Basic Horse Feeding Rules
Games Guy | February 4, 2012
There’s simply much more to training and raising horses than nice horse riding sessions and training for sport or shows. One important facet of horse care away from the action and the glory but makes a contribution to it directly is horse feeding. Some basic guidelines to recollect that should always be stuck to:
Check the weight of your horses. Feeding them correctly comprises knowing how much your horses weigh. This should not be complicated: just utilize a horse weight tape to measure their heart girth.
Figure out the pounds of hay required for your horses to remain healthy. A well-balanced equine diet is a basically low grain percentage combined with high bulk percentage. It’s vital to avoid feeding your horses grain too much. Generally, the ideal feed diet is one and a half pounds of hay for every 100 pounds of horse weight.
Work out the pounds of grain needed too. Of course, there are horses that don’t require any grain in their diets. Generally, only horses doing regular heavy work or sport, young and growing horses, and lactating broodmares need the grain content. Ask your vet pertaining to how much grain is required for your steeds—remember though that particular grain have specific weight.
Don’t overfeed. A loving equestrian might easily become confused about how much her steeds are chewing, so aside from being a loving equestrian, be a responsible one too. And make preparations to lock away feeds—horses that make their way to the grain stash will eat until they get colic or founder.
Don’t underfeed too. Clearly, this extreme is to be avoided too. Thin, weak horses might not be getting sufficient nourishment. You may be either underfeeding her hay or grain, or underfeeding her nutrition.
Supplement. Always supplement any sort of diet and feeding program with whole food supplements and necessary nutriments. You can opt to administer a home made recipe thru a syringe, or simply mix it into appropriate amounts of feed. But the nutrients you supplement will rely on the hay you’re feeding, as different types of hay provide different amounts and kinds of nutrients, so it could be best to get the information of your vet.
Make sure the presence of a water source. Horses and humans have many things in common especially when it comes to the physical structure of their bodies. And as people need lots of fresh, clean water, so do horses. There are many illnesses that can result from not getting sufficient water,eg colic, loss of appetite, and more. For an equestrian living in regions where the climate always freezes water supplies, this job can be more daunting, and therefore is manifold more significant.
These basic guidelines can be further expanded and extended, but it is sufficient to not lose touch with their fundamentals. As an equestrian, your duties not only end with making a steed a safe mount for horse riding or teaching her maneuvers for sport and shows—you also have to take care feeding her.
Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about cheap horse rugs
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