In an ideal world our horses would live as nature intended – turned out 24/7, 365 days a year. However, the reality is that there will be times when your horse needs to be stabled. Whether it’s during the winter to reduce damage to grazing, or an injury that means a period of box rest is necessary. Managing a stabled horse can be challenging, but it is also essential to ensure their nutritional needs are met, through the right feed and diet. In this blog, Lisa Elliott MSc – Equine Nutrition Solutions, shares some essential nutritional guidance and advice for maximising equine health and happiness when your horse is stabled.
Forage
Horses are herbivores and have evolved to eat a continuous supply of fibrous feeds which supply significant levels of fibre for optimum digestive health like grass, hay, haylage and other fibrous plant types, which are collectively known as forage.
Forage should, therefore, always be the foundation of your horse’s diet whatever their work level or management routine, which when stabled can be provided as hay or haylage. However, forage quality can vary greatly, so it’s important to ensure you are feeding the best quality you can find.
The fibre in forage gets broken down through a process of fermentation by billions of microbes in the hindgut, which provides a source of energy for the horse, but also releases heat, keeping your horse warm from the inside out. This central heating will help maintain condition and the better the quality of the forage, the more heat that is generated – ideal if your horse is stabled during the cold winter months.
Plenty of good-quality forage like hay or haylage will help keep the digestive tract functioning well and keeps those all-important gut microbes who thrive on fibre, happy and healthy, and the healthier the microbes the healthier your horse will be too. If your horse is stabled 24/7, it is therefore, essential to provide enough hay or haylage in an ad-lib fashion so they never run out.
However, while ad-lib hay or haylage represents the perfect diet for stabled horses, the lack of movement when stabled means that for some, large amounts of good quality forage may provide too much energy and could lead to weight gain. If your horse is a very good doer, you should either choose a low-calorie, high fibre type of forage or use a slow feeder or small-hoed hay net to feed less forage, but still within an ad-lib fashion.
Essential Nutrients
Feeding ad-lib forage is an excellent way of keeping a stabled horse in good condition, However, a diet of preserved forage like hay or haylage is unlikely to provide a fully balanced supply of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and is often lacking in quality protein such as lysine which is essential to help rebuild muscles following injury and support optimum hoof health and recovery. Omega 3 Fatty acids which are abundant in fresh grass will also potentially need supplementing when your horse is stabled 24/7.
Feeding a high specification balancer like Coligone Balancer which contains a blend of vitamins, minerals, omega 3, and essential amino acids to provide good quality protein, will help promote maximum health and vitality throughout.
Coligone Balancer also provides the full benefits of Coligone, including digestive support such as yea-sacc which research has shown to improve fibre digestion, helping your horse to get the most out of their forage.
Additionally, Coligone Balancer contains soluble fibres which have a potential gastro-protective effect on gut membranes. This protection can help prevent ulcers which are often associated with increased time spent in the stable.
Minimising Stress
As herd animals who feel safer in company, being stabled and alone can be one of the most stressful things you horse can experience. Stress can lead to a variety of symptoms like loose droppings, stereotypical behaviour, increased acidity within the stomach, which not only creates discomfort and tension, but is a risk factor for gastric ulcers, so it is vital to keep stress to a minimum.
Offering a variety of forages and fibres when stabled can help provide forage enrichment. Research has shown that this kind of enrichment can help stimulate natural foraging behaviour and help reduce stereotypical behaviour, which is a symptom of stress. Enrichment can be provided through feeding a mix of hay and haylage, alongside a dried grass or high fibre chop which can be fed in a bucket in the stable. Extra enrichment can be provided through Coligone Healthy Licks to further encourage natural foraging behaviour. Keeping your horse occupied will help to reduce stress and promote calmness. Coligone healthy lick also promotes saliva production through licking, helping to neutralise excess stomach acid and support healthy acid levels as the horse enjoys the taste.
Coligone powder or Liquid can also be hugely beneficial in not only helping to minimise stress but also combat its effects. Both are rich in calcium which helps support a healthy nervous system and promote calmness. Additionally, Coligone powder or Liquid contain a combination of active ingredients that help to neutralise increased acidity within the digestive tract, maintain healthy acid levels, and soothe and coat the digestive tract to provide protection against acidic damage. This helps your horse feel more comfortable, relieving tension and further promoting calmness when stabled.
Supporting the Microbiome
Your horse’s hindgut microbes are key to their health so ensuring they are fully supported when stabled is essential for optimum digestive and overall health and well-being.
Recent research has indicated that the equine hindgut microbiome contains a diverse range of bacterial species. This diversity is associated with a healthy microbiome, with a loss in diversity being linked to digestive disease and upset. A more diverse diet promotes a diverse microbiome, which in turn promotes a healthy hindgut.
Hedgerows are probably the best places left to find biodiversity and will provide plenty of varied forage. Horses living in fields surrounded by hedgerows get the opportunity to browse this diversity, but a stabled horse won’t. However, you can bring the hedgerow to your horse by creating a hedgerow hay net, including small handfuls of a variety of plants mixed with their main forage. This will not only provide lots of lovely diversity for the hindgut microbes but will also encourage natural foraging behaviour as your horse ‘forages’ through the different materials, helping to reduce stress, and keep him occupied for longer.
Additionally, offering Coligone Fibre Cubes in the stable, alongside forage will help increase your horse’s fibre intake and further support more fibre diversity in their diet for better hindgut health.
Maximsing Hydration
Water is the most important yet probably the most forgotten nutrient in a horse’s diet. Water is directly involved with virtually every physiological process within your horse’s body so correct fluid balance is vital for optimal health.
Horses can often be inclined to drink less in winter when water gets cold, and for a stabled horse, eating a diet of dried forage, it is essential to ensure water intake is maximal. Research has shown that adding hot water to warm water to above freezing, increased water consumption in ponies by 40%. So, think about warming your horse’s water (ideally to between 7 – 18⁰C) to help increase drinking over the winter months for maximum hydration.
Providing daily salt can also help increase water intake, and this can easily be supplied through a Coligone Lick. Offering this nutritious lick to your stabled horse will help provide a good source of essential salt to promote drinking for improved fluid balance and hydration but with the bonus that the specific type of salt within helps to support optimum digestive health.
If you have any questions about creating the best diet for your horse and keeping your horse healthy through the right nutrition, please contact Coligone – 0333 0503785/07986 183616 or sales@hbradshaws.co.uk or visit the website for the full range. https://www.hbradshaws.co.uk/coligone-product-range/
