Page 99 - Speedhorse March 2019

Lack of appetite can be due to overtraining, which we see fairly often in endurance horses or any sport where horses are worked hard.
Anorexia can be due to physical causes, mental causes, etc., but sometimes refusal
to eat is due to the food itself. It might smell different or have a different taste or texture.
A flake of hay might be moldy or have a small animal baled up in it. Hay might contain foxtail awns, cheat grass seeds, or other sharp seed heads that poke the mouth. If they get embedded in the tissues, they might make the mouth sore or create a painful abscess.
“Grain may be refused if it is old, stale, moldy or contaminated. Some horses are picky and don’t want to eat it if there is too much
fat or salt added. For instance, if you added a fat supplement, salt or electrolytes.” Adding anything to the grain may “turn off” a fussy horse, and he may not clean it up or might not eat any of it.
ASSESS YOUR FEEDING PROGRAM
Staniar says some horses may refuse just about any type of new feed that they are not accustomed to eating. “From my experience, after having put horses on many different diets and trying them on many different feeds, one of the things I consistently see is that horses are often hesitant to eat something new. The term I’ve used for this is neophobia. In most cases, these horses are very reluctant to try anything that has a new texture, new smell, or
is a different feed from what they are used to,” he says.
“When I tell someone that a certain new type of hay or feed product is acceptable for their horse, they often come back a week later and say that their horse won’t eat it. Part of
the solution is giving the horse enough time
to acclimate slowly, introducing the new feed gradually. At the same time, we have to be willing to deal with the fact that there may be a period of time in the beginning when the horse won’t eat the full amount. We have to give
the horse time to get used to it. This may take several weeks,” Staniar says.
Crandall says that if you feed too much grain and not enough forage, this can also affect a horse’s appetite. “The excess grain can cause a pH imbalance in the hind gut and too much acidity,” she says. Grain meals that are too large may also satiate a horse, and he won’t eat all of it.
Horses in natural conditions are grazing periodically, eating small amounts during the day and night. They normally eat for about 14 to 18 hours out of the 24 hours—many small meals. Yet the way we feed horses today, we are generally feeding two meals (morning and evening) with some people giving three meals. “But horses are trickle feeders. They are meant to eat a little bit all along,” says Staniar.
“When you expect your horse to eat more than five pounds per meal (whether hay or concentrates), the horse may not want to eat that much at once. If you are feeding more than five pounds of grain or pellets, that’s a lot to eat at one time. The horse’s appetite may not match that amount of food, and you’ll be more successful by dividing it into more meals. This can be very difficult to do, however, from a management standpoint,” he says.
“If a horse has forage available, such as pasture or free-choice hay, and you are feeding a concentrate as well, the horse may choose the forage. The horse may fill up on pasture or hay and won’t be that hungry to eat the grain. The horse may not be a finicky eater at all, but has simply satisfied his requirements with forage. You need to know how much time the horse
is actually spending grazing, or how much hay the horse is eating,” Staniar says.
“A 1000-pound animal would need about 20 pounds of dry matter per day. This will be complicated to figure out if the horse is eating pasture grass which contains moisture. But if you are just feeding hay and grain, 20 pounds is about how much feed the horse will be eat- ing—or just a little more because there will be some moisture in it,” he explains.
“If you are trying to feed six pounds of grain/concentrate per meal and offering the horse a certain number of flakes of hay, this will quickly exceed the daily requirements.
That would be 12 pounds of grain and only eight pounds of hay, and that’s not very much hay. Most people are offering more hay than that.” So, is the horse actually a finicky eater or is the owner feeding too much?
Another issue is timing of feeding. When
is the horse being fed in relation to exercise? “There are circumstances in which exercise
will stimulate appetite, but also other situa- tions in which exercise will depress appetite—if the horse is working very hard. Heat can also impact feed intake,” says Staniar. “Does the horse have enough water? If he isn’t drink-
ing enough water, this will cut down on feed intake.” The horse must have adequate water for proper digestion and to produce saliva, which must be mixed with the feed for ease of chewing and swallowing.
Some horses are fussier than others and may refuse certain feeds that others will eat. “Normally horses have a good appetite, how- ever, if it’s something they like,” says Crandell. “If a horse stops eating or gets picky in situa- tions you would not expect, there is something wrong.” Even with a picky horse, you generally know what he does and doesn’t like, and if
he stops eating the things he likes, you know there’s something wrong.
“Appetite regulation is controlled by hormones in the body. There is a neural component. There are also certain nutrient signals, and sometimes some seasonal effects. When there is abundance of food in summer and fall, the horse tends to eat as much as he can to be prepared for the coming winter when there might be a lack of food. Then, the body becomes more efficient in winter to try to make it through the leaner times when there
Horses must have adequate water for proper digestion and to produce saliva, which must be mixed with the feed for ease of chewing and swallowing.
SPEEDHORSE, March 2019 95
EQUINE HEALTH