Easy to Digest Diets for Horses

The contemporary horse evolved from ancestors who spent as many as 20 hours a day foraging for food. A horse's digestive system functions best on small portions, rather than a large meal once or twice a day. Living to the age of 30 and beyond is not uncommon for the modern horse, and naturally his system slows as he ages. Provide an easy-to-digest diet for optimal health. Processed equine feed was developed to maintain the nutritional needs of the senior horse.

  1. Hay

    • Hay can be cut at various stages of growth; all types are softer and easier to digest when cut before maturity. It will be even more manageable if put through a heavy-duty leaf shredder before feeding. Hay cubes are a convenient alternative, but they are expensive. The cubes are available in Timothy/alfalfa hay mixes or whole plant alfalfa. For an overweight horse, alfalfa hay may add too many calories to his diet. Advice from an equine veterinarian can help maintain the delicate balance between providing an easily digested diet and meeting adequate nutritional needs. Fiber is necessary for good equine health, and soaked sugar beet pulp provides it in an easy-to-digest form.

    Grain

    • Dr. Judith Reynolds, Ph.D., P.A.S., Divisional Equine Technical Specialist, ADM Alliance Nutrition, advises that oats are a softer grain than corn, wheat or barley. Mechanical processing breaks the hull of grains, making it easier for a horse to digest the starches and sugars. Other processing includes thermal, which uses wet heat, and micronizing, which uses dry heat like a microwave oven. Pelleted feed is a mixture of hay and grain that is compacted and steamed to temperatures between 150 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. It is then forced through a die to form the pellets. Extruded feed is ground, mixed and heated to 260 degrees Fahrenheit. The result is nuggets with the starches broken down for easy digestion. Pellets or nuggets can be mixed with water to make a soft gruel for the horse with serious digestive difficulties.

    Probiotic Ingredients

    • High-starch grains should be processed to improve digestibility. Dr. Catherine Dunnett, BSc, Ph.D, R.Nutr., says in an article published in Petplan Equine, "Probiotic ingredients such as live yeast can also help to alleviate the detrimental effects of a high starch diet on hindgut microbial balance to maintain digestive health."