How to safely feed your horse for extra condition this winter *Promotion*

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There are plenty of possible reasons why a horse is underweight and lots of ways to promote weight gain, some of which are safer than others! There are three key areas to consider:

• Try to identify the contributing factors
• Promote a healthy digestive system
• Use high-quality forage as the basis for the ration and top-up if needed

Identifying the contributing factors

Key checks to make if your horse or pony has lost weight:

• Is the diet supplying enough energy for the horse’s size and workload? Total intake should be between 2 and 2.5% of body weight
• Have you done a worm count? A significant worm burden will compromise your horse’s weight and condition
• Have you had your horse’s teeth checked by a professional? No matter how good the diet is, poor teeth will limit what your horse can get from it!
• Is your horse stressed or in pain? If they are turned out with other horses, check if they are being bullied away from forage for example.

Promoting a healthy digestive system

The digestive system of any herbivore is undoubtedly healthier when fed a high-fibre diet. Although it may seem counterintuitive, reducing the amount of cereal-based feeds may help your horse gain weight – especially if you’re feeding more than a scoop of cereals in each feed. Feeding fewer cereals means the digestive system becomes less acidic and the digestion of other feeds becomes more efficient. Using highly digestible fibre sources such as sugar beet included in Dengie Alfa-Beet can make a significant contribution to the horse’s energy requirements. Rich in pectin, one of the most digestible forms of fibre, sugar beet has been shown to have a prebiotic-like effect in the gut so including it in rations can help to improve the digestibility of other fibres the horse eats.

There are a range of ingredients that can be used to help support your horse’s digestive system. For more information on these visit Enhance The Digestion Of Your Horse – Dengie Horse Feeds.

If you are confident that you are feeding enough and have ruled out other issues, the next step is to review what you are feeding.

Feed the best forage you can

Forage makes up at least half of most horse’s rations and if it’s of poor nutritional quality, it will significantly impact the horse’s condition. Forage quality is largely determined by how digestible it is– there are different types of fibre found in feeds ranging from the very digestible pectin to the less digestible cellulose. High levels of lignin, an indigestible substance that gives a plant structure, significantly reduces the digestibility of a forage. The older and taller a plant gets, the more lignin is present, which is why later-cut hay will tend to be less conditioning than earlier cuts. Haylage or wrapped hay tends to be cut earlier than hay and is often more digestible, which is why horses tend to do better on it. If you feel your forage it can give you an indication of its digestibility – softer forage is more likely to be easier to digest and is the best option for a poor doer.

Whatever forage you use for your horse, it is important to know how much they are consuming even when feeding ad lib. If you weigh what you put into the stable and then weigh any waste that the horse hasn’t eaten, you can calculate if they are consuming enough. If they aren’t then it is important to try and determine why – can you find a more palatable alternative for example? If you’ve already ruled out dental issues it is worth looking for higher quality forages so that your horse gets more from what they do eat.

Other benefits of fibre

The link between diet, the microbiome and overall health is increasingly being researched and understood. Fibre provides the specific type of energy that the cells of the gut use and by feeding fibre we are helping our horses maintain a healthy gut lining. This means it is better able to keep harmful bacteria and substances from passing through the gut into the body and also aids the immune system.

How do we feed to promote condition safely?

Fibre and oil are two nutrients that provide energy in a slow-release form and are found in Dengie Cool Condition & Shine. But what is energy? It might be easier to start with what energy isn’t! Energy isn’t a nutrient, it isn’t tangible and can’t be created or destroyed – it is converted from one form to another. Perhaps it is easiest to think of it being trapped in a nutrient such as fibre. When that nutrient is digested or broken down, the energy within it is released.

Energy for work or energy for weight gain?

They are the same thing! If a horse receives more energy than it needs, it can store the energy as fat and gain weight so it is correct to say that a higher-energy feed is needed to promote weight gain. Equally, it is correct to say that a horse requires more calories for harder work. It is not true that calories are only for weight gain and energy only for work, although we tend to use the two measures in that way for ease of understanding.

What does DE stand for?

Digestible energy or DE is a term used to measure the energy value of a feed. It isn’t a legally recognised measure for horses, which is why feed manufacturers are not obliged to declare it on their bags. However, many voluntarily give a DE value as it is the best measure available to indicate the energy value of a given feed for the horse.

So back to the slow-release and quick-release energy sources. A study Dengie carried out in conjunction with researcher Louise Bulmer showed that horses fed fibre and oil were less reactive to novel stimuli and had lower resting heart rates than horses fed cereal-based feeds with the same energy value. These findings have been backed up by other work and supports the case for utilising fibre and oil for promoting weight gain without fizz. Learn more about the study >>

What about topline?

When we talk about feeding for overall condition, one of the first things that springs to mind is feeding for top-line muscle condition. Firstly, it is important to understand that nutrition isn’t the only piece of the puzzle when it comes to building muscle – you will also need to focus on fitness and training to build your horse’s strength. Your horse will obtain protein from a variety of sources in their diet; grass and hay will contribute significant amounts of protein because they make up a large proportion of most horses’ rations. Ingredients in the bucket feed help meet any shortfalls from the forage and will support the increased requirements for horses in work or breeding stock.

It is not only the amount of protein that is important to your horse, quality matters too. Protein is made up of amino acids, some of which need to be supplied in the diet as the horse can’t make them itself. These are called essential amino acids and lysine is particularly important as it is a limiting amino acid: if the horse has insufficient lysine then protein synthesis and therefore muscle development would be limited. Alfalfa is an excellent source of good quality protein providing the building blocks for muscle and is found in greatest amounts in the pure alfalfa products in the Dengie Alfa-A range of fibre feeds making them ideal conditioning feeds for horses. Dengie Alfa-A Oil is a high-calorie blend of pure alfalfa with rapeseed oil, perfect for promoting condition and coat shine, while being naturally low in sugar and starch. It is important to make sure sufficient energy is provided in the ration to ensure your horse isn’t diverting protein from muscle development to fuel work.

For further help and nutritional guidance contact the Dengie Feedline on 01621 841188, visit www.dengie.com or complete a Feed Advice Form

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