Feeding Your Horse a Healthy Diet

Just like people, horses perform their best when they’re getting a diet rich in all the calories, vitamins, and minerals their bodies need. But how do you go about achieving this healthy horse diet? It’s not like there’s a food pyramid for horses.

Fortunately, feeding a horse a healthy diet is not as hard as you think with the right resources available to you. Here are a few tips for ensuring your horse gets what he needs to work hard, play hard, and maintain a healthy weight.

Consult Your Vet

The first resource you ought to take advantage of is your vet. Have a discussion about your horse’s weight, his caloric needs, and any supplements he might need as part of a healthy diet. Your horse’s health and history will probably also be a factor in that discussion. Your vet can give recommendations on supplements, even grain or complete feeds, and help guide you in the next steps, such as having your hay or pasture tested for nutritional content.

Have Your Hay or Pasture Analyzed

For most owners, hay or pasture make up the bulk of their horse’s diet, so an important part of a healthy horse diet is knowing what is in that so you can supplement accordingly. Just like people, horses need certain vitamins and minerals in their daily diet. Your vet can help guide you to ensure your horse is getting enough nutrients for his physical condition and workload, but knowing what you’re starting with requires some testing. If your horse needs to gain or lose weight, be sure to discuss with your vet how to best approach that with the feed you have available to you.

Assess the Need for Supplements

If your pasture or the hay you buy is lacking in certain nutrients, you will need to make up the difference with grain or supplements. Once you get back the results of your feed’s analysis, discuss with your vet what will need to be supplemented to achieve the healthy horse diet your equine friend needs. Be sure to discuss how increases or decreases in overall calories will affect supplementation.

Consider the Benefits of Complete Feed

If your head is swirling with numbers and equations, and you’re quickly remembering why you didn’t pursue math as a major in school, you’re not alone! Feeding a horse a healthy diet can get complicated fast, especially if he has special needs. If it’s all too much for you, consider the convenience of a complete feed. Complete feeds are designed to offer all of the nutrients your horse needs, without the need for additional supplementation. In addition, it’s easy to store, easy to feed, and less likely to be wasted by a messy horse.

Best for Your Horse, Best for You

No matter how you decide to achieve a healthy horse diet for your beloved equine companion, the important thing is that he gets everything he needs to make his body strong and his heart happy. For more information about our complete feeds and how they can make feeding time easier, contact Sacate Pellet Mills today.