Horses are herbivores, so the base of their diet must be from pasture or dry forage like hay. In the wild, horses would graze an average of 15-18 hours per day intermittently and they would travel up to 40 km looking for food. A fully grown horse will eat up to 2.5 percent of its body weight in hay, and the fiber in this essential forage keeps his horse’s gut working regularly.
Because of various factors, such as training and stabling regimes, horses often have restricted access to pasture and turnout, so it is up to us to make sure they have an appropriate alternative fibre source to satisfy their desire to graze constantly.
While hay, by itself, may lack the calories needed to fuel a performance horse in moderate or hard work, it should still be the foundation of every horse’s diet.
A good quality forage source should have the following characteristics:
- Greenish colour, a fine structure, and a nice smell.
- If coming from cereals, the seed should be soft, elongated, and be attached to its shell.
- It should have been harvested before the plant reached full maturity. Coarse stems and lots of big seed heads show that the hay was cut from mature plants. This hay is often less attractive to horses. Since it is less digestible and provides less nutrition, it works well for horses that are overweight or require fewer calories in their diets.
Best to avoid:
- Yellow-looking hay and hay that smells moldy, musty, dusty or fermented.
- Any forages that come from cereals shouldn’t have seeds present; as if they do, their lignin content is probably high and, thus, not recommended.
- Straw, because of its high lignin content and reduced nutritive values.
- Weedy hay. Weeds and sticks and seed pods in the hay are tip-offs to poor quality.
- Hay that shows evidence of insect infestation or disease.
- Dark brown or black color indicates the hay was baled when it was wet, and mould spores are present.
