Holiday nutrition
Once again holiday season has arrived and while we all enjoy a well-earned break, so too do our horses. This can vary from a few days to a few months, but what should happen to feeding during these periods?
Feed for work done
One key rule of feeding horses is to ‘feed for work done’. This essentially means that when your horse is given time off or a reduction in workload, his feeding should be adjusted accordingly. Generally you can reduce the amount of hard feed given to a horse a lot quicker than you would introduce it, so there isn’t such a need to do this process as slowly. However, to be on the cautious side, especially for horses prone to digestive upsets, it’s always wise to make any changes over at least seven to 10 days.
The main reason for reducing concentrate feed when workload is reduced is to reduce the calorie content of the diet as well as reducing the sugar and starch content, which will help to avoid excessive weight gain, excitability or muscle problems, particularly for horses susceptible to conditions such as tying-up. However, if the horse needs to put on weight during time off, then this requires a different action plan.
Designing your action plan according to the length of the break
The best way to decide on what to do with your horse’s diet during the holidays is to look at the horse’s type, condition and length of holiday.
A couple of days to a week off
If you only plan on giving your horse a short period of time off then generally there is no major need to reduce or change the horse’s feed, especially if his rest period can include some level of activity such as lunging, use of a horse walker and/or extra turnout time. However, if you have a horse who is extremely prone to weight gain or excitability, you could prepare for this short time off by reducing the horse’s concentrate feed very slightly. This would be around 15 to 20% (this is around 500g to 700g for a horse on 3.5kg per day).
No matter what your plan of action is, always ensure the horse has a good level of roughage and that he gets at least 1.5% of his body weight per day in roughage – this is around 7.5kg of hay for a 500kg horse.
If your horse is not only excitable but also struggles to maintain his weight, then reducing his concentrate portion while increasing his roughage portion (this could be made up of hay, grazing, chaff and/or beet products) may be an ideal way to go as it ensures you get the calories without the fizz.
Two weeks to four weeks off
If you are giving your horse slightly more time off, then it may be worth looking at his current diet to see if any changes can be made. As it’s still a relatively short time off, and changes should always be done gradually, it’s not really worthwhile to change product (especially if your current diet works well), so therefore the safest option would be to simply reduce the amount of concentrate feed.
Products that are starch- and sugar-based may need to be reduced by 30 to 50%. This will lower the starch and sugar content of the diet to minimise excitability and the risk of the horse becoming ‘tied-up’, as well as reducing the risk of digestive upsets. This risk is further reduced if the horse gets a good amount of paddock time on his rest days.
If, however, your horse is not in a high level of work and therefore doesn’t get much food and/or is on a high-fibre, low-starch diet already, then the need to reduce may not be as great – in fact your ability to reduce anything will be fairly limited and the status quo can happily be maintained by reducing the daily amount slightly by only 20 to 30%.
In situations where you are cutting back hard feed by 30 to 50% it is worthwhile adding in a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer to ensure that the horse still gets all the nutrients he requires.
Adding in (or increasing the amounts of) fibre products such as chaff, beet products, hay cubes, extra hay and/or additional grazing time will ensure the horse is kept content and happy during the rest period, while still fulfilling his need to chew. Reducing feed does not necessarily mean cutting out meals, and some horses can become quite upset if they start to miss out on their routine mealtimes. So if you normally feed three times per day, continue to do so with just less food per meal.
One month or longer off
For horses having a much longer break, the best long-term solution would be to look at changing the type of product fed or remove concentrate feed completely. If you currently feed a high energy or high starch and sugar concentrate, then swopping to equal amounts of a high fibre, high fat feed while increasing the forage portion of the diet would be ideal. However, if you are already feeding a high fibre and fat diet, then you may want to continue with reducing feed while including a balancer product to compensate for any lost nutrients.
If your horse is an extremely good-doer or is going to be off work for a long period of time, then cutting out concentrate feed completely and including just a low calorie balancer is probably the best long-term solution.
Planning when to start reducing the food
When reducing feed, start to cut back the hard feed from the evening feed the day before his rest day till the evening of his first day back in work. In other words, the feed gradually returns to normal amounts the evening after he has done some work again, thus abiding by the ‘feed according to work done’ rule. No matter how much time your horse will have off, feeding ad lib forage in the form of hay and/or grazing is the most ideal way to keep the gut healthy. No horse should ever be without hay or grazing while on holiday.
In cases of reduced work
As with feed, any changes should be made slowly, and that also applies to changes in your horse’s work schedule. Always aim to reduce a horse’s workload steadily, preparing for a change way before his time off. It would be extremely unfair to expect a horse to adapt immediately to suddenly being turned out all day when he has been in full work seven days a week. This can be done by either working for shorter periods several weeks prior to the start of a break, or giving more days off gradually. Also don’t forget the power of hacking and trail riding. Activities such as these really help a horse to wind down after a long working season.
Conclusion
Remember that each horse must be treated as an individual, so the above examples are simply a rough guide. It is always best to seek the advice of a nutritionist before making any changes to your horse’s diet to ensure you achieve the best results.