Your once green pasture is starting to resemble an arid desert savannah. Feed and grain prices are climbing and the price of
chaff and hay (if you can buy it at all) is going through the roof! Your horses need feeding, but with what? If you can’t get hay
and you have no pasture, what on earth are you supposed to do?
This is the yearly dilemma of the Australian horse owner. Drought, in its varying degrees of severity, is something we just
have to learn to live with. As with most things, it helps to be prepared, but like many, if you wander through life with the
‘She’ll be right mate’ attitude, then a freak severe drought could catch you out, and what then?
The most noticeable effect of drought hits you in the wallet. If you’ve been a good boy scout, and are lucky enough to have
plenty of storage space then you might have it a bit easier, but for the most part, the economic squeeze of a severe drought
will affect even the most diligent of horse owners.
This article will explore the priorities that need to be addressed when feeding horses in moderate drought conditions and
will explore the options available to help you out of a dry spot, with your horses and your wallet, not to mention your sanity,
intact!
Forage
One of the biggest problems in drought
is a lack of forage. If you have been
well prepared, you may have a good
store of hay to help you through, but
in extended periods of drought, there
will likely be a time when you run out.
Furthermore, Murphy’s Law dic-
tates that this particular time will be
precisely the time that hay prices are
peaking and availability is next to
non existent. For many, a good
relationship with a farmer or produce
store can help tremendously at these
times, but failing that there are a
couple of ways that hay can be
rationed out to go a little further
whilst maintaining healthy gut
function.
Horses need at least 1% of their body
weight as dry forage each day. That’s
5kg for a 500kg horse. This is non ne-
gotiable, and falling below this amount
has it’s associated dangers in the form
of colic, laminitis, gastric ulcers and
loss of condition.
Traditionally the forage allowance is
made up of hay, pasture and chaff. It
is very important to provide sufficient
bulk and enough fibre to keep the
digestive system moving along. Dur-
ing times of drought, the nutritive
value of the roughage is less impor-
tant than the physical bulk of it, as
poor quality, low energy roughage
can be supplemented with hard feed
to fill the gaps.
36 • The Australian Quarter Horse Magazine • September • October • 2018
It may be more economical to buy
large square or round bales of hay
rather than the small bales and to
bulk buy where possible to ensure
a good supply as well as getting the
best possible price. But where hay is
extremely difficult to source, you may
need to look to alternatives to supply
a good chunk of the fibre and rough-
age in the diet. Care must be taken not
to feed mouldy or uncured hay, but
other than that, even a sub standard
long stem grass hay will do where
nothing else is available.
Be very careful when using unusual
types of forage and be aware of those
areas of the diet that will need to be