Equine supplementation is a hot topic: Are supplements necessary? Effective? Over-used? Dangerous? Expensive? Supplements have become a major part of equine nutrition, and there are countless types of horses out there that benefit from and need them – high-performance athletes, horses with certain health problems, horses without access to high-quality forage, etc. – but over-supplementation is becoming a common and costly problem.
...
Now that we’ve discussed the value of quality forage for your horse’s diet, let’s talk about grain. If you’re going to try to save money on your horse’s feed you may need to ask yourself if your horse even requires grain. You may be feeding (or over-feeding) him something he doesn’t even need....
I think the real cost-saver when it comes to your horse’s feed and nutrition is pasture. Unless your horse is young and growing, pregnant or lactating, or in strenuous work, his nutritional needs can easily be met with a simple forage diet of good pasture or hay (plus water and some free choice salt). The hardest part then becomes providing the highest-quality grass and managing your pasture to get the most out of it....
One of the unfortunate consequences of a slow economy is that when horse owners begin to struggle financially, their spending on horse care and feed is one of the first things to be cut. I can’t even begin to recount how many stories I’ve heard over the past year of horses whose owners just can’t afford to feed them anymore. So we’re tackling the important topic of feed and nutrition...
