Fabulous Fibre

Clare Barfoot RNutr, senior nutritionist at Spillers’ Horse Feeds, considers why fibre is such an important part of the diet for horses and ponies

- Clare Barfoot Rnutr

We all know how essential it is to provide a high-fibre diet for our horses, but choosing the right forage source can be confusing. In some cases, feeding an inappropriate forage source could be harmful.

Fibre is important to the horse for two main reasons, firstly from a physical point of view – 65 per cent of the digestive system (the hindgut) is devoted to processing it. Constant access to forage is important to avoid conditions such as colic or gastric ulcers.

Secondly, there is the horse’s psychological needs. Horses have evolved to eat for around 16-18 hours of every day. In the wild, their diet would comprise of grasses, herbs, plants and shrubs.

Conserved forages

Conserved forage is grass that has been harvested in summer, to feed to our horses and ponies over the winter months.

Whether you choose hay or haylage, the golden rule is to go for the best quality you can. Poor quality forage may contribute to weight loss, respiratory problems and even colic.

Deciding whether to feed hay or haylage can be confusing, but ultimately haylage is just damp hay. The nutritional differences can vary just as much between bales of hay as between haylage and hay.

The main consideration is how much to feed. Many horse owners believe that haylage is nutritionally richer than hay and therefore should be fed in lesser quantities.

However, haylage contains more water than hay. Therefore, you need to feed more haylage (by weight) than hay, in order to provide the same level of fibre and nutrition.

Forage should ideally be fed ad-lib but for good doers and overweight horses, total forage intake should not restricted to less than 15g per kilogram of bodyweight per day, on a dry matter basis.