BE MINDFUL
of Your
Horse’s
FORAGING
Needs
For a horse, going
more than four
hours without
feed is as good
as fasting
For a lot of horse owners, the end of the day is considered to
be the end of the day in every sense. The lights are off, the
horse has had its dinner, and is ready to hit the hay in its freshly
cleaned stall. What most people don’t realise is that if the horse
has been fed loose hay, it’s very likely to have an uncomfortable
evening. According to researchers, horses consume loose hay
very quickly and therefore end up waing many hours before
their morning meal, which is a drain on their physical and mental
health.
When allowed to graze at will, a horse will forage about 10-14
hours a day, according to Barbara Hardman, a postgraduate
MSc from the University of Edinburgh’s Royal School of Veterinary
Studies, in Scotland. She also stressed the importance of
the fact that “day” here means a full 24-hour period and not
just the daylight hours.
Even when a horse is fed unlimited hay during the day, it is
highly unlikely to have enough forage for the night me in
a stable, since any hay provided will be rapidly consumed.
Nocturnal husbandry happens to be a very important aspect of
horse care.
A common misconcepon among horse owners is that horses
find greater comfort on large straw beds compared to a night
in the field, when in reality going more than four consecuve
hours without forage is as good as fasng for a horse. It also
puts the animal at risk of gastrointesnal issues as well as problema
c behavioural cks like crib bing and bed-eang (literally
eang their straw bedding).
A good way to prevent this is the use of slow-feeders in the
horse stalls, which can help prolong their foraging through the
nocturnal hours without disrupng their sleep cycle.
In her study, Hardman and her fellow researchers took a look at
the night-me behaviours in four horses - all around nine years
old - stalled overnight with varying feeding condions. All four
horses received loose hay placed on the ground and two kinds
of slow-feeders - one made up of a large plasc container that
distributed hay through bars on the boom, and the other a
solid plasc container with a lid that dropped progressively as
the horses pulled the hay through holes in the lid.
The researchers used infrared LED cameras to photograph the
horses every 30 seconds for 17 hours, for seven days per horse.
They then evaluated the images and created behavioral charts
for the me the horses spent on eang vs standing, lying down,
moving around, and staying alert.
Hardman found that horses with slow-feeders spent around
95 to 120% more me foraging than when they had loose hay
on the ground. She also noted that when horses had access to
loose hay, they spent 72% more me searching around their
bedding, possibly eang their straw beds, pung themselves at
the risk of impacon colic.
What’s most interesng about this is the fact that longer consump
on periods don’t mean horses priorise eang over rest.
Resng periods across feeding condions were largely idencal.
Essenally, slow-feeders can go a long way in extending feeding
mes for horses that are stabled on restricted forage diets.
They can also prevent crib bing and bedding ingeson. Pung
horses on inedible bedding such as wood shavings instead of
straw can also greatly reduce bed-eang.
62 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com
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