Practical Nutrition Management for Stables

One responsibility of a stable manager is to provide for the nutritional needs of his charges. This can often be quite a complex task depending on the number of horses and the diversity of the equine population in residence. However, these few tips may help provide a simple, customizable ration and clear the feed room of clutter while maintaining horses in fine fettle.

First, forage should be the foundation of all equine diets. The source of forage may change throughout the year. One common cause of unexpected or sudden weight loss in horses is changes in forage intake. To avoid this, be mindful of variations in pasture abundance as well as differences in the stable’s hay supply. Hay bales can be of varying weight and may be packed to varying density so that the weight of sections (flakes, pads, or biscuits) from one bale to another or one load of hay to another may differ significantly. When your pastures show evidence of reduced abundance, be sure to increase the supplemental forage (hay, chaff, haylage, forage pellets or cubes, etc.) provided in order to proactively offset any reduction in pasture (and thereby caloric) intake. Most horses should consume between 1% (absolute minimum) and 2% of their target body weight in forage per day. So, if your pasture is providing negligible contribution to forage intake, plan on providing around 1.5 to 2 lb (0.7 to 0.9 kg) of an alternate forage source per 100 lb (45 kg) of the horse’s target body weight per day.

After you’re confident that the horses all have access to the recommended amount of forage, you’ll need to develop a feed ration that will provide for any additional calories needed to maintain the horses’ body condition as well as supply any nutrients not supplied in adequate amounts by their forage intake alone. Because horses vary widely in age, size, metabolic rate, and the amount of work they’re asked to perform, they will have disparate nutritional needs.

However, the good news is appropriate rations can be developed for a wide variety of horses with a few tactical decisions. Having two key feeds at your disposal will enable the flexibility to develop customized rations to meet the caloric and nutritional needs of most horses. It is fairly easy to meet the caloric needs of a wide range of horse—you either feed them more or less so that the amount provided is adequate to maintain their weight at a desirable level. This might mean a token amount of feed for thrifty individuals (usually to keep them from tearing down the barn at mealtimes or to encourage them to come to the gate for a regular wellness check) or a significant quantity of feed split into multiple meals for horses in intense work and hard keepers.

The first feed that you will want on hand is a feed that is appropriate for most of the horses on the farm when fed as directed. For example, in a riding stable, this will likely be a feed labeled for use in mature performance horses. Conversely, on a breeding farm, this would be a feed labeled for use in pregnant or lactating mares, growing horses, and breeding stallions. This will serve as your base feed. The feed tag or other product information for this feed will provide guidelines for how much to feed to different classes of horses for which it is intended. Review these guidelines and compare them to the current rations of your herd. Any individuals who are consuming a daily ration greater than or equal to the minimum amount indicated can be managed on this feed alone. For many feeds, the minimum amount recommended per day is 0.5 lb (0.2 kg) per 100 lb (45 kg) of body weight for mature, idle horses. The recommended amount increases with exercise and the nutritional needs of reproduction and growth. So, this would equate to a ration of 5 to 7 lb (2.3 to 3.2 kg) per day for idle horses between 1,000 and 1,400 lb (455 and 634 kg).

Additionally, your nutrition program may require a reduced-calorie, concentrated source of protein, vitamins, and minerals known as a balancer pellet. Nearly every feed company or mill has a product that fits this description. This will allow you to meet the nutritional needs of the easy keepers who don’t require significant addition of calories to their forage ration in order to maintain their body condition. Miniature Horses, ponies, and other easy keepers can often be maintained on a balancer pellet and forage alone. Again, review the current rations for the horses under your care; for any horses that eat less than 2 lb (0.9 kg) of feed per day, the balancer pellet will be the sole feed included in their ration.

Then, there are those individuals that fall into the middle ground; they need more supplemental calories than 2 lb (0.9 kg) of the balancer pellet alone can provide but not as much feed as the minimum recommended amount of the base feed would supply. For these individuals, the nutritional shortfalls inherent to feeding below the recommended feeding rate of the base feed may be overcome by replacing a portion of the base feed with the balancer pellet. In this way, you should supply the recommended amount of the balancer pellet then add as much of the base feed as necessary to maintain the horse’s condition.

Finally, all horses should have free-choice access to salt and fresh, clean water. Salt blocks in the areas where horses spend the bulk of their time (stalls or paddocks) will ensure they have the opportunity to consume salt to meet their sodium and chloride requirements in most instances. Supplemental electrolytes may need to be added to rations for horses in intense exercise or those that sweat heavily.

Have a question about your stable’s nutrition program? Ask Kentucky Equine Research (KER). Just share a few details here and a KER nutrition advisor will be in touch.