By Crew Rory
Your love for equines can prove an expensive hobby as their maintenance, upkeeping, and feeding involve a lot of effort, care, and money. Not only do horses require a clean living environment and well-kept barns, but they also require healthy nutritious diets as well as healthcare.
Regarding horse feed, you just cannot feed horses whatsoever is available as like domestic pets like dogs or cats, horses are highly prone to catching infections, gastrointestinal disorders, dental, joint-related, and skin ailments.
What should horses ideally eat?
Basically, horses are grazing animals and love to graze all day yet ideally horses should eat many times a day but very little in one go. As far as most preferred horse foods are concerned, horses love to feed on:
- Grass – a natural food that is good for the digestive system. However, lush green grass of spring season can cause colic or laminitis i.e., inflammation of sensitive layers of laminae tissue inside the hoof in horses and result in acute pain in the hoof.
- Hay or haylage – helps keep horses full and keeps their digestive system working properly. It is an ideal feed for horses in the absence of pasture which is usually not available during early spring.
- Fruit or vegetables – are added to the food to maintain moisture in the feed. Horses love carrots most and can be given after cutting length-wise. However, excess vegetables and fruits can prove harmful and should be avoided.
- Concentrates – most veterinarians often recommend concentrates to horses in every stage whether they are young, old, competing, nursing, or pregnant.
- Concentrates such as grains like oats, barley, and corn combined in appropriate proportions can help increase horse energy.
- An imbalanced mix of concentrate should not be given as they can cause a mineral imbalance
- Salt – adequate amounts of salt in the pasture is always good for maintaining electrolyte balance in horses especially in summers.
Horses when fed with well-balanced food help maintain good health, optimum weight and lead a disease-free life. Whereas lack of a good diet may cause them to lose weight and look like underweight, weak, and frail animals.
However, underweight horses when given well-proportioned feed like Barastoc’s weight gain horse feed can help regain lost weight.
Feed that can help horses put on weight
Signs of horses losing weight may appear as a faint outline of every rib along sides and haunches appearing a little less rounded. These changes are sure signs of weight loss among horses and need some special feed that may help horses regain the weight.
The weight loss among horses apart from inadequate or improper diet mix may be due to problems with:
- Digestive System including Gastric Ulcers
- Parasitic Infestation
- A dental problem affecting chewing abilities besides teeth grinding
- Infections
- Illnesses such as diarrhea, colic, fever, or lethargy
- Abnormalities with Liver and Kidney Function
To help horses gain weight, there are many products that are promoted as a complete food for horses of all ages such as foals, matured and competing adults, or old and retired seniors yet when it comes to the most ideal one, nothing can match Barastoc’s weight gain horse feed- a perfect blend of delicious ingredients from Barastoc.
