Basics of Equine Nutrition

In this article I would like to talk with you about the basics of horse care. In the past I have written quite a lot about equine nutrition and supplements, but I think that from time to time it also useful to focus on other topics such as how to properly look after your horse.

Now, if you have been riding horses for decades then the chances are pretty high that in this article you won't learn anything that you don't already know, but if you are planning to get a horse sometime in the nearby future or if you have been riding for only a couple of years then you will find some golden nuggets of information in this article.

First of all, the single most important thing when it comes to looking after your horse is to make sure that you feed your horse the right stuff. If you are not planning to get involved in competitive horse riding disciplines and if your horse's workload will be relatively load then you should keep your horse's diet relatively simple: it should consist of mostly hay and pasture grass and possibly a small amount of pelleted feeds, grains, or sweet feeds only if they are needed.

I have mentioned that you should only feed a small amount of pelleted feeds, yet I do think that feed balancers play a critical role in horse's diet. You see, during certain periods of the year, such as Autumn or Winter our horse's can't get access to fresh hay or grass, simply because grazing conditions during cold and wet months are not great and our horses do not get as many different nutrients as their bodies need.