Why does pasture make such a difference to my horses health?

Hello there,

As we head into another Autumn flush of grass, are you having any behaviour changes or health issues in your horse?

Ever wondered why despite the fact that NZ horse owners have created and spread the use of the term ‘grass affected’ far and wide to cover any and all issues that may have any relation at all to pasture, the horse feed world creates and sells to you, an ever more expanding array of glitzy feeds and supplements?

Combined with a label that indicates it will fix all your issues, – yet no matter what you feed they simply, in reality, (if you are honest) usually don’t fix things!

That’s because the reality is if you graze your horse at pasture and/ or feed hay this will ALWAYS make up the majority of the horses diet.

As such nutrient imbalances be they energy, sugars, starch, minerals, dry matter or vitamins will affect your horses health potentially the most, no matter what you feed in terms of manufactured feed. Not withstanding these feeds can also have an accumulative adverse affect if not correct and balanced for your individual horse.

Heres a real life scenario for you:

Horse A:

• 500kg horse in light work.
• Grazed 24/7 on pasture.
• Plus 1kg hay per day.
• Also fed 500g made up of chaff, minerals and manufactured feed per day.
• Pasture contributes 87% of this horses diet!

Horse B:

• 500kg horse in light work.
• Grazed 10hrs per day on pasture .
• Plus, 4kg hay per day.
• Also fed 2kg manufactured feed per day.
• Pasture contributes 30% of horses diet.

Horse C:

• 500kg horse in medium work.
• Grazed 11hrs per day on pasture.
• Plus 2kg hay per day.
• Also fed 500g manufactured feed per day.
• Pasture contributes 79% of horses diet.

As your horse is a hind gut fermenter, meaning those tricky microbes in the hind gut live on and break down the fibre in grass to provide the body with all the energy and goodness it needs for health, this in turn means your horse is greatly affected by issues with your grass.

*This could be a low dry matter value, i.e. not enough fibre and too much water to feed those microbes.

*It could be the grass has a high quantity of starch which shoots thru to the hind gut and overwhelms those microbes turning things upside down and acidic…

*It could be the fact that the grass has really low amounts of minerals..

The issues that can be caused by the grass are endless, this is the reason why its crazy to spend tons of hard-earned cash on buying the supposed best feed or supplement without knowing whats actually in the grass your horse is eating first!

Get an analysis done, then get a nutritionist to balance your horses diet for its individual needs.

Happy days!