While you might think from observing the disposition of your horses the hay you are giving them is enough for their needs—this isn’t the case, particularly for horses that perform in equestrian sport or do some heavy activities. The final analysis is that hay, though allegedly a nice treat, does not have enough nutrition and essential energy giving calories and carbs for horses undergoing heavy equestrian training for sport or labor. Your studs and mares simply chew on them like it’s their favorite treat because they are used to nibbling on lone stem feed and in reality must do so to mostly entertain themselves across the hours of the day they have to keep on walking and chewing.

And they need to keep on walking and chewing about 24 hours per day. Sure, hay can offer the necessary nutrients and energy for easy exercises as horse riding and daily horsing around, but beyond that, the needed nutrient has to come from someplace else. If you measure the nutrient price of hay, you’d be troubled they’re so insufficient for your horse’s coaching wishes.

Consider this: most horses kept exactly on hay and hay and alfalfa feeds and given training to perform equestrian sport need to be given performance boosters early and have to retire early. The average age for performance steeds who are fed mostly hay is six years—some horses trained in established Eastern techniques only start being trained when they are six years old. These hay-only studs and mares need performance shots as early as three years to keep up with demanding equestrian sport or physically precise activities. Why?

Let us consider the human body, which is very similar to a horse’s. In reality factors that affect human health (even human hair growth) also affect horse health (mane and tail growth for steeds). In humans, more than 60% of illnesses are related to their diet. Applying this to our equine buddies, then their illnesses, or in our case their performance and early retirement, can be attributed to their food intake—specifically the absence of correct nourishment.

But don’t take this to mean you must abandon hay and accept better feed. Hay is a quintessential part of feed—both in stalls or in pasture. They have to be continually around for the horses to chew on. What you can do, is to cook up your own recipe of nutritional whole food additions and either administer or mix that recipe into your horses ‘ other feed. A 1,000 pound mare wishes only a couple of ounces of nourishment packed supplements with the typical hay to be well placed to perform well in even demanding equestrian sport.

Do not be misled to believing that your horses can perform dressage level equestrian sport feeding on hay alone. Such precise sport as dressage and similar Olympic events require them to be trained thoroughly, and intensive coaching should invariably be accompanied by providing sufficient holistic nourishment. If you didn’t just invest in a steed for straightforward horse riding and her novel value then know that hay is best fed for her entertainment, not her nourishment.

Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about horse rugs.