04/23/2025
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐏𝐲𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐝 🔺🐴
Forage-Based. Forage-Only. Grain Free. These are all the latest buzzwords tossed around in the equine feed world. But what do they really mean and is it worth the hype?
𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐭.
🌱 Forage refers to edible plants or parts of plants eaten by grazing animals. For horses we often consider these grasses or legumes either offered fresh as pasture or preserved as hay, haylage, or silage.
🌽 Grain refers to the edible seed of a plant such as corn, oats, wheat, or barley. These seeds are energy stores in the plant and thus provide additional calories when used in feed and are known to be highly palatable and higher in starch.
🌾 By-products are secondary products made from processing grains or other plants and include wheat middlings, wheat bran, beet pulp, rice bran or soybean hulls, to name a few. These products serve different roles in animal feed due to varying amounts of fiber, protein, or fat. For example, beet pulp is considered a forage alternative often used in feeds while rice bran is commonly used to add fat to the diet.
𝐒𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫?
Let’s begin with a forage-based diet. A horse is supposed to consume at least 1.5 to 2.5% of their bodyweight in feed per day with at least 50% coming from forage. This is because the GI tract of the horse is designed to consume high fiber feeds continuously throughout the day. As a result, EVERY diet designed for horses should be forage based. So congratulations! You are currently following the ‘fad’! As a nutritionist, I strive to exceed the 50% minimum and maximize forage in the diet by selecting the appropriate forage for the horse.
While forage-based or forage first is important, it is not always enough to give your horse everything they need. To fully know what your current forage offers, it is important to get it tested by a reputable lab. But forages can be deficient in essential nutrients including protein, vitamin A and E, selenium, copper, or zinc. Additionally, some horses have elevated energy requirements and need additional calories. As a result, a forage-only diet is unlikely to meet all the needs of the horse. There are also many scenarios in which horses who have different nutritional needs are housed together. So while a specific forage may work for one horse, it may not be ideal for all of them. This means, it is our job to provide a balanced feed to fill in the cracks.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞?
Removing whole grains from the feed provided can significantly reduce starch in the diet. While this can have some benefits for horses with gastrointestinal sensitivities, starch is not entirely bad. In fact, there may be some benefits for hard working horses when fed correctly (such as dividing the feed into multiple smaller meals throughout the day).
𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐝?
No! Fads in horse nutrition tend to follow human nutrition. While processed human food is considered to have poor nutritional value and a lot of additives, processed horse feed is just the opposite. These feeds are designed by experts to balance the diet of the horse and include the necessary vitamins and minerals, among other nutrients, at recommended values to optimize health. Unfortunately, commercially manufactured feeds just get a bad rap as people throw around scary words and misinformation.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞?
Well, every Ph.D. nutritionist I have talked to has the same philosophy, feed forage first and do your best to maximize forage in the diet before using commercial feeds to fill in the cracks (if your nutritionist doesn’t have this philosophy, maybe find a new one). However, we are also aware that forage just isn’t enough in most scenarios – especially hay! And there are also many cases where the owner does not have the ability to tailor the forage provided to be ideal for every single horse they are feeding.
So don’t be scared of commercially manufactured feeds, they have a role and are critical in optimizing the health of the horse. But also know to prioritize forage as best you can. And just remember, that feeding a forage-based diet doesn't have to be as difficult or 'holistic' as some make it out to be, odds are, you are already doing it!
We will save supplements at the tippy top of the pyramid for another day, because that one sure is a doozy!
Cheers!
Dr. DeBoer
