Horse nutrition

Basics of feeding a horse

• Learn the 10 important things to know in feeding your horse.

Providing carbohydrates and fats in your horse’s diet

• The type and amount of carbohydrates horses receive can affect their health.
• Fat is dense in calories and provides a good source of energy for the horse. 

Encouraging your horse to drink

• Always make sure your horse has free access to fresh, clean water. 
• Horses that refuse to drink are at risk of poor performance, poor organ function and colic. 

How to take a hay sample

Understanding your hay analysis

• A hay analysis helps you better understand what you’re feeding your horse. 
• Always request a horse analysis when sending in hay samples. 

Harvest moisture level and bale wrapping affects hay quality for horses

• Moisture and bale wrapping affects mold and forage quality.
• Orchardgrass bales are prone to significant mold and poor forage quality at moistures slightly over 15 percent.

Feeding clover to your horse

• Clover is a good feed source for horses.

• There are clover-causing health problems that horse owners should be aware of.

• Learn how to identify different clovers.

Don’t feed your horse moldy hay

• Moldy hay presents risks to horse health.

• Mold spores can produce respiratory disease in horses.

Steaming horse hay to reduce the effects of mold and dust

• Steaming shouldn’t replace the main goal of feeding hay with low mold and dust content.
• In the absence of such hay, steaming is a good practice for reducing mold and dust content in moderately moldy hay.

Determining the value of rained-on hay

• Rainfall on cut hay laying in the field causes yield and quality losses.

• Rained-on hay can be a suitable forage, especially for horses prone to laminitis.

• The best way to check the quality of rained on hay is to have it tested.

Evaluating amino acid levels in forages and horses

• Forage plays a key role in the horse’s diet.
• Cool-season grass and alfalfa are higher in amino acids than teff. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein.
• While alfalfa and cool-season grasses were higher in protein and lower in fiber, horses grazing teff had a similar blood amino acid response.

Evaluating glucose and insulin levels in grazing horses

• Teff has lower nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) and higher fiber values compared to cool-season grass and alfalfa.
• Blood insulin levels were lower for horses grazing teff compared to cool-season grasses in the fall and late fall.
• The lower NSC and higher fiber values of teff could help decrease the insulin response of horses grazing in the fall and late fall.

Horse hay suppliers in Minnesota
A list of hay auctions and private hay suppliers in Minnesota.

Selecting and storing horse hay

• Horse quality hay should be baled between 10 and 15 percent moisture.

• Store and protect hay from moisture to best prevent spoilage.

Feeding hay with a round bale feeder

• Round-bale feeders can reduce hay waste.

• Feeder design doesn’t affect the amount horses eat.

• All feeders reduce hay waste compared to not using a feeder, but hay waste differs based on the feeder design.

Using slow-feed hay nets

• Horses would naturally graze for about 14.5 hours a day.

• But many horses spend a lot of time in stalls or dry lots with limited time to forage.

• Horse owners try to mimic a more natural feeding pattern by providing free access to hay, but this can cause horses to eat too much and become overweight.

• Hay nets can help slow a horse’s eating in these situations.

Selecting a small square-bale feeder

• We tested small square-bale feeders to evaluate hay waste, cost, hay intakes and herd bodyweight.

Feeding your horse a ration balancer

• Ration balancer is a commercial horse feed designed to provide the trace minerals and vitamins your horse needs.

• Ration balancers do not add energy to the diet.

Caring for the overweight horse | Cuidado del caballo con sobrepeso

• Overweight horses are prone to disease, overheating and poor performance.

• Learn how to determine if your horse is overweight.

• Restricting diets and easing into regular exercise can help horse’s reach a healthy body weight.

Caring for the underweight horse | Cuidado del caballo con peso bajo

• Determine why the horse is thin by working with an equine veterinarian and nutritionist.

• Learn how to determine if your horse is underweight.

Soaking your horse’s hay

• Soaking hay can benefit horses with certain health issues by reducing water soluble carbohydrates, potassium and dust.

• Health issues soaking can help with include laminitis, polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM), hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

• Rely on forage tests before and after soaking to decide which type of hay is best for your horse.

Grazing horses prone to laminitis and metabolic disease

• Laminitis, also known and founder, is inflammation of tissues inside the hoof.

• High amounts of sugars or fructans in grasses can bring about disease in susceptible horses.

• Many factors affect the amount of sugar in forages.

• Susceptible horses should have limited grazing or no grazing.

Could common dry lot weeds trigger laminitis?

• The wide range of nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) content within the weed species suggest horse owners should control dry lot weeds.
• This is especially true for owners with laminitic horses and ponies.

Managing forage carbohydrate content

• Horses require carbohydrates in their diet.
• Some horses are sensitive to the carbohydrate content of hay and pasture forages. This could lead to health problems.

Alternative feedstuffs for horses

• You may consider alternative feedstuffs due to high hay costs or poor hay availability.
• When selecting an alternative feed, evaluate the pros and cons, and always work with your veterinarian or nutritionist.