Horse Care I – Basic Horse Feeding

Caring for your horse and meeting all its dietary requirements to promote well-being is the coverage of Horse Care I. It is important to have a footing of the dietary necessities of your pet horse to keep him content and preserve an outstanding bill of health. Horses can have a variety of food options that they can choose from which will maintain all their fiber and nutritional needs. These are easily obtainable and can be purchased through many suppliers and stables in the country.

Horse Care I-  What to feed your horse?

One of the best natural sustenance that you can nourish your horse with is good value pasture. A typical horse will do well on a pasture diet if they have sufficient supply to graze on. One thing that you have to account for is that most horses will be selective grazers and will need a large area to sustain their nutritional requirements. Thinking that a  green field will suffice for a horses grazing requirements is wasteful as it will normally be a selective grazing area, depending on location and the time of the year when suitable pasture will be available for your horse. You have to be observant in your horses grazing patterns to determine if the hay is adequate enough or you will end up malnourishing your pet.

Hay is the basic necessity for all forms of inland horses.  There are a lot of different species of hay that you can buy but remember to purchase good quality hay for the horses. You need to make sure that you inspect the hay before making a purchase; you can do this by requesting the merchandiser to open a bale before you cut them a check. A good bale of hay is cool, and warm hay is normally indicative of mold buildup which can cause a lot of health problems for your horse such as respiratory distress and colic. It is also considered good practice to soak hay before feeding it to the horse.

As horses favor hay, it isn’t enough to provide all the dietary and nutrient needs of a grown working horse. This can be particularly challenging for nursing and or pregnant horses as well as foals. Concentrates are added to the hay to supplement the vitamin and mineral requirements but should not be added liberally as an excess of grain in horse diet can be dangerous.

If you visit www.lifestylelearningdirect.com/ you can take a course on horse care and learn more about the proper feeding habits for your pet.