RIGHT FIBRE, RIGHT HORSE
Your horse’s bodyweight and energy needs will determine which types of fibre are most suitable for him. For good doers or the overweight horse, winter is an ideal time to promote some weight loss, while poor doers will need more digestible fibre sources to maintain condition.
Good doers
Fibre sources that are less digestible and therefore less energy dense are most appropriate for good doers. These include late-cut hay and also straw which can be used to restrict overall energy intake while maintaining foraging behaviour and chew time. Grazing also needs to be managed in order to keep weight down. Low-calorie chopped-fibre feeds, such as Dengie Hi-Fi Lite or Hi-Fi Molasses Free, can be used in the bucket feed as a carrier for a broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer in order to provide your horse with a balanced diet.
Maintenance
Horses who struggle to maintain weight need more digestible forages or energydense sources of fibre, such as earlier cut hay or haylage and additional fibre sources like sugar beet and alfalfa. Sugar beet provides 11-12 MJ/kg of digestible energy (DE), which is comparable to a medium- to highenergy mix, while alfalfa supplies 10 MJ/kg DE. When alfalfa is combined with oil, such as in Dengie’s Alfa-A Oil, it can supply up to 12.5 MJ/kg DE — equivalent to a conditioning mix or cube, but without the starch.
Poor doers
Poor doers who are stabled over the winter can also benefit from the addition of a bucket or two of chopped grass, such as Dengie Pure
Grass, alongside their usual forage ration.
At 10 MJ/kg digestible energy, Pure
Grass contains more calories than average hay and can be a useful way of bringing the field to the stable for horses who struggle to maintain weight.