What Is Considered Good Nutrition For A Horse?
Posted by Zolly | Under Nutrition Saturday May 30, 2009I need to know about maintenance nutrition, sporting or working nutrition and energy feeds, and gestation/lactation nutrition for a horse. I prefer holistic methods if possible but any information would do.
The above answer is good, but if you are looking for a more holistic and natural diet, consider this. A normal horse should consume 5% of its bodily weight daily in food, 2% of that should be in hay or pasture. A 1200lb horse should eat 60lbs of feed a day providing he is being exercised, 24-30lbs of that should be hay or pasture. Maintenance diets should make up 3% of the horse’s weight and can mainly consist of roughage (hay). Pregnant mares require balanced vitamins and minerals, good hay and grass are a must, sunlight is important too for vitamin D. Many feed stores carry natural supplements for your horses. I recommend feeding flax seed as it is high in vitamins Amino and fatty acids which are very important (buy it whole and grind it fresh every day with a coffee grinder ) it looses potency if purchased ground and they will not digest it if it is whole.
I actually have a nutrition book for my college course that has the basic requirements of all types of horses (foal, weanling, yearling, 2 yearold, maintanence, light work, moderate work, and heavy work). I dont have the book with me but I can answer the question later when I can get the book.
Alright I have my book: I am basing this off of a horse that is about 1000lbs.
DO NOT FEED YOUR HORSE MORE THAN 2.5 percent of his body weight. YOU WILL FOUNDER YOUR HORSE if you try to feed him more than about 1.5 percent of his body weight in grain. Besides he wont beable to eat that much anyway. Feeding your horse 5% of his body weight in grain and hay combined is WAY, let me express WAY too much food.
Here are my equine science class links for the powerpoint presentation: This slide shows the maximum percent body weight you should feed in both hay and concentrate and total for each specific type of horse.http://www.anslab.iastate.edu/Class/AnS2… feed consumption %BW
For Maintenance: Daily nutient requirements The diet should contain at least 16.4 Mcals of Deitary Energy, 656 grams of Crude Protein, 23 grams of Lysine, 20 grams of calcium, 14 grams of phosphorous, 7.5 grams of magnesium, and 25.0 grams of potassium. You should feed your horses 1.75 percent of their body weight in hay. Most of the nutrients are going to come out of the hay as that is going to be the bulk of the diet. So the concentate grain that is fed is just to finish meeing the requirements.
For a horse that is doing moderate work:
It needs 20.5 Mcals of dietary energy, 984 grams of crude protein, 34 grams of lysine, 30 grams of calcium, 21 grams of phosphorous, 11.3 grams of magnesium, and 37.4 grams of potassium.
For a pregnant mare:
At the very end of gestation she is going to need the most.
At 11 months gestation she needs:
19.7Mcal of dietary energy, 866 grams of crude protein, 30 grams of lysine, 37 grams of calcium, 28 grams of phosphorous, 9.4 grams of magnesium, and 31.5 grams of potassium.
For 9 and 10 months gestation she needs 18.2 Mcals of dietary energy (9 months) and 18.5 Mcals of dietary energy (10months) and 801 grams of Crude protein (9 months) and 815 g of crude protein (10 months). The rest of the numbers are about the same for the rest.
For lactating mares:
from foaling to 3 months.
28.3Mcals of dietary energy, 1427 grams of crude protein, 50 grams of lysine, 56 grams of calcium, 36 grams of phosphorous, 10.9 grams of magnesium and 46 grams of potassium.
From 3months to weaning: Requirements drop back.
24.3 Mcal of dietary energy, 1048 grams of crude protein, 37 grams of lysine, 36 grams of calcium, 22 grams of phosphorous, 8.6 grams of magnesium, and 33 grams of potassium.
These numbers are all based off of a horse that weighs about 1000lbs. Numbers will be slightly less if the horse weighs less and slightly more if the horse weighs more.
Feeds that have alot of energy in them would be:
corn, milo, dried distillers grains, oat middlings, groats, linseed meal (flaxseed), fish soluables, fish meal, poultry fat, meat and bone meal, sorghum silage, soybeans, and soybean meal, vegetable oil (can be added to grain), and thats all I can think of right now.
Hope this helps, I know its alot of numbers and stuff. I would try to balance out a ration for you but I’d need to have all of the information for the horse and it would take alittle bit of time, I have finals next week otherwise I would actually have time to do it.