23 Dec Spelling Your Horse – Feeding Guide
We are galloping towards Christmas faster than a Miniature Shetland after a carrot! Sometimes during this crazy period, we try to have a break or even steal a little holiday! Maybe it’s just a time for you and your steed to take a break from training and campaigning.
But what does this all mean for your horses? While our calorie and energy consumption will probably go up…theirs needs to come down.
Giving your horse a break over Christmas and the New Year all comes down to planning and preparation. If your horse is going to be turned out for a few weeks, or even brought down off a performance diet, you need to make the alteration over a period of time. This allows the horse’s digestive system (hind-gut bacteria) to get used to the change in diet. Just like when we add feeds, if feeds are removed or changed, do so slowly.
It’s not just the lighter workloads that need to be taken into consideration. Hot weather, dry paddocks and declining pasture quality can mean your horse’s diet may need some adjustment over the summer months.
Quick Summer Feeding Tips:
- Feeding a mash can aid with hydration over the hotter months.
- If you are scaling back feed, make sure they are still getting the protein, vitamins and minerals they need to prevent deficiencies.
- If they’re not in work or workload is decreasing, you may need to adjust the calories and energy in their diet.
- Pastures decrease in nutrients and protein over the course of summer, so make sure they are getting enough roughage and fibre.
- Avoid slips in condition. It is easier to maintain condition, than to let them slip and need to add condition back on.
Turning out onto pasture:
If you are turning your horse and pony out from a yard or stable into a large paddock with pasture, try to do so gradually. Let them have a short amount of time each day for several days, until the horse is better prepared to be out 24/7. Remember to offer plenty of fibre and hay to your horse when they are back in their stable during this time.
We adjust a horse’s diet slowly because of how their digestive tract and especially their hind-gut functions. Altering a diet too quickly, like going from a stable with only hay as roughage to being fully turned out on to pasture can cause gastric upset or at worst colic &/or even laminitis.
- Keep an eye on your horse’s hooves during the transition period. If at any time there is a change to you horse’s movement, comfort or their hooves feel warm to the touch call your vet ASAP.
- Watch for any changes to your horse’s faecal matter too!
changing from a performance diet:
If you have been competing and had your equine partner in tip-top condition & performing to the best of their abilities, then you will have most likely been feeding high quality hay, feeds, concentrates and supplements with a focus on energy. Giving your horse a bit of a break, means you might look at bringing down the calories and energy in their diet.
Ideally, like turning onto pasture, you could aim to make the transition over a week or two to slowly reduce both their hard feeds and their exercise regime together. Over this time, you can increase the fibre content of their diet & reduce the concentrates.
Keep their diet complete and balanced:
Even without the added extra stresses of training and competition, your horse or pony still needs the same basic nutrients, so ensure they are still getting their daily requirements. It’s a good idea to keep feeding them a complete feed or their supplements, as if they were being fed when being ridden e.g. mineral supplement, hoof formula and their joint supplements.
Adjust to a Different Complete Feed
You can change from a performance feed onto a maintenance feed that still provides their daily requirements, without excess calories and energy. Some great summer spelling complete feeds include our:
- Lupin Fibre Boost
- Calm Care Plus
- Pony Maintenance Cubes
Watch out for pasture quality
While turning them out to pasture is great, you need to be conscious of the pasture quality. Pasture quality actually declines over the course of summer with reduced energy and protein in it., and the digestibility can decrease too.
If the pasture they will be grazing is poor quality, it is a good idea to still provide pasture hay or a fibre supplement like LUPIN FIBRE CUBES and even more important to keep their vitamins and minerals up to them.
Giving them a break can be good for them, but make sure they stay healthy and don’t lose ground so they are ready to come back after their spell for a new year .
Allowing your horse to have easy access to hay in the paddock if the pasture is poor will also help to provide fibre & calories, alleviate boredom and reduce the chance of gastric ulcers by increasing the saliva produced & mimicking trickle feeding so the stomach is never empty.
Sensitivities to sugar in grasses:
For some horses & ponies who are sensitive to the sugars in grasses it is not a good idea for them to have access to unlimited amounts of pasture. These ponies & horses can still get benefit from a few hours grazing though, and here are some strategies for managing this:
- Turn them out early morning or later at night (when the sugar levels are lower)
- Turn them out partially with a grazing muzzle
- Use strip grazing or ‘paddock paradise’ systems to help with feed intake and exercise
Alternatively, you can keep them in a dry paddock with access to a supply of quality low starch & sugar hay.
Keeping quality low sugar and starch feed up to horses and ponies that are prone to laminitis and metabolic conditions is important, to make sure they are still getting enough fibre, protein and nutrients for healthy function.
Lupin Fibre Boost (Complete) and Lupin Fibre Cubes (Fibre Supplement) are our laminitis safe mash feeds that not only add super fibre to their diet, but are quick-soaking mashes to aid hydration.
Calm Care Plus is also laminitis safe, and a concentrated complete pellet that provides the nutrients they need for health, function and performance.
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