Analyzing Forages

We all know a horse’s primary food is pasture grass and/or hay (forage). The quality of the forage is, thus, a major factor affecting his health. Do you know if your horse’s forage meets his needs? Truly, most of us don’t–but we should.

Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

We all know a horse’s primary food is pasture grass and/or hay (forage). The quality of the forage is, thus, a major factor affecting his health. Do you know if your horse’s forage meets his needs? Truly, most of us don’t–but we should.


Forage analysis can tell you whether your forage alone will provide the nutrition your horse needs, or whether he needs a supplement or a grain concentrate mix to balance the diet. This is doubly important for horses with problems that can be affected by certain nutrients in the feed. Some of these include hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) and exertional rhabdomyolysis (tying-up). A recent focus on forage carbohydrate content comes from the combination of the human low-carb diet craze and the realization that excess carbohydrates can cause or worsen problems such as colic, laminitis, and Cushing’s disease.


Normal horses benefit from knowledge of forage quality as well. Kathleen Crandell, PhD, of Middleburg, Va., an equine nutritionist for Kentucky Equine Research (KER), says a nutrient deficiency is a subtle thing you might not notice in normal horses because they are generally not “unhealthy.” But they might have subtle problems such as a poor-quality hair coat, lower reproduction rates, or slightly impaired immune systems, and you might see more illness or developmental problems in foals. Toxicity from nutrient levels that are too high can be subtle, or painfully obvious

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:

Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband near Salmon, Idaho, raising cattle and a few horses. She has a B.A. in English and history from University of Puget Sound (1966). She has raised and trained horses for 50 years, and has been writing freelance articles and books nearly that long, publishing 20 books and more than 9,000 articles for horse and livestock publications. Some of her books include Understanding Equine Hoof Care, The Horse Conformation Handbook, Care and Management of Horses, Storey’s Guide to Raising Horses and Storey’s Guide to Training Horses. Besides having her own blog, www.heathersmiththomas.blogspot.com, she writes a biweekly blog at https://insidestorey.blogspot.com that comes out on Tuesdays.

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?
337 votes · 337 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!