Lvrees
Well-Known Member
Hello,
I am doing my dissertation on restricting forage and its relation to eating related behaviours.
I would just like to start a discussion and ask for any imput, personal experiences and opinions in relation to this.
It has become apparent through many studies that stereotypic behaviours are quite commonly associated with management regimes.
Through scientific investigations, indications that crib biting and other eating related disorders have a close connection to stomach acid build up which cause gastric ulcers. These have been clinically proven to be the cause of low saliva production. Horses only produce saliva when they are chewing, therefore, restricting the horses forage intake has been proven to be detrimental to the horses health.
However, horses that are overweight or need a high energy diet tend to be fed very little forage, with restrictive turn out and grazing.
Horses as we know are trickle feeders, this means they eat small amounts throughout the day. And in the wild they always have access to food, finding it by the means of foraging etc...
A feral horse eats when its hungry and stops when its full, they always eat enough to have energy, yet not to much that they are to full and sluggish to run from a predator.
It is a common misconception that horses get laminitus from eating to much, when the majority of the cases are either stress induced, or due to a sudden massive increase of food or change of diet or quality of food. You can do more research on this via the internet if you disagree with me.
In many yards, horse owners insist on giving there horses restrictive amounts of forage. For example a 4 pound haynet to last the horse a night, also restrictive grazing or hay at certain times of the day. To prevent the horse from putting on weight. Is this beneficial, or even natural???
The Argument...
Does restrictive grazing/forage make a horse greedy? Is it then detrimental to the horse?
Horses are naturally herd animals, living on wide planes or mountains, foraging for food. The food isnt necesserally good quality, therefore they are not getting a constant supply of nutrients. Horses have evolved to adapt to this.
In the domestic situation we are putting the horse on good quality grass therefore they are getting rich nutrients, and a constant supply of forage. But this is not all year round, in the winter due to lack of grazing many people find that they have poor grazing in the winter, and they have to either substitute with hay, or put their horses in a new field. Then comes spring when the grass grows and all of a sudden they are eating good grass again.
My view
I belive that by feeding horses small amounts of forage, it makes them greedy. They are used to having only a small amount at a time, therefore alot of the time they are stood hungry. When the feed comes they stuff themselves, and therefore the feed is gone.
I feed Boston Adlib Hay, he has 2 massive haynets in the night and every morning I come in and there is plenty left, because he knows he always has food, so he doesnt bolt it down because he only eats when hes hungry. In comparison, there is a horse on the yard who only gets a small net at breakfast, one and lunch and one at about 5pm when hes put to bed, he's normally finished this net by half 6 when I put Boston to bed, and is weaving over his stable door as I feed my horse.
I have seen this many times in the equine world where people have restricted their diet and therefore the horse has developed stereotypical behavoural problems. While if they had always been given the option to forage as they please they would know when to stop and therefore not have weight issues??
Your views please!!!
Also I will be using this discussion in as part of my research so hope you dont mind!!
I am doing my dissertation on restricting forage and its relation to eating related behaviours.
I would just like to start a discussion and ask for any imput, personal experiences and opinions in relation to this.
It has become apparent through many studies that stereotypic behaviours are quite commonly associated with management regimes.
Through scientific investigations, indications that crib biting and other eating related disorders have a close connection to stomach acid build up which cause gastric ulcers. These have been clinically proven to be the cause of low saliva production. Horses only produce saliva when they are chewing, therefore, restricting the horses forage intake has been proven to be detrimental to the horses health.
However, horses that are overweight or need a high energy diet tend to be fed very little forage, with restrictive turn out and grazing.
Horses as we know are trickle feeders, this means they eat small amounts throughout the day. And in the wild they always have access to food, finding it by the means of foraging etc...
A feral horse eats when its hungry and stops when its full, they always eat enough to have energy, yet not to much that they are to full and sluggish to run from a predator.
It is a common misconception that horses get laminitus from eating to much, when the majority of the cases are either stress induced, or due to a sudden massive increase of food or change of diet or quality of food. You can do more research on this via the internet if you disagree with me.
In many yards, horse owners insist on giving there horses restrictive amounts of forage. For example a 4 pound haynet to last the horse a night, also restrictive grazing or hay at certain times of the day. To prevent the horse from putting on weight. Is this beneficial, or even natural???
The Argument...
Does restrictive grazing/forage make a horse greedy? Is it then detrimental to the horse?
Horses are naturally herd animals, living on wide planes or mountains, foraging for food. The food isnt necesserally good quality, therefore they are not getting a constant supply of nutrients. Horses have evolved to adapt to this.
In the domestic situation we are putting the horse on good quality grass therefore they are getting rich nutrients, and a constant supply of forage. But this is not all year round, in the winter due to lack of grazing many people find that they have poor grazing in the winter, and they have to either substitute with hay, or put their horses in a new field. Then comes spring when the grass grows and all of a sudden they are eating good grass again.
My view
I belive that by feeding horses small amounts of forage, it makes them greedy. They are used to having only a small amount at a time, therefore alot of the time they are stood hungry. When the feed comes they stuff themselves, and therefore the feed is gone.
I feed Boston Adlib Hay, he has 2 massive haynets in the night and every morning I come in and there is plenty left, because he knows he always has food, so he doesnt bolt it down because he only eats when hes hungry. In comparison, there is a horse on the yard who only gets a small net at breakfast, one and lunch and one at about 5pm when hes put to bed, he's normally finished this net by half 6 when I put Boston to bed, and is weaving over his stable door as I feed my horse.
I have seen this many times in the equine world where people have restricted their diet and therefore the horse has developed stereotypical behavoural problems. While if they had always been given the option to forage as they please they would know when to stop and therefore not have weight issues??
Your views please!!!
Also I will be using this discussion in as part of my research so hope you dont mind!!
