Forage should be the base of every horse’s diet. Because of the way the horse digestive system is designed, they cannot easily tolerate high levels of concentrated feeds in their diet, or low levels of hay or grass.
Forage provides high fibre that all horses need, whether they are good doers, prone to laminitis or struggle to gain weight forage is an essential part of the horses daily diet.
Forage comes in all different forms from Hay, Haylage and grass. This can come in different forms. A high fibre diet is made with no fillers, no molasses, no cereals, no soya and no alfalfa.
Forage selection should be based on the horses needs, as there is no one forage best suited for all types of horse or pony. For example, providing nutrient rich forage like haylage and feeding this to a good doer can create obesity issues, however by giving your horse or pony hay would reduce the chance of him or her gaining weight as quickly but still provides the fibre as required. For Ponies which are prone to excess weight gain the best way to feed forage would be to soak the hay and strip any content out that is no longer required purely leaving a fibre diet.
Once you've picked the forage that is right for your horse, take a look at our extensive range of Horse Feeds and Horse Supplements
