Most horses have good access to grazing over the summer. Native types make the most of this and are capable of eating double what they actually need! When the grass goes off or horses have less time at grass or even are off grass completely, it can be a bit of a shock to realise how much extra forage they need to keep healthy, especially if they are older and their teeth can cope with grass, but fail to do a sufficient task when it comes to eating hay.
We then need to provide an easy to eat alternative to hay, which is HayCare. In the feed bowl, we can stick with the forage theme, but higher nutrition LucieNuts. These 100% pure lucerne nuts, fed soaked, are a good natural source of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, protein, calcium, anti-oxidant and with their coarse particle size, much better for the gut and digestion than very smooth soaked feeds. As older horse are probably getting a bit stiff, a good forage balancer for them is FlexiBalance which is forage balancer and joint support in one, and of course all plant based ingredients.
In the wild, with unrestricted access to pasture, horses would spend the summer “stocking up†by eating nutritious grass - and plenty of it - to aid them in building a thick coat and laying down excess weight...
Horses’ teeth change throughout their lives - they are continually growing and continually wearing, as they chew and grind their grazing and forage.
Grass has the potential to grow all year, which is different from many other plants. Certain things are necessary for this growth, but if they are not met, the grass will be dormant, waiting for conditions to improve.Â