Give your horse two choices: tall grass or low grass. Which one will he choose?

That answer depends a lot on the quality and nutritional composition of the grass, according to a new study by French researchers.

Although horses select the tallest grass when the quality of turfs is equally good, their main objective appears to be efficient intake of major nutrients, especially digestible protein, the researchers reported.

"Horses seem to be capable of adjusting their feeding behaviors (grazing time, speed of ingestion, choice of feeding sites) in response to variations in availability and quality of pasture vegetation in order to cover their nutritional needs," said Géraldine Fleurance, PhD, researcher for the French Horse and Equitation Institute (formerly the French national stud) and the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Saint-Genès-Champanelle and a primary author of the study