We are finally heading out of winter, the sunshine has arrived (for now!) though there is some grass emerging, many horse owners are struggling with their horses condition, having had an extensive cold, wet winter has impacted the grass growth.
Ensuring your horses have access to great levels of quality forage is our first point of call- they will need 2% of their body weight in fibre per day. So for an average 500kg horse that is 10kg of forage per day! This forage can be made up of hay/ haylage/ grass/ chaff/ soaked mash fibre. Ensuring our horses have an efficient and effective gut to allow them to digest the fibre is vital- using Pink Mash to provide additional fibre and Protexin probiotics and prebiotics can do just that! A happy, healthy gut microflora is vital for effective digestion of the fibre we are feeding!
Pink Mash, along with other mash fibres such as unmolassed sugar beet and soaked grass nuts can also be used as a pre ground fibre – and as a partial hay replacement. For horses who we are wishing to improve their condition- providing ad-lib forage is ideal, it also supports the natural behaviour of the horse.
Making sure your horse is receiving a balanced diet with access to his or her daily essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals is crucial. Using a balancer or a complete feed is a great way of providing this. Complete feeds such as Keyflow Stay Cool provide additional calories due to the higher feeding rate than that of a balancer. Get in touch with our friendly Keyflow Nutritional Advice Team if you want to give your horses diet a new season assessment!
Once we have established your horse is receiving a balanced diet with a great level of fibre, we can then look to adding in calorie dense options to ‘top up’ condition. Keyflow Key-Plus is a steam extruded stabilised rice bran – easily digested and palatable for fussy feeders. Just one or 2 cups per day can make a significant difference in your horses condition! Key-3 oil is also a great option for additional calories!