WHAT’S TRENDING IN FEEDING  

Most of us don’t think of feeding horses as something that goes through trends. As we learn more about our horses’ needs and try to solve feeding issues though, it helps to know what information and resources are available. Today we’ll look at some of the current ideas and practices in feeding horses. This isn’t to suggest that you should try everything: some may work for you, some may not. It’s up to you to decide what is useful for your barn.

WE ARE CHANGING OUR FEEDING ROUTINES: We’ve learned that horses have rather small stomachs despite their large size. They are built to take in small amounts of forage constantly. The best diet is one that relies on forage, with ration balancers and commercial feeds to cover what forages lack. When we change their natural routine, keep them stalled, and give them a few meals a day of a concentrated feed, we invite problems. Among these are ulcers, colic, and behavioral problems such as chewing. Simply put, the horse is happiest when he has free access to forage and can pick and choose when he wants to eat.

You may be thinking “My horse would eat himself to death! And what about founder?” While most horses self-regulate, some simply won’t or can’t. It may be a metabolic issue, or their genetics, or their personality. Slow feed hay nets, muzzles, and frequent small feedings work well for these guys. If you choose to use nets, make sure that they are horse-safe, and that hooves can’t go through them, shoes can’t get hooked on them, halters can’t get clipped onto them, and that they won’t entangle legs. Horses are very good at finding accidents! As always, talk with your vet and feed store if you have concerns and questions about feeding.

WE’RE FEEDING MORE ROUND BALES: Round bales used to be a common sight in front of cattle, but less so in front of horses. Now horse people frequently use them. There are a couple reasons for this, and the first is one you may not realize. More hay farmers are purchasing round balers instead of square balers, and this is usually driven by the lack of help. Not many kids want to spend their summers throwing bales. As the price of fuel, fertilizers, tractors, and equipment increase, farmers are hard pressed to find affordable help. Increases in minimum wage also affect the farmers’ bottom line. Baling hay in rounds means that fewer people are needed to get the hay from field to barn, because tractors do more of the work. No kickers, no wagons, and no kids needed to stack the bales.

More people are feeding round bales because it’s an easier way to keep forage in front of horses constantly. It’s also an easy way to feed several horses in one paddock, as long as there are no dominant ponies preventing other horses from eating. We all know that pony, right?

Round bales don’t work for everyone though. They can be difficult to store and move. They should be covered and protected if the weather is wet. If you don’t cover them, you’ll find that they may go moldy before the horse’s finish eating them. It’s also much harder to determine how much hay your horse is eating. If you are pulling hay off a round for feeding in the barn, it can be difficult to judge how many pounds you are giving out. One solution is to get a hanging scale and weigh the amount in a hay bag. After doing that for a few days, you’ll have a good feel of how many pounds you are feeding.

Horses with free access to hay love to make it into bedding. To help prevent that, there are several products on the market. There are slow feed nets that go over a bale, round bale feeders, hay huts, and other ideas. My personal set-up is a slow feed net over a bale that is inside a round bale feeder. As an added bonus, using a slow feed net can keep horses busy with hay and not squabbling with each other.

If you have a horse that just can’t seem to leave the round bale, you may wish to place a round bale outside your pasture and pull off what your horse needs during the day. Remember to keep it protected from the elements though. Hay is too expensive this year to waste!

WE’RE ACCEPTING THE IDEA OF RATION BALANCERS: I’m repeating myself, but I really want to get this point across. Ration balancers are not feed, they are supplements. They provide the protein, vitamins, and minerals that your horse may need because the rest of his diet is forage, or you are not feeding enough of the commercial feeds, or you are feeding straight grains such as oats. Ration balancers are not meant to increase weight; in fact, they only tend to have 1000-1200 kcals per pound. (A 1000-pound horse at leisure needs roughly 16,000 kcals/day.) They are not a fiber source and won’t replace hay. They may seem expensive compared to commercial feeds, but you feed much less per day, so the cost per feeding is less than you think.

WE’RE REALIZING THAT WE MAY NEED MORE FORAGE OPTIONS: We all know that hay is becoming more expensive due to increases in the farmer’s production cost. It’s also becoming harder to find in places, as more hayfields become house lots and the extreme weather prevents or delays cutting and curing. We’re starting to use more chopped forage in bags, more pelleted fiber sources, and more feeds that contain fiber sources such as beet pulp. Chopped bagged forage is more expensive per pound than a bale of hay, but it has the advantage of being clean, of consistent quality, and usually comes with a nutritional analysis too. I like to use it for minis because it is easy to control how much they are getting. It’s also great for older horses who are starting to quid longer-stemmed hay. Once your senior starts to quid chopped forage though, it’s time for something else.

Timothy and alfalfa come in pellets and cubes. There are also hay extender pellets. If you look for a nutritional analysis, remember that it can vary a bit from bag to bag because the forages are coming from diverse sources. None of these products truly replace hay but they can help reduce the amount of hay that you feed. It’s better to start supplementing with these fiber sources early in the winter before you reach the point where you have to do so. This helps to extend your hay supply and ensures that you aren’t relying too much on sources that don’t have long-stem fiber.

FEED COMPANIES ARE MAKING CHANGES TOO: Feed companies are always researching and testing. They look at nutritional values of ingredients, absorption rate of organic versus non-organic minerals, what textures horse like, what flavors horses seem to prefer (current thinking is that it’s banana…who knew??) In short, everything that ends up in a bag of feed has been extensively tested, researched, and is there for a reason. Now the feed company wants to convince you to buy it.

MARKETING: Feed companies change the design (and colors) on their bags to attract your eye and get you to try their product. THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW THE NAME OF YOUR FEED, and not that “it’s a yellow bag.” That yellow bag might be blue now, and if you insist that you want the yellow bag, you may go home with something unsuitable. Remember, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to remember what your horse eats. It is not the feed store’s job.

Feed companies also change up their ads to catch your eye. Lately I’ve noticed that ads feature feel-good photos such as a young girl and her horse, powerful horses to target those looking for performance, and buzz words regarding health such as “metabolic,” “low starch,” and “healthy.” Think of an ad that you’ve seen recently. What made you remember it? Did it cause you to look closer at the ad? Did it influence your purchase? Did it make you think about changing products? Before you change, do your research. Determine what your horse needs and if the product will meet his needs.

FEED COMPANIES CHANGE FORMULAS: Through ongoing research, we learn more about how horses absorb and use nutrients. We learn more about how ingredients affect them too, either positively or negatively. That leads to changes in ingredients, changes in the sources of minerals and vitamins, and can ultimately change the nutritional value of the product. If you haven’t looked at the guaranteed analysis of your feed lately, take a moment and do so. You may be surprised to find that it has changed over the years. And if you’ve never looked at this information on your bag , now is a good time to start.

HOW FEED COMPANIES PRESENT PRODUCT INFO: You may have noticed that some feed companies have a paper tag on their bags and some don’t. The tags have information such as guaranteed analysis, how to feed their product, the ingredients, and the lot number and date code. Bags without the tag have this information printed directly on the bag. What is the difference? Tags usually indicate that the information may change. The changes are usually the ingredients, which affect the overall nutritional value of the product. Bags that have the information printed on the bag are less likely to change. The ingredients will stay the same and the guaranteed analysis will stay within the same range. It’s easier and cheaper to print new tags than it is to change the wording on bags. This is another good reason to look at the bag info, especially if you have a horse with sensitivities to ingredients or metabolic issues.

FIXED FORMULA AND LOCKED NUTRITION are the latest buzzwords in the nutritional field. Fixed formula means that the same recipe is used each time and locked nutrition means that the same outcome is produced each time. Confused? Let’s look closer. With fixed formula, the same amounts of ingredients are used, but the end product may differ from batch to batch because of the ingredients’ quality. Oats from a drought-stricken mid-western field will have a different nutritional value than oats grown under ideal conditions, and the end result (the feed) will show that. Locked nutrition means that the recipe is tweaked to achieve the desired result. The oats with the lower nutritional value will be supplemented so that the end result will be just like the bags with better quality oats.

So, which is better? I don’t think there is a huge difference, and here is why. THE BEST FEED COMPANIES TEST ALL INGREDIENTS BEFORE ACCEPTING THEM. If a shipment of oats doesn’t meet specifications, it isn’t accepted. That means that the reputable feed companies are always starting with quality ingredients, so the end product will have little variation.

I’m more worried about feeds that make no claims whatsoever about the manufacturing method, or those that list their first ingredient as “distillers’ grains.” Distillers’ grains can be corn, oats, or barley, or any mix of the above. Depending on the mix, you may be getting the energy of corn or the fiber of oats.

FEED COMPANIES ARE DOING MORE RESEARCH ON OLDER HORSES: Horses used to be considered old at 20, now it’s common to see horses in their 30s. As with baby boomers, an increase in numbers means more money is thrown into research, products, and care. There is more money to be made if you offer items for a specific age group! We now have senior feeds for horses that need more calories, or fewer calories, or fewer non-structural carbohydrates. We can tailor a diet to your old horse’s needs and keep him healthy and comfortable in his advanced years. We know now that older horses don’t absorb nutrients as well, so senior feeds have bumped up the amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Many old horses can now longer chew hay, so we have senior feeds with fiber sources such as beet pulp that can be fed as complete feeds. Remember: not every senior feed is a complete feed, and not every complete feed is a senior feed. If in doubt, check the feeding directions on the bag. Complete feeds contain directions for feeding with and without additional forage.

ORGANIC HORSE FEEDS are slowly arriving on the market. In the past they have been hard to find and expensive. They are getting easier to find now but are still expensive. Part of that is because they are not produced in this area of the country and must be trucked here. If you decide to try them, be sure to read the information on the bag. You’ll want to understand what the ingredients are, what the nutritional value is, and how much you will have to feed.

WE’RE APPLYING HUMAN NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE TO HORSES and realizing that antioxidants can benefit horses too. We’re learning that the kind of fat that we feed matters, and that the source of the oil matters. Soy oil, corn oil, and rice bran oil all have different properties and affect the horse differently. The biggest takeaway is that feeding affects not just performance but overall health. To some of you, this is not news. You have probably had lots of exposure to this if you have performance horses. But there are still many people who feed high fat and high sugar feeds and treats and then wonder why their horses are fat.

WE’RE LOOKING AT SUPPLEMENTS DIFFERENTLY: I’m not a big fan of supplements (other than ration balancers, of course!) If you have your hay analyzed, feed a ration balancer or commercial feed to spec, then you should be covered in most cases. However, I’m a firm believer in using targeted supplements when you need them. So my 33-year-old Morgan is on a joint supplement because it keeps him moving comfortably, but he has a great hoof and doesn’t need a hoof supplement. My point is not to stop you from using supplements but for you to think about what you feed and why. If you have a reason to feed a supplement and it benefits your horse, then do it. With the advent of specialized, pre-packaged supplements on the market, you can tailor to your horse’s needs.

WE’RE CONSIDERING UNUSUAL THINGS such as scents, flavors, and the color of buckets. This is fun for us- hopefully, our horses think so too! Recent research indicates that difficult drinkers may be encouraged by a flavoring their bucket with a handful of textured feed. It’s worth a try if you already have a textured feed that he likes in your barn.

There has been some informal testing with bucket colors too, especially with water buckets. Nothing truly scientific though: one group concluded that horses drink better from teal buckets, while another group thought yellow was better. If you notice that your water bucket has an odor, replace it, and try a new color. If your horse starts to drink more you won’t know if it is because of the color or the absence of odor, but really, the important thing is that he is drinking.

In summary, some of these latest ideas and research will fundamentally change how we take care of our horses, and some may last only until something better comes along. Like many other things, new ideas, research, and products are increasing all the time. It is up to us to figure out what will work for our horses.