Feeding of Horses

INTRODUCTION TO FEEDS AND FEEDING OF HORSES

• Optimum feeding of brood mare is one of the most important aspect of management of any breeding stud, to achieve higher conception rate, growth of foetus through in uteronutrient, birth weight of foal and its further development of bones, body growth and protection through passive immunity gained through colostrum.
• The level of feeding can be gauged from the condition of horse and its response to it.
• It is advisable to avoid any extreme condition of fatness or thinness

CEREAL GRAINS

• Oats: Oats have traditionally formed a very important component of horse diet. It is known for low density and high fibre content which helps to avoid over feeding and at the same time its grain size is more appropriate for chewing. There are very less chances to produce grain founder or other digestive disturbances as a result of feeding excess quantity of oats as compared to the other cereals.
• Barley: It is another grain which is enveloped in a hull and constitutes 10 14 percent of the total grain weight. It is relatively smaller and more tightly apposed to a grain which is larger as compared with oat hull. Therefore, barley grain should be crippled or tightly rolled to rupture the hull before feeding. Because of higher starch content and weight of the barley, it may cause digestive disturbances when fed alone, hence  mixing barley with more bulky feeds such as 15 percent or more wheat bran or 25 percent oats may minimize the occurrence of colic. It is normally fed in combination with oats.
• Corn: It is widely used in feeding of horses and ranks second to oats. As the grains are very hard, they should be cracked before feeding. Corns contain twice the energy per unit volume of oats and therefore, it is fed at higher level in cool weather and its level is decreased during warm weather. It contains about 65 percent starch and the crude protein levels range from 8 to 10 percent.
• Sorghum: The kernel of sorghum is naked like that of maize and wheat. It is more spherical in shape and smaller in size than that of wheat. When compared to corn, it contains more crude protein but less oil. The sorghum protein is deficient in lysine as such it should normally be fed in combination with heavy feeds. The size and shape of sorghum warrants that it should always be rolled, cracked, coarsely ground or steam flamed before feeding to horses.  Since it is a high energy cereal, it should form only a portion of the cereal intake to avoid digestive disturbances.
• Wheat: It is not commonly used in feeding of horses, as it contains gluten, which is a sticky substance. When wheat is ground, it is rather doughy and tends to ball up moisture and poses palatability problems. If it is to be fed, it should be mixed with other bulky feeds. It should be cracked; coarsely ground or steam flaked before use. Wheat protein is deficient in h sine. Its level in feed should not increase above 10 20 percent of the concentrate diet.

FEEDING OF MARE

• he most important period of feeding of a pregnant mare is the last 90 days of gestation. 60-65 percent of weight of foetus gets deposited during these last 90 days as growth rate of embryo is the greatest during this ' period.
• During lactation, the mares are estimated to produce milk equivalent to 3 and 2 2 percent of body weight daily during early lactation (1:12 weeks) and late lactation (13-24 weeks) respectively. Therefore, a lot of body en­ergy of mare is utilised for synthesis of milk energy and this process of conversion of digestible energy of feed into milk energy is about 60 percent efficient.
• The dietary requirements of the breeding mare can be arbitrarily di­vided into three stages
• Requirement upto 8 months of gestation,
• Requirement during last 3 months of gestation, (c) Lactation and 0-4 months post parturition.
• The first 8 months of gestation have no practical impact on the nutrient needs i.e. they do not raise requirements above maintenance level nor do they increase the already high requirement of the lactating mare. Thus, mare's energy requirement during this stage are approximately those of maintenance.
• The DE requirements for the ninth, tenth and eleventh months of gesta­tion are formulated by multiplying the maintenance requirements by 1.11, 1.13 and 1.20 respectively.
• The protein requirements also increase during period and with a protein utilization efficiency of 60 percent, a 500 kg gestating mare requires 127, 130, 178 gm of DP/day for foetal deposition above maintenance, for a total of 427, 430 and 478 gm of DP during the ninth, tenth and eleventh months respectively. Presuming digestibility of protein to be 55 percent, a 500 kg mare would need 776, 782 and 869 gm of CP daily during ninth, tenth and eleventh months respectively.

• The require­ments of calcium would be 11,  25 and 11 gm/day for ninth, tenth and eleventh month of gestation assuming the efficiency of calcium absorption to be 50 percent, whereas phosphorus requirements have been estimated to be 7,12 and 6,7 mg/kg of body wt/day during ninth, tenth and eleventh month of gestation respectively.
•  The requirement of other macro and micro minerals are also enhanced during this period.
• The requirement of fat soluble and water soluble vitamins too increases considerably.
• The requirements of energy, protein, minerals and vitamins are the maximum for a mare during the first phase of lactation i.e. from 1 to 12 weeks post parturition.
• The energy requirement of lactating mares depends upon the composition and amount of milk produced. The requirement of energy are 792 K Cal of DE/kg of milk produced above the maintenance level. The protein content of milk is highest immediately after parturition and it decreases gradually as lactation progresses.
• Crude protein require­ments are calculated presuming that mare's milk contains 2.1 and 1.8 per­cent protein in early and late lactation respectively. Utilisation of digestible protein for milk protein formation is 65 percent and digestibility of protein in the digestive system is 55 percent.
• The requirement of calcium for lacta­tion, ranges from 1.2 gm/kg of milk during the first post partum week to 0.8 gm/kg of milk during 15 to 17 week postpartum, above maintenance re­quirement, whereas requirement of phosphorus ranges from 0.75 gm/kg of milk in early lactation to 0.50 gm/kg of milk in late lactation.
•  In the last quarter of pregnancy, foetus occupies an increasing propor­tion of mare's s abdominal cavity. Accordingly, her capacity for bulky feeds declines during the period in which nutrient requirement increases.
• The quality of hay and concentrate. should improve during the last 3 months of gestation. The diet in this period should contain concentrate mixture with 16percent protein upto 25 to 35 percent of the diet which can increase or decrease depending upon the condition of the mare, its response to feed and quality of the hay and pasture used.
• It is recommended that the total diet fed during gestation contains at least 12 percent protein which means that hay or pasture should contain 11 to 12 percent protein.
• The higher level of protein should provide a safety factor for hay and pasture which may have protein of low digestibility depending upon kind of pasture used and its stage of maturity when consumed .

CONCENTRATE DIET

Feed**	Percentage in Diet
Oats	30
Corn	10
Barley	13
Wheat Bran	10
Soyabean Meal	11.5
Linseed Meal	04
Alfalfa Meal	10
Black Strap Molasses	07
Dicalcium Phosphate	02
Limestone	00.5
Salt trace Mineralised	01.0
Vitamin Supplement	01.0

** The concentrate diet should contain 16 percent protein, 1 percent calcium and 0.9 percent phosphorus.

• A study on pony mares has revealed that protein percentage in diet does not affect general .reproduction parameters (oestrus or ovulation) but did affect progesterone concentration which in turn may be responsible for the differences in conception rate which is low with low level of protein and high with optimum protein levels.
• Needless to mention that pregnant and lactating mares require high quality of protein for proper foetal develop­ment and milk production.