Horsetalk.co.nz Horse diets should take into account the fermentation factor, findings suggest
Sport-horses diets are designed to ensure maintenance, work and, in some cases, growing requirements.
High-performance horses are often fed high-performance diets, calculated with precision based on nutritional values, but fresh research in Chile suggests it may not be that simple.
Horses are hindgut fermenters. “It is therefore important to determine the postgastric nutritive value of their feedstuffs and diets,” Mónica Gandarillas, Juan Pablo Keim and Elisa María Gapp wrote in their paper just published in the journal
Animals.
“Horses are involved in diverse equestrian disciplines that increase their digestible energy and nutrient requirements,” the trio, with the Austral University of Chile, noted. “Therefore, highly balanced nutrient and energy diets are required.”
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Horsetalk.co.nz Wheat straw put to the test in a dietary study in horses
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Wheat straw may be beneficial for horses with low energy needs, but more research is needed, researchers say. File image by ratexla (protected by Pixsy)
Good quality wheat straw provided at half the daily forage ration for horses with low energy requirements may be beneficial for their welfare, the findings of fresh research suggest.
Anna Jansson and her fellow researchers, in a study published in the journal
Animals, investigated straw as an alternative to grass-based haylage for horses.
They explored the effects of straw on the metabolic profile of horses involved in the experiment, examined their energy intake, assessed their behaviour and checked whether the diet resulted in gastric ulcers.
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Horsetalk.co.nz Covid restrictions a real struggle for some in horse community, but others did OK
Pandemic-related obstacles affected the wellbeing of horse owners, equine veterinarians and those running boarding stables, the findings of fresh British research show.
Issues with communication as the nation locked down to counter the threat of Covid-19 caused stress, as did the limitations to contact between horses and their owners.
Those involved in the care of horses faced a variety of challenges to their own wellbeing whilst they navigated providing care to animals during the initial lockdown, Ashley Ward and her fellow researchers noted in the journal