In order to maintain health and condition the horse needs to receive a regular supply of
certain dietary components or nutrients.
Just like humans, the nutrients the horse
requires on a daily basis are protein, energy,
fibre, vitamins, minerals and water.
The horse derives these nutrients from the feed ingredients in his diet. In the wild, the horse would wander many miles searching for grass and other herbage to satisfy these nutrient
requirements.
By domesticating the horse, we have restricted
the pasture they have access to and that
pasture often contains only a very limited number of plant species. Thus the modern day horse may not be able to meet his total daily nutrient requirement from his pasture. Available pasture will provide sufficient levels of some
nutrients but not of others and so the horse will need supplemental nutrients given to him in
another form.
The horse, through evolutionary adaptation, which has occurred over a period of 65 million
years, has become a ‘trickle-feeder’. His
digestive system, with its small stomach and very large, bacteria-filled hind gut is designed to contend with an almost continuous supply of grass and associated herbage.
HorseHage and Mollichaff offer a complete range of fibre based feeds to meet the needs of all horses and ponies.