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FEATURE: HORSE NUTRITION
WORDS BY: MISHEL METCALF FOR HI FORM AUSTRALIA 2025
Feeding during feed and forage shortage
Unfortunately, drought, floods, fires and other environmental problems are quite common in Australia. While one part of the country is as dry as dust, another part might be under water. It is important to act early if you recognise that there is a threat to feed supply.
To reduce the impact on you financially, and on your horse’ s health, you will need to make early decisions as not all the options will be available later.
What is essential?
WATER, FIBRE, PROTEIN & ENERGY, VITAMINS & MINERALS, & FATS
First consider how long you will need to replace pasture and the volume of feedrequired to get you through that period. You will need to meet the horse’ s dailynutritional requirements to maintain weight.
WATER, FIBRE, PROTEIN & ENERGY, VITAMINS & MINERALS, & FATS are thefundamentals of a horse’ s diet. Most of this will come from good quality forage, butin tough times, this is not always available. Talk to a nutritionist who will give you a basic affordable plan to feed the differentgroups of horses on your property.
Next work out your finances to see if you can purchase in bulk. This will not only save you money in the long run but also give your horses the continuity in their feed supply.
Horses have evolved to eatpredominantly forage based diets, sogetting enough hay or hay cubes to seeyou through the tough times is crucial. Remember, other owners areexperiencing the same problems andwill be purchasing more than theirusual volume of hay.
This dries up supply and pushes theprice of hay up dramatically. Make aquick decision and purchase early ifyou can. Waiting until winter may seeyou miss out completely.
No hay alone diet will provide a completely balanced ration for each horse. Purchasing a daily vitamin andmineral mix to supplement the hay is the next step.
There is a false economy in buying the cheapest product on the shelf. Do your research about the ingredients and make sure you are not needing to feed large rates to meet the needs of the horse.
Vitamins and minerals come in many different forms. Some are easily absorbed and utilized by the horse whilst others are needed in large amounts to have any benefit at all. Some also includeingredients that are not required by the horse such as fillers, flavours or preservatives.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of buying cheap supplements and expecting that it will do what a quality product can do. Don’ t waste money on fillers you are literally paying good money for ingredients that can cause long term health problems for your horse. www. hiform. com. au
AUSTRALIAN QUARTER HORSE ASSOCIATION- www. aqha. com. au