grain | The Equine Nutrition Nerd

The National Research Council (NRC) creates nutritional requirements for each species. With horses they use a calculator that factors in specific things for each individual horse in order to be certain the horse’s nutritional needs are being met.

As you could probably figure out, a race horse needs a different diet than a pasture ornament. A warm blood broodmare has different dietary needs than a miniature horse.

I found this horse feed calculator that is VERY similar on HorseMath.com Click this link and fill in the necessary info to determine what your horse(s) needs and to see if his current diet meets them.

http://www.horsemath.com/horse-feed-calculator

Peace and good feed,

The Nerd

HAY BEFORE GRAIN, OR VICE VERSA?

Many people worry about which they should be feed first – hay or grain?

If you feed starchy cereal grains (oats, corn, barley, etc.) on an empty stomach, the horse will produce more acid than normal potentially leading to ulcers. Plus, the grain will leave the stomach quickly and head to the small intestine where it will not be fully digested.

If this undigested grain ends up in the hindgut where starch would be fermented by the bacterial population, then this can increase the risk of laminitis.

Your horse should have access to forage (hay and/or pasture) at will, therefore, when you feed your grain, the horse’s digestive tract should already have hay flowing through it.

If hay is present in the stomach first, it creates a physical barrier for the grain to move out of the stomach as quickly. When is hay present, the fiber in the hay mixes with the starch from the grain and then this enters the small intestine. Fiber’s presence slows down the process of digestion.

So the answer is to trickle feed forage all day using a slow feeder if necessary to avoid grain on an empty stomach. For more about the digestive tract click here. For more about slow feeders click here.

Peace and good feed,

The Nerd