What do horses eat?

Beautiful, proud, smart, fast, hardworking, strong animals! They have been serving people with faith and truth for thousands of years. Man's love for horses is also old. Tamed, cherishes, nourishes, drinks...

In the dictionary we read - "herbivore." The horse's diet is 100% plant-based. Wild horses are light and graceful, because in nature, horses eat one grass. They live in the wild in herds of up to 100 heads. Semi-free horses are not much different from their wild relatives. In search of good food, their shoals travel many kilometers. They have to chew 20 hours a day to satisfy their hunger.

To be in a horse feed

Quality is the main prerequisite for the preparation of feed. The health and performance of the horse depends on this. All feed should be free of dust: if inhaled, it causes lung disease. Mold is the enemy of the delicate stomachs of equids. Vegetables and concentrates are thoroughly cleaned from dirt and harmful impurities beforehand. The lack of a gag reflex in horses contributes to the penetration of poor-quality feed into the stomach, which causes complications: colic, bloating. An industrious animal does not deserve this kind of suffering.

First of all - fodder:

  • fresh grass;
  • hay;
  • silage;
  • silo.

Horses have a decent appetite. During the day, the animal eats from 25 to 100 kg of green grass, washed down with clean (drinks only clean!) Water. The horse's stomach is small and designed in such a way that it must constantly work, so it is fed 4 times a day. To feed one horse, approximately 2 hectares of land are required. Fresh grass provides the body with almost everything it needs to function. The peaceful animal quietly grazes with goats and sheep. Horses prefer succulent grass, small livestock - rough and thorny. The horse neatly cuts the grass with its teeth near the ground (unlike a cow, which grabs the stems with its tongue). This allows her to graze even on very short grass.

What horses eat in winter

In winter, green grass is difficult to find, dry hay mowed in the summer heat helps out. Good hay - green, fragrant, rustling; the moisture content in it is not more than 15%. It is not recommended to feed animals prepared for the future hay for about 1 month.

Hay is sometimes replaced with straw. Chopped rye and oat straw is mixed with moistened concentrates. Such a mixture relieves the animal from the formation of lumps in the digestive tract, which often occurs with improper feeding with concentrates.

Haylage is the most delicious dish that horses eat in winter. This is a dried herb with 50% moisture. Saving haylage is more difficult - it can get moldy. Modern harvesting technologies allow keeping the feed quality at a high level. It turns out to be a little expensive, but the costs are worth it.

Cheaper to feed with silage, but better suited for cattle, the horse's stomach is different.

You won't be full of hay...

Domestic horses are lucky: the owner takes care of keeping the animal all year round. But the equids have to work in full. Therefore, the diet of a working horse is more nutritious than that of one that walks in the wild.

Oats

Oats are considered the best dietary food for horses. This cereal contains amino acids, fats, phosphorus, B vitamins, which provide activity. If the animal is working, 12 kg of grain per day will restore the spent energy, the idle horse will have enough and 6.

Oats can be fed dry, steamed, crushed, crushed, sprouted. When crushing, the film is destroyed or removed, the product is more easily absorbed and digested. True, some of the nutrients are lost with dust and waste.

Crimped and crushed oats are used to feed foals, horses with dental problems, when there is a lack of time during trips or on the road. The hygroscopicity of crimped grain makes it possible to cook porridge and bumps, but such oats cannot be stored for a long time - they spoil.

Steamed oats are good for the gastrointestinal tract. When steaming, valuable substances are destroyed, but they can always be replenished by adding vitamin supplements.

Sprouted oats are more nutritious than dry ones. Starch is sugared in it, the content of amino acids increases, and the amount of vitamins B and E also increases. Such food is useful for foals and stallions-producers during intercourse. The diet includes from 50 to 100 grams of sprouted oats in combination with other products.

Compound feed - the leader among feeds

Compound feed consists of grain flour with minerals and vitamins. Nutrients are in the correct and constant ratio. Compound feeds have been developed for certain groups of animals (sports, workers, circus, young animals, pregnant mares, breeding stallions, old and sick horses). Compound feed is fed at least 3 times a day.

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Do horses need nutritional supplements?

Without food additives, it is impossible to fully meet the needs for a balanced diet of animals. Horses are given:

  • Vegetables and fruits, of which sugar beet is in a special place.
  • Barley (25% more nutritious than oats). The cereal is coarse, when used as feed it is better to crush it. They are fed in combination with oats, otherwise the animal will have intestinal colic. Interestingly, horses in Italy, Portugal and Spain are preferred to be fed with barley rather than oats.
  • Wheat bran porridge (improves the animal's appetite).
  • Whole flaxseed.
    • Soybeans.
    • Vegetable oils.
    • Yeast with probiotics and prebiotics (normalizes intestinal microflora and improves digestion).
    • Oilcake, wheat bran, glucose.

Is water more important than feed?

This is exactly the case with horses. Lack of water will negatively affect the condition of the animal faster than lack of food. In summer, he needs from 3 to 6 buckets of water, in cool weather - less, and in hot weather - up to 80 liters! In winter, 20-25 liters are enough. Fresh water for the horse should always be available. The animal is watered 4-6 times a day. If you plan to feed with concentrates, you should first give it a drink. A tired, sweating horse needs a rest for at least half an hour, only then they give a drink. Its optimum temperature is 8-12 degrees. Drinking colder causes colds, warm - will pamper, will eventually lead to the same.

What will a gourmet horse be happy about?

Salted rye crust is what horses love to eat - everyone, without exception. And, of course, they will prick up their ears when they notice an apple, a carrot or a sugar cube in the palm of their hand. True gourmets of the horse tribe like muesli - a mixture of cereals with dried fruits and nuts.

For the curious

  • Foals, within half an hour after birth, get up and walk with uncertain steps for the first portion of breast milk. Usually, up to 6 months, the baby only eats it. Foals are pampered with dried fruits. Supplements are required to strengthen the skeleton of young animals. Vitamin B complex contains many substances necessary for development and health.
  • The peculiarities of feeding sports horses are interesting. The diet of horses includes:
    • carbohydrate-rich feeds (red carrots, beets, raw potatoes);
    • flaxseed decoction (added to dietary "cereals");
    • protein and carbohydrate supplements;
    • vitamins;
    • as a mineral supplement - up to 50 g of chalk and bone meal, as well as 8 g of table salt.

Competition horses are weighed once a month.

About horses - in one line

  • A horse lives up to 25 years, but some breeds - up to 40 years under favorable conditions.
  • Horse mimicry is as rich as that of primates.
  • The Arabian horse can trot 160 km without rest.
  • Racehorses today are “shod” in aluminum and titanium horseshoes.
  • The only horse breed in the world that is "prescribed" to eat barley mixed with egg and lamb fat before work is the Akhal-Teke horse, pictured below.
Akhal-Teke
Przewalski's horse is the only wild species on the planet
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