W
hen selecting a feed, we can
be a bit overwhelmed with the
choices today. Here’s a few tips
to help guide you along the way.
First and foremost, start your
nutrition program with quality
forage and lots of it. Horses’
digestive systems are designed
primarily to digest forage. How
much you ask? They should be
fed ~2% of their bodyweight per
day in hay for example. Once
you understand the forage base
of their diet, you then need to
determine if you need only to
balance the missing amino acids,
vitamins and minerals lacking in
the forage, or if they need
all those nutrients plus
additional calories.
An easy way to think about it is
if your horses ate only their hay/
pasture free choice, would they
have a Body Condition Score of
a 5 or 6. (See page 28 for Body
Condition Score Sheet) if your
answer is yes, then choose a feed
(often referred to as a Ration
Balancer) designed to be fed at
a low rate (1-2#/day for a 1000#
horse) providing very little calories
but all the amino acids, vitamins
and minerals missing in the
forage. Empower Balance is a
great example.
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