concino
Well-Known Member
I am amazed at how much people feed there horses. It is not compulsory to feed them - only the feed companies and the ignorant will make you feel guilty if you do not.
Horses have evolved to survive on quantity, trickle feeding for an average 20 hours or more, usually on poor quality forage. They have not evolved to be fed on high quality feed, they cannot cope with it and unless they are in hard work, hunting/ eventing etc. they do not need it.
The golden rule for feeding anything, humans included, is :- Input should equal output. In winter the calorie output for keeping warm should also be taken into account. For a horse rugged up for the artic circle, very few calories will be needed to generate heat. If you have a horse/ pony who gains too much weight, leaving him unrugged ( provided he has some shelter) will help to keep his weight down as he will burn up calories to keep warm. If you rug up to reduce time spent grooming and you have a 'good-doer', go for just a rain sheet - no filling.
A handful or two of chaff as a 'carrier' for a broad spectrum min/ vit supplement should be more than adequate for all but hunters/ eventers and worriers/ 'bad-doers'. Apart from this, CLEAN but not necessarily high quality foder should be all that is required. That means that most of us can save huge sums of money and pobably have much healthier horses !!
Horses have evolved to survive on quantity, trickle feeding for an average 20 hours or more, usually on poor quality forage. They have not evolved to be fed on high quality feed, they cannot cope with it and unless they are in hard work, hunting/ eventing etc. they do not need it.
The golden rule for feeding anything, humans included, is :- Input should equal output. In winter the calorie output for keeping warm should also be taken into account. For a horse rugged up for the artic circle, very few calories will be needed to generate heat. If you have a horse/ pony who gains too much weight, leaving him unrugged ( provided he has some shelter) will help to keep his weight down as he will burn up calories to keep warm. If you rug up to reduce time spent grooming and you have a 'good-doer', go for just a rain sheet - no filling.
A handful or two of chaff as a 'carrier' for a broad spectrum min/ vit supplement should be more than adequate for all but hunters/ eventers and worriers/ 'bad-doers'. Apart from this, CLEAN but not necessarily high quality foder should be all that is required. That means that most of us can save huge sums of money and pobably have much healthier horses !!