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September 2017
With Spring upon us in the Southern Hemisphere, many horse owners caring for sugar-sensitive horses will be frantically trying to adopt different management strategies to reduce the intake of sugary pastures to avoid weight gain and/or laminitis. The approaches used probably involve restricting and/or managing their horses’ access to grazing either strip grazing, fitting grazing muzzles and often, by locking horses out of pasture completely or during parts of the day.
When European settlers first arrived in Australia, grasslands and grassy woodlands covered much of the continent. Many of the explorers referred to grasses as the dominant plants in the landscape.
September 2013
With thanks to SGS Agriculture & Food Laboratories for providing the analysis specifically for this series. Conserved forages can comprise a large part of the diet of horses; therefore, it is important to review the type and quality of all the roughage we are feeding. Last month, we provided a summary of the roughage sources that are available to horse owners such as hay, chaff, haylage, hay cubes and super fibres.
November 2012
Digestive and metabolic disorders are very common in the domestic horse and in the majority of the cases they can be traced back to the way we manage and feed our horses. In this three part series we dissect the equine gastrointestinal (GI) tract to gain a better understanding of the digestive process and learn how we should keep our horses, and what feeding management we should follow to maintain optimal (digestive) health in our horses.
November 2012
Digestive and metabolic disorders are very common in the domestic horse and in the majority of the cases they can be traced back to the way we manage and feed our horses.
November 2012
Digestive and metabolic disorders are very common in the domestic horse and in the majority of the cases they can be traced back to the way we manage and feed our horses.
September 2012
To determine which type of horse feeds would best suit your horses and your budget, you need to carefully read the feed label. In this final part of the series on choosing the right feed for your horse nutritionist Mariette van den Berg explains the general aspects of commercial feed labels and how to interpret the feed ingredients, constituents and guidelines. Although manufacturers use different labelling designs for their products, the information on the labels must comply with the Australian standard guidelines for stock feed labelling.
September 2012
In part 1 of the series we discussed the common feed ingredients that are incorporated in equine diets. In this part nutritionist Mariette van den Berg continues explaining the main processing techniques used in equine feeds.
August 2012
New research shows that the evolutionary path of the modern horse was affected by the food available to its prehistoric ancestors, and that that evolutionary changes in tooth anatomy lag behind the dietary changes by a million years or more. In a number of nutrition and health articles we have emphasised that the horse evolved primarily as a grazing herbivore, eating a diet based on fibre, mainly grasses, and when available or in seasonal shortage, horses will even browse trees shrubs and other foliage to maintain their dietary needs.
August 2012
We all are aware that the environment of domesticated horses and wild or free-roaming horses are not alike. Domesticated horses and wild or free-roaming horses also spend their time and energy differently. It is important to realise that the behavioural patterns associated with our domestic horses are built upon the behaviours provided by millions of years in the wild and many of these behaviours cannot simply be wiped-out by selective breeding.
