Should I weigh my horse or pony’s feed?
One of the traps that we tend to fall into with our own diets is that we eat far more than “one portion”. Controlling portion sizes can be tricky and a lot of diet plans suggest practices such as buying smaller plates as a way of helping to reduce our calorie intake. One of the reasons we tend to over-consume is that we don’t have time to weigh our food and often don’t appreciate how much different food types vary in weight. For example, how many grapes count as “one” of our five a day?
Can you overfeed or underfeed a horse?
The same applies to feeding our horses and ponies. Very few people weigh feed or even check the bag to find out how much their horse or pony needs. The reason this is important is that, when a feed is formulated, a feeding rate has to be set so that the levels of vitamins and minerals are included correctly to provide a balanced diet. If the product is then over or underfed then the ration will not be balanced as intended.
What happens if you don’t feed the correct amount?
Over-feeding cereal-based feeds in one meal can also cause digestive upsets, hence the rule of feeding little and often to horses. This is because cereal feeds contain a lot of starch and the horse has a relatively small capacity for absorbing it. If starch reaches the sensitive hind gut, problems such as laminitis and colic can occur. It is therefore advised to limit starch intake to 1g per 1kg of bodyweight per meal or 500g per meal for a 500kg horse. You can check your horse’s starch intake using Dengie’s Starch Intake Calculator.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are dangers associated with under-feeding horses, which can be just as bad as over-feeding.
Under-feeding means the horse or pony is missing out on essential nutrients. This is one of the reasons that balancers have been so successful for many horses and ponies – the balancer is correcting nutrient shortfalls brought about by under-feeding a balanced feed that is being fed incorrectly. If your horse or pony doesn’t need the full amount of feed because they are a good doer or overweight, replacing it with or topping up with a balancer or supplement (is fine) change to is advised because it provides the additional vitamins and minerals required for a balanced diet.
There are also dangers associated with over-feeding too much of certain vitamins and minerals such as selenium, as they can cause toxicity problems – just because “some” is good, it doesn’t mean that “lots” is better!
Weigh your horse before you weigh your feed to ascertain his bodyweight
Finally, it is important to note that weighing your horse’s feed isn’t any use if you haven’t weighed your horse, too, because the feeding rates for most feeds are based on body weight.
There are various means of doing this, but weigh tapes are an easy option and one that every horse owner should invest in and use regularly to monitor changes.
Spotting gains or losses in weight early allows you to adjust your horse’s diet before the weight loss or gain is too significant ,allowing you to keep your horse or pony in perfect condition all year round.
Expert advice at your fingertips
If you’re looking for advice on the best feed, speak to one of our highly experienced nutritionists on our feedline, or for a more in-depth plan, fill out our Feed Advice Form
