Health & Rehabilitation of the horse
A healthy intestinal flora is the basis of a healthy horse. And that is where it often goes wrong with our average roughage, which is sometimes combined with kilos and kilos of concentrates.
Feeding less because your horse is no longer working and might otherwise become overweight may seem logical but is not wise. Especially now, a sufficient supply of vitamins and minerals in the ration and a healthy gut flora are important!
How to Handle Injury?
Your horse has been injured and has to take it easy in training for a while, or was even prescribed complete box rest. This can be a rough deal, especially for your horse who would love nothing better than to play and run with their friends. At such a time, keeping your horse feeling ‘happy’ is critical.
Boredom is a potential issue for horses, and let’s be honest, overfeeding them with energy can be too. It is important that your horse does not get too much energy, but still likes the taste of low-sugar roughage and doesn’t refuse it. Digestion also needs to stay on track. Additionally, horses have an increased need for high-quality nutrients for recovery. So, there are plenty of challenges to overcome in order to get back to full training soon!
Differant Risks of Overweight
Even if your horse is injured or overweight, the minimum roughage requirement remains at 1.5% of the body weight in DM (dry matter) of fiber/roughage to keep the body healthy and reduce stress. This translates to 2 kg of hay per 100 kg of horse.
Feeding much more is not advisable due to the risks of overweight. Slow feeders can help slow down eating. It is also wise to look for a lower-quality batch of roughage that has been analyzed for (partial) supplementation.
To stimulate the intestines, wet fibres are recommended, for example beetroot mash, bran or ‘light’ mashes. Too much straw or grass seed hay is not such a good idea as the majority of this cannot be properly digested by the intestinal bacteria and may cause obstructions.
Benefits of ‘The New Feeding’ for Horse Rehabilitation
- Balances the intestinal flora.
- Antibiotics are sometimes necessary, but often this also negatively impacts the beneficial bacteria in the intestinal flora, and extra care and attention are needed here.
- Omega 3 (DHA), vitamin E and magnesium allow the horse to relax more and become less sensitive to stress. EquilinCOMFORT can help to stimulate this even more.
- Essential amino acids maintain the muscle mass without putting extra strain on the liver.
BALANCERS like EQUILIN BALANCER ensure your horse or pony gets sufficient highly-digestible vitamins and minerals so the immune system can do its job properly.
