With many parts of the Country experiencing drought-like conditions, or certainly a significant shortfall in pasture availability, there may be the need to make some changes to your horse’s existing feeding regime.
Making some slight changes will assist in ensuring their digestive health and optimum body condition is maintained , both of which are of key importance as the season changes and as we head towards winter. Making some changes to diets now may well pay dividends before horses, particularly the older equines, need to negotiate winter.
Horses require a bare minimum of 1%, ideally 1.5% of their body weight, in hay/chaff or pasture daily, on a dry matter basis. Products like beet also play a part in contributing to the horses’ daily fibre requirement and should be considered in the overall fibre contribution.
When horses have reduced pasture intake, this requirement needs to be addressed with supplementary feed.
Good quality hay or haylage is a great starting point. It is economical and will keep the horse ‘busy’ for some time (small-hole hay nets can assist in extending the ‘busy’ time). Spreading the hay/haylage offering over a 24-hour period will also avoid those with a more enthusiastic appetite from eating all at once and having longer periods of time without any forage, which will compromise gastric health.
Further fibre can be contributed to the daily requirement via the ‘feed bin’. Increasing the intake of fibre you usually combine with the concentrate feed will be a valuable change when pasture is limited.
If horses are lighter in body condition, using Dunstan Betabeet or Dunstan Sugarbeet contributes quality fibre as well as being more calorie-dense than traditional fibre sources, so they are great for weight gain. Well soaked, the product will assist with hydration. Dunstan Sugarbeet with some molasses added is not only delicious but slightly more calorie-dense than Dunstan Betabeet, therefore it is suitable for horses needing those additional calories. Remember, that when doing ‘the sums’ on fibre contribution, take the dry weight of the beet.
Ensuring adequate fibre is provided to make up the shortfall in pasture is critical. However, for horses that are struggling to maintain condition, they will require more calorie-dense feeds. In the first instance, weigh the current hard feed to confirm how much is actually being fed. Once the scales come out, some people are often surprised how little they are feeding, so increasing the intakes of the current feed is often all that is required. If higher intakes of feed are needed, this should be divided over two or more daily feeds to reduce the likelihood of digestive disturbances and to optimise feed efficiency. Ideally no more than 2kg of hard feed should be fed in a single meal. Moving to a higher energy feed can be useful to provide more calories per kg.
The addition of a low intake high-fat supplement to your existing ration is another great option to boost the calorie density of the feed. Dunstan has two highly palatable, calorie-dense supplements that can be added into an existing ration: Dunstan “Muscle ‘n Shine” and Dunstan “Extruded Rice”. Both are fed at approximately 500grams per day.
There are numerous supplementary feed options and the best course of action will depend on the individual horse and its current feed intakes and pasture availability.
If you have any queries on the best way forward for your horse during this time, please contact Dunstan on dunstan@dunstan.co.nz or 0800 438 678.
Alternatively email Dunstan’s Equine Nutritionist, Gretel Webber, on gretel@dunstan.co.nz
