Forage – do you need an alternative? *Promotion*

Forage shortage – Hot, dry summers can reduce forage yields. If your supply is reduced, topping up throughout the winter is the best approach to avoid running out and having to make a more drastic change to your horse’s diet.
Forage that’s too good or not good enough – Bright, sunny conditions could lead to sugar levels in some forages being higher than usual, which may be too much for those with EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome), PPID (Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction) or that are prone to laminitis. Using a low sugar forage replacer, such as Dengie Hi-Fi Lite can help you manage your horse’s sugar intake. Equally, if your forage isn’t that great for whatever reason, topping up with a more nutritious forage replacer, such as Dengie Pure Grass, can help to avoid weight loss.
Does your horse have respiratory issues? – Equine asthma, also referred to as RAO and COPD, means that some horses need a super-clean forage source. Soaking and steaming may not be practical or possible to do in some situations, which is when straw free forage replacers are particularly useful.
Is your horse struggling to chew hay or haylage? – Poor dentition isn’t just a problem for older horses. Diastemas can affect younger horses and ponies too. If they simply can not manage longer length forages, a short-chopped forage replacer may be suitable or it may even be necessary to use pelleted fibres soaked into a mash.

There are some very obvious signs such as quidding, where balled up pieces of food are dropped out of the horse’s mouth and tend to accumulate around the hay net or feeder. However, there are some earlier more subtle signs that you may not be aware of. Studies have shown that pieces of fibre greater than 3.6mm in the horse’s droppings are an indicator of dental abnormalities. And for donkeys, the threshold length is slightly shorter at 3.3mm, due to differences in the conformation of their mouths.

Did you know the phrase ‘long in the tooth’ actually originates from horses? This is because their teeth continue to grow throughout their lifetime; their gums recede as they get older which gives them the appearance of longer teeth. This needs to happen because chewing fibre causes a lot of wear on teeth and horses should spend a long time eating – 16-18 hours every day. If the teeth didn’t keep growing, horses would probably ‘run out’ of tooth as soon as their early teens. With horses living longer than ever, their teeth can start to let them down, by becoming loose and wobbly, or even falling out.

If your older horse or pony can still manage short, chopped fibre then choosing the right one comes down to their weight and condition. Dengie Hi-Fi Senior combines dried grass and alfalfa and is ideal for those that don’t tend to hold their weight and condition well. If the short chop format is still too much then Dengie Alfa-Beet and Dengie Grass Pellets can be soaked into a mash for a really easy-to-chew option.

Kizzy is a 31-year-old ex-riding school pony with a number of health conditions including PPID and EMS, plus diastemas. Kizzy’s owner, Tracey, works hard to manage her various conditions and it can be difficult when dealing with more than one issue at once. For the past couple of years Kizzy has remained a healthy weight: 260kg. She is turned out during the day in a woodchip paddock with various buckets of soaked hay to encourage her to move about and forage. In her bucket feed she receives Dengie Alfa-Beet with Performance Vits & Mins alongside to provide a balanced diet.

Poo, aka Perfect Timing II, is a four-star eventer owned and competed by Alicia Wilkinson. She lost a lot of weight and was diagnosed with diastemas that reduced her ability to chew hay. Dental treatment and a change of forage was required to ensure that she received sufficient fibre. Poo is now able to manage a small amount of steamed hay, alongside her soaked mash of Dengie Grass Pellets and Dengie Alfa-Beet.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

TOPICS