Page 62 - December 2020

EQUINE HEALTH
DEALING WITH HARD-KEEPING HORSES AND PICKY EATERS
by Heather Smith Thomas
Some horses are hard to keep weight on and they stay thin even with a good diet, and others are picky eaters and just don’t seem to eat enough.
Dr. Bridgett McIntosh, Extension Equine Specialist, Department of Animal Science, University of Tennessee, says no two horses are the same; they may have different body condition even with the same feed and same amount of exercise. “What might work for keeping weight on one horse might not work for another,” she says.
THE PICKY EATER/THIN HORSE
“There are many reasons why a horse might be thin,” says McIntosh. The first thing to
do is rule out any disease, dental problems or medical issues.
Amy Gill, PhD, an equine nutritionist in Kentucky, says that if a horse is a finicky eater and losing weight, she recommends check-
ing teeth and making sure the horse has been dewormed. “If there is nothing clinically wrong with the horse and he simply needs to gain weight, or he’s just fussy about what he eats, we always start with good forage as the foundation of the diet,” says McIntosh. Green pasture or leafy alfalfa hay will be the most palatable--the best type of forage to tempt him to eat more. I’ve never seen a horse turn down fresh grass,
because this is what their digestive system is designed to utilize,” she says.
“Finicky eaters will generally eat fresh grass and/or alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets. If the horse is also fed a commercial concentrate, choose some- thing really palatable, perhaps with molasses that smells good and stimulates the horse’s appetite,” says McIntosh. Beet pulp is often added with water to create a mash. This will also stimulate appetite. Even though it is a fibrous feed, beet pulp has more calories than hay (about the same calorie content as oats, on a dry matter basis).
Some horses have a fast rate of metabolism and are harder to keep weight on. “Those individuals need more calories,” says Dr. Stephen Duren of Performance Horse Nutrition. “Increasing the grain is not always a good idea because of risks
for founder, sugar highs and lows, etc. Using a concentrate with more fat in it (more calories per pound) or top dressing the grain ration with ad- ditional fat can be healthier,” he says.
“Feeding a thin horse more frequently than the standard twice-a-day meals can also encour- age that individual to eat more total food. If you can feed three or four meals per day, this stimulates the horse to come to the feed more often. You can potentially get more calories into him that way,” says Duren.
Changing the forage may help. If the horse has been on grass hay, you could switch to something
with more alfalfa in it or add an alfalfa pellet to his diet. Some horses will eat any kind of hay and clean up every stem, but others waste a lot of hay if you try to feed it in big meals twice a day. They may eat more total food and waste less if you give it to them in several small meals throughout the day. Most horses clean up a small meal better than a large one—and you don’t want large amounts
of hay lying around to get walked on, laid on or soiled by urine and feces; the horse won’t eat it.
“If a horse wastes hay and is really picky, this may tell you he has an underlying problem,” says Duren. “That horse may have an ulcer or a dental problem. If he’s fussy about eating natural feeds such as grass hay, and forage is a real issue, have him checked to see if there are any medical prob- lems. If he has a sore on the inside of his mouth (from a bad tooth) it may be painful to try to chew that much forage. He may waste hay but eat grain because there’s not as much chewing involved in getting it processed enough to swallow.”
For any horse that’s hard to keep weight on, make sure all the nutrient bases are covered— water, fiber, calories, protein, vitamins and min- erals. “Always make sure you are feeding enough good quality hay. From there, you can tweak the concentrate diet to try to find what a horse likes best and will eat enough of it,” says Duren.
Tania Cubitt PhD with Performance Horse Nutrition, suggests feeding concentrates in
60 SPEEDHORSE December 2020