What Horses Can and Can't Eat

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What Horses Can and Cannot Eat
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Providing an animal with food and water is among
the primary duties of anyone caring for it.
Without these things, any animal will surely
perish. Provide them in the wrong quantities
and youll create health problems. Provide the
wrong sorts of food, moreover, and you might
make things even worse! In the case of horses,
which are probably the hungriest animals widely
kept in the United Kingdom, these dangers are
all the more pressing. While some foodstuffs
might have immediate, disastrous consequences if
ingested by your horse, others will have
subtler long-term side-effects that, with just a
little bit of education, might be easily
avoided. With that in mind, lets run through
some of the things that you should avoid giving
to your horse.
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What Shouldn't a Horse Eat?
Fruit We humans are forever being instructed to
eat more fruits and vegetables. And with good
reason theyre packed with the vitamins and
minerals we need to thrive. In the case of fruit,
however, these nutrients come packaged alongside
a healthy dose of sugar. Of course, its
possible to have too much of a good thing. While
a single apple as a reward for good behaviour
might be healthy, a whole basketful of them is
likely to cause digestion problems like colic.
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What Shouldn't a Horse Eat?
Cruciferous Vegetables By the same token, you
might be familiar with the sensations associated
with eating too many sprouts, or too much cabbage
or kale. These vegetables are cruciferous
vegetables they come with layers of four
overlapping leaves in a cross-like formation
(hence the name). Vegetables of this sort are
packed with sulphur, a chemical which isnt
broken down until it reaches the large intestine.
There, it becomes hydrogen sulphide a smelly
gas that you might associate with rotten
eggs. What causes abdominal pain, however, is
the fact that some of the sugars in a
cruciferous vegetable cant be absorbed by a
horses digestive system. When food enters the
hindgut without having been broken down
sufficiently by the stomach and small intestine,
the population of microbes there will have more
food than they can reasonably eat resulting in
prolonged fermentation, gas, and discomfort.
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What Shouldn't a Horse Eat?
Dusty Hay A horses digestive system has adapted,
for the most part, to subsist on fresh grass.
For this reason, putting it out to pasture is the
best option for long-term digestive health. With
that said, this isnt always possible and so
equestrians must turn to hay (which, in its most
basic form, is dried grass thatll keep for
longer). Its incredibly important, however, that
this hay is kept clean, and free from the sorts
of dust and mould formations that can cause
health issues. The former can cause a respiratory
issue called Recurrent Airway Obstruction thats
similar to the asthma we humans experience the
latter will cause spores to release into the
respiratory system and can sometimes produce
deadly mycotoxins. Keep your hay under cover, in
sheltered and dry conditions.
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What Shouldn't a Horse Eat?
Grass Clippings If youve recently mown the lawn,
it might seem sensible to feed the grass to your
horse. After all, waste not, want not and isnt
the horse going to eat grass anyway? Not so
fast. When horses graze, they dont do quite the
same job as your lawnmower. Theyre actually very
selective about what they do and dont chew on
and theyll avoid the sorts of toxic plants,
like weeds, that might find their way into your
lawn clippings. And thats not even taking into
account the amount of artificial pesticides many
of us bestow upon our lawns.
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What Shouldn't a Horse Eat?
Bran It might seem strange that cereals like bran
arent recommended. The horses gut, however,
simply hasnt adapted to ingest feed of this
sort. Its lacking in fibre, particularly when
its served in a highly-processed, mashed form.
Your horse wont need to spend too much time
chewing, and thus will be able to ingest larger
quantities of the food in question in a shorter
time span. This will cause a rapid release of
sugar, and it will interfere with the population
of microbes in the horses gut. In each case
here, you should be sure not only that you dont
directly feed your horse problematic substances,
but that you also keep their environment clear
from such foods. If theres an apple tree in the
pasture, then its important to restrict their
access to it. The same can be said of sycamore
trees, whose poisonous seedlings have adapted to
float across long distances, and can cause
significant damage. Its also worth being wary
of people dumping grass clippings, and unwanted
apples, in places that your horse can access. An
improperly- placed compost heap can pose a
significant threat to your horses health so be
sure to keep an eye out for fly-tippers.
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What Can Horses Eat?
Bearing all of these forbidden foods in mind,
what should we be feeding our horses?
Fortunately, the optimal diet is one thats
easily obtained it grows easily and naturally
across the countryside! Grass As weve
mentioned, horses are natural grazers, and so
should be permitted to graze wherever and
whenever possible. While grass is rich in sugar,
its packaged alongside sizeable amounts of fibre
which the horses digestive system has adapted
to capably break down. By occasionally shuttling
your horses from one pasture to another, youll
be able to ensure that theres always a healthy
supply of grass to draw upon. Hay To provide
your horse with the calories they need, youll
want to supplement their diet with hay. This is
especially so during winter, when the animal
will spend more time in the stable.
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What Can Horses Eat?
Grains While weve mentioned that certain sorts
of feed, like bran, are to be avoided, others,
like oats, are perfectly acceptable. Just be sure
that you dont overdo it. Minerals Like every
other sort of animal, a horse will need a supply
of minerals like salt in order to maintain its
body. Provide this either by scattering salt
across the pasture, providing a block of salt, or
by mixing it in with a grain meal. It isnt
difficult to provide your horse with a diet
thats right for them. By allowing them out to
pasture as often as possible, and ensuring that
you feed them the right dried food thats been
stored appropriately, you can easily sidestep a
whole raft of health troubles.
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Get in Touch
Beeston Animal Health, Whitchurch Road Beeston
Castle Tarporley Cheshire CW6 9NJ 01829 734 981