Enrichment is defined as the act of improving the quality of something by adding to it and making the experience fuller or more meaningful.
If you only ate plain rice or pasta, moved from one room to one small, enclosed outdoor space each day - how much would you enjoy your life?
Whilst horses might thrive on routine and seek comfort in familiarity, they still need enrichment, and by far the easiest way to provide an enriched life is to increase variety. This can be through providing varied forage and feed options, varied workload and activities and thinking more about the stable and field environments we offer.
Increasing variety in the diet is much easier than you may think.
When reseeding... Consider using a more diverse seed mix that contains not just grass, but also legumes and herbs. When creating turnout spaces make use of natural hedgerows or even establish new ones; create a safe boundary but do not cut off access entirely so that horses can nibble on the bushes and trees available (ensuring they are safe first).
In the feed bowl... We can increase forage variety by selecting a different base forage for their chop, pellet and balancer or take it further still and use a mixed forage feed, such as our Meadow Forage Pellets, naturally grown together in the same field to mimic varied pasture.
In the forage ration... We can also increase variety in their actual forage ration by using forage Brix to supplement their hay or haylage with three options on offer depending on nutritional needs: MeadowBrix (made from Timothy grass) are the most akin to hay and the lowest in digestible energy; LucieBrix are a quality protein source and naturally low in sugar; whilst SainfoinBrix introduce a historic legume that is mineral rich and highly nutritious - ideal for poorer doing or performance horses. If your horse is older, younger or has dental issues and cannot manage Brix, we have easier to manage chop or soaked pellet equivalents for all three variants.
When exercising... Rather than riding or leading purely for exercise, consider going out for in-hand walks or hacks that incorporate snack breaks and the opportunity to eat and browse on hedgerows, trees, and shrubs - checking for any poisonous or NOPS-risk plants first.
Each plant provides its own unique balanced range of amino acids, vitamins, minerals and trace elements and the greater the variety of forage in the diet, the more diverse the hindgut microbes will be too.
Enrichment benefits our horses not only mentally, but also nutritionally and physically.
For advice specifically tailored to your horse's individual needs, contact the Feed Line on 01728 604 008, or by sending an email to info@simplesystem.co.uk.
