Hay and pasture provide horses with the fiber that is essential for their well-being, but what to do when pastures dry up and hay is scarce? The alternatives may be more expensive, but they can help your horse get through periods when hay cannot be found. The key is to not be fooled into thinking you can replace forage with concentrates--the effects could be detrimental to your horse, upsetting the digestive system and increasing chances for colic. A horse needs to eat roughly one pound of roughage for every 100 pounds of body weight, and even most complete feeds can't offer this when fed in directed amounts.
When hay is scarce, you may want to increase your concentrates some, but finding an alternative fiber source is important. Here are some options:
- Alfalfa cubes (best to feed soaked to reduce chances of choke)
- beet pulp
- high quality haylage or silage
- Soy or cottonseed hulls
- Ontario Dehydrated Timothy Cubes
- Chopped hays
It's best not to substitute these 'hay replacers' for a horse's full ration of hay, but use them instead to help stretch your limited hay supply. If no hay can be found whatsoever, they are definitely better than just feeding concentrates though.
Ta-ta!
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