Feeding Your Miniature Horse
How Horse s Ate in Nature A grazing animal. Evolved to eat large amounts of poor quality forage. Getting enough food involved a lot of travelling.
How Horse s Ate in Nature Digestion relies on always having a steady supply of forage. Constant production of stomach acid. Large amounts of coarse forage keeps dentition functioning well.
How We Make Horses Eat Fed in meals, for human convenience and to restrict intake for horse welfare. Instead of large quantities of low quality roughage, small amounts of quality, digestible nutrition.
Finding the Compromise Divide daily ration of feed into more meals. Use slow feed nets to make the appropriate amount of forage last more hours of the day. Allow as much grazing time as appropriate.
Feeding Forage Forage must be the core of your horse s diet at all times. Feed approximately 2 percent of your horse s body weight in forage each day. Never reduce the forage content to less than 1% per day.
Feeding Forage Note: The above are estimations if you with to be completely accurate you will need to weigh both your horse and your forage. For weight gain, forage can be increased, Incrementally or free choice.
Types of Forage Pasture Hay Cubes Pellets Haylege/bagged hay
Feeding Pasture - Pros Free! Very high in nutritional value. Good for physical and mental health free to express natural behaviours.
Feeding Pasture - Cons Can be labour intensive must be fed in appropriate amounts. Must be adjusted according to season/nutritional value of pasture. May not be appropriate for all horses ie metabolic disorders.
Hay Most common form of forage. Check for smell, colour, dust, mold. Unless analyzed, no way to be sure of nutritional quality. Feed by weight, but monitor your horses BCS closely.
Types of Hay Grass hay Varies depending on region Timothy, orchard, coastal, fescue etc. NOTE fescue is not appropriate to feed to broodmares in late gestation.
Types of Hay Alfalfa Most common legume for horse feed. Higher in protein than grass hay. Can be more nutrition than necessary for some horses.
Types of Hay Grass/Alfalfa mix can be a good option, to increase protein. Alfalfa also has a high level of calcium which is beneficial in buffering stomach acid.
Other Types of Forage Cubes Can be alfalfa, grass or grass/alfalfa mix. Nutritional analysis you know exactly what you re feeding. Very convenient.
Other Types of Forage Cubes Usually available in two sizes smaller is better for Miniature Horses. Can usually be fed soaked or dry depends on brand and your horse s requirements.
Other Types of Forage Pellets Convenience of cubes. Not as beneficial for digestive health no long stem forage. Good for horses with dental issues or to supplement ie alfalfa pellets.
Other Types of Forage Haylage/Bagged Hay Good for horses with respiratory issues. Not available in all regions.
Concentrates Should never make up more than 20-30% of their ration. Many horses will do well on a diet of only good quality hay and don t require any additional nutrition. Even working horses may not require the addition of a concentrate to their diet.
Concentrates Young horses, old horses, hard keepers and broodmares will need additional feed. Performance horses may require extra feed to maintain their weight or for additional energy.
Types of Concentrates Whole grains Oats, barley, corn Extruded feed Complete feeds Beet Pulp Ration Balancer
Types of Concentrates Whole Grains Whole, unprocessed oats have little nutritional value. Will have to feed large amount to see benefits. Very high in sugar, will result in high energy, hot behavior. Predisposed to gastic ulcers and colic.
Types of Concentrates Textured Feeds Mixture of processed whole grains and pellets, balanced into an appropriate ration. Horse able to sort out their favourite bits = no longer balanced.
Types of Concentrates Extruded Feeds More processed ingredients in a pelleted or kibble form. More easily digestible than a textured feed. Each pellet is balanced in itself.
Types of Concentrates Complete Feeds Includes the forage content in the pelleted ration. Good for senior horses with dental issues, digestive problems. Can be fed with additional forage as well.
Types of Concentrates Ration Balancer High in vitamins, minerals and protein, good fats. Designed to fill in potential nutritional deficiencies in a forage only diet.
Beet Pulp A byproduct of sugar beet processing, beet pulp comes in sheds or pellets. MUST be soaked prior to feeding or very high risk of choke. Good for filling in a topline, feed generously.
How Much to Feed? Introduce gradually as with any feed changes. Feed according to instructions. Made adjustments according to your horse s BCS. Discuss with your veterinarian.
Vitamin/Mineral Supplement A top dressing or free choice formulation. Supplements vitamin and minerals that might be missing otherwise in their diet. Like human vitamin supplements, some question of necessity.
Salt Horses need access to salt. White blocks, just salt; Blue blocks, iodized salt (generally for cattle), Red blocks, mineralized salt. Can add loose table salt to ration.
Water Must have access to fresh, unfrozen water at all times. Encourage drinking particularly in times of stress. Horses drink more if the water is warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather.
Building a Ration Test your forage and do a lot of nutritional math to figure out optimal crude protein, etc. etc. OR
Add a feed formulated for senior horses.
Other Considerations If adjustments to your feeding program aren t improving your horse s body condition, CONTACT YOUR VETERINARIAN Dental care, metabolic disorders, parasite loads, gastric ulcers many medical issues can impact body condition in a way that your feeding program cannot fix.
Feeding Your Miniature Horse