Restricting a horse’s diet might help your horse to lose weight, but there may be consequences when a horse eats one or two meals per day instead of grazing nearly all day long as nature intended – such as gastric ulcers. Yet, researchers recently reported there is a way to keep your horse healthy while he sheds weight.
A team from the university of Minnesota found that overweight horses fed 60% of their maintenance digestible energy content in a slow-feed haynet consumed the forage significantly slower than horse fed the same amount on a stall floor. We recommend hay-limiting bags such as those manufactured by Hay Chix. (www.haychix.com)
The team advised owners to work with their veterinarian or equine nutritionist to ensure rations are balanced and healthy weight loss is achieved. Lear more a TheHorse.com/37013. (excerpts from The Horse pg 10 April 2016)