necessary for growth and repair of body tissues. “The quality of amino acid profile is important so we don’t want rations deficient in lysine or methionine,” Leonhard said. “A horse ration is balanced when professionally formulated ‘fortified’ feeds are offered at the correct rate.”
Calcium and phosphorus are the two most important macro minerals. “While high quality pasture is rich in vitamin, supplementation of vitamins is usually necessary with more mature forages,” Leonhard said.
“No added minerals and vitamins are required when professionally formulated ‘fortified’ feeds are offered at the correct rate.”
Both proper levels and ratios of minerals are critical. “Too much of one mineral can have an effect on the availability of another mineral,” Leonhard said. “High levels of elements in the forage, soil and water can cause a mineral deficiency even if adequate levels are present in the diet.”
All feeds and all feed manufacturers are not the same, the speaker emphatically warned. “Some of these differences can be very important to your horse. You can’t always tell those differences by reading the feed tag,” she said.
Attempting to simplify her point, Leonhard compared buying a $329 saddle with a $3,500 saddle. The general descriptions were identical, but quality of the saddles was entirely different.
“We often try to use feed tags to help us make the decisions but tags just don’t tell the whole story,” Leonard said. “Just as the tags for two saddles of very different prices indicate they’re the same saddle, they are not.
“When you look closer, you see some reasons. No one lied on the tags, they are both western saddles intended for the same kind of use,” Leonhard continued. “If you ride a horse once a year, you may be just fine with the $329 saddle. However, the more hours in the saddle, the more the differences in quality between these two saddles will show up.
“The same is true for your horse feed,” the nutritionist declared. “The less you demand of your horse, the better forage available, the less the feed will make a noticeable difference. That changes as you need more growth, reproduction, performance, longevity from your horse and the quality of your forage declines. Your horse’s feed will have more impact on the outcome.”
A feed tag is a regulatory document. “The ‘Purpose Statement’ should be something we pay attention to. It tells you what animal species and classification the manufacturer designed the feed for,” Leonhard said. “Always be sure that the feed is designed for horses, and no other species.”
The “Guaranteed Analysis” is a listing of major nutrients required to be listed. This list of nutrients is in no way the entire nutrient composition of the feed. Every feed contains nutrients not listed on the tags.
“Does that mean that their feed is more nutritious or better?” Leonard questioned. “No. There often isn’t easily accessible testing available to ensure compliance. That is one of the things we have to guard against as consumers, the idea that more is always better.”
The “List of Ingredients” should be listed in descending order by weight. “The quality and the effectiveness of the feed are not determined by the way the ingredients are listed.” Leonhard said. “What is important though is quality of the ingredients used and the expertise that put the formulas together.”
“Directions for Use” show the amount of feed the manufacturer says is needed for the horse and its intended use.
“These recommendations are based on the ‘average’ horse eating an ‘average’ amount of ‘average’ quality hay,” Leonhard said. “None of us own the ‘average horse,’ right? We all feed different amounts and quality of forage, so the amount of feed needed for each horse will vary.
“However, if you’re feeding less than a recommended minimum feeding rate,” Leonhard said. “You need to consider changing to a different feed that is formulated to be fed at a lower feeding rate.”
A leisure pasture pony should not be fed a ration like a working performance horse. “A Thoroughbred race horse requires feed at higher rates, providing additional calories and higher starch and sugar levels,” Leonhard said.
It is important to know how much feed weighs per given volume. “How much a can of feed weighs is different than a scoop of another ration,” Leonhard pointed out. “You can’t estimate weight by volume because feeds can weigh very different amounts per given volume. An inexpensive scale is a tremendous barn tool.”
Consumers usually think more is always best. “However, in horse feed, sometimes more is just more, and sometimes more can be wrong or even dangerous,” Leonhard said. “There are specific dietary requirements for every nutrient, although the actual amounts required vary tremendously between nutrients. That is the challenge for us to feed enough without going overboard.”
While feed can have the same guaranteed analysis, the tag does not reflect differences in quality of ingredients. “We’re not saying that the tag information is wrong or misleading,” Leonhard said. “It is just important to understand that there are things in a feed that just can’t be reflected on the tag.”
Research to perfect feeds for various horses was reviewed.
In summary, Leonhard declared, “Feed tags are hard to read. It is difficult to identify quality in feed. Choose your horse feed wisely based on needs while verifying the quality of ingredients.”
