Nutrition: Monitor, Manage Horse Energy Intake

Eating well is not always eating safely; horse managers who ignore that lesson when feeding their animals might be creating digestive problems for their horses. “Many feeding management recommendations for horses are related to supplying energy safely,” said Dave Freeman, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension equine specialist. “Most of
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Eating well is not always eating safely; horse managers who ignore that lesson when feeding their animals might be creating digestive problems for their horses.

"Many feeding management recommendations for horses are related to supplying energy safely," said Dave Freeman, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension equine specialist. "Most of the energy supplied in rations comes from carbohydrates. There are two types of carbohydrates, the 'starchy, sugary' carbs and the 'fibrous' carbs. The two types vary in how and to what extent they are digested."

Fiber

One source of energy that horses rely on is fiber. Hays and pastures supply energy in the form of fiber. Typically, horses should have access to pastures, hays or coarsely processed forage at minimum levels of 0.75% of bodyweight per day. These levels guard against feeding too much of the other type, the 'starchy, sugary' compounds

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
288 votes · 288 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!