Q:
I
was recently told that my 1,150 pound horse should receive
17 – 23 pounds of forage per day. This was based on
feeding him a minimum of 1.5% of his body weight in hay
daily. Is this too much hay? Can some of his forage requirements
be met by pasture or alfalfa cubes?
A:
This is not too much hay as long as he is eating it. Actually,
1.5% of body weight in hay daily is usually the minimum
amount of forage to feed. If the hay is palatable to him
and he is cleaning up then give him more.
The
way I measure the amount of hay to give is based on how
much the horse will eat. If you give your horse all the
hay he will eat it improves his ability to maintain his
weight with less feed.
If you
watch a horse on plenty of pasture he will graze around
18 hours per day. When pasture is not available ‘you’
have to supply the roughage. The traditional square baled
hay is the form of roughage that we are most familiar with,
but there are other forms of forage that are fine to use
as well such as cubed hays and chopped forages. These alternative
sources of forage can be used to provide a portion, or the
entire amount of the horse’s forage needs.
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