Answer

By Your Horse

Nutritionist Lizzie Drury replies:

Fibre is an essential part of any horse’s diet and is the primary constituent of well-balanced equine diets. Fibre is digested in the horse’s large intestine by millions of micro-flora (such as bacteria and yeast). These micro-flora ferment fibre (hay, haylage and grass) to produce end products called volatile fatty acids. These are the horse’s ‘energy’ source that help maintain condition, and drive metabolism. The health of the micro-flora depends on the type and the quality of the diet the horse is eating.
The keys to ensuring adequate fibre intake for older horses are:
● Choose young, leafy hay that’s softer and easier for the older horse to chew. Take a handful and squeeze it in your hand – it should not be uncomfortable.
● Some horses find chewing haylage easier than hay because its higher moisture content makes it softer. However, remember that haylage will have a lower dry matter than hay so as a general rule of thumb you will need to feed more haylage than hay.
● If both of these options still cause her problems, consider fibre alternatives: short-chop forages like Dengie’s Hi-Fi, unmolassed sugar beet, and high fibre cubes such as Saracen Super Fibre Pencils are all options. These need to be fed in such a way that they become a replacement haynet for your horse.
● A 400kg horse at rest would be expected to eat approximately 6kg to 7.5kg of forage per day. A haynet of fibre alternatives might include 3.5kg of Dengie Hi-Fi, 1kg of soaked sugar beet and 1 to 1.5kg of soaked Super Fibre Pencils. (Mix together in a large bucket).
● Add Yea-Sacc to your horse’s diet. Yeasts work in the hindgut of the horse, help increase the efficiency of fibre digestion, and maintain a stable environment
in the horse’s gut so microbes can flourish.