Anyone still feed hay/ grass only anymore? When I was growing up, we only fed hay or pasture more so hay nothing else and im 28 so not terribly long ago and our horses seemed perfectly fine calm healthy trail horses etc. But didn’t have Facebook, internet really to be seeing all the nutrition stuff. About 6 years ago is when I started to be really pressured into horses need more if not there truly are not healthy. Just wondering who all still feeds there horses hay or grass only. If need more then add alfalfa in which is what we did. Testing hay or pasture was never talked about back then either. And still live in same place.
Ah, back when the world was young and a multi million $ industry with $$$$$ advertising budget and experts on absolutely everything didn’t yet exist… It does depend on what you want your horse to do. Light work, such as quiet trail riding a couple of times a week is fine on grass only. Just dont expect too much speed and stamina. Harder work such as regular jumping will start to need more energy. It is, however, worth considering the quality of your forage as it is a welfare concern.
Idk horses seemed to have plenty of stamina to be rode more then 2-3 times a weeks. But I mean they weren’t jumping or anything. But weren’t just plodding down the groomed trail either.
Horses do well on good grass.
Forage only or forage first diets are really trendy right now!
If they are only on hay they benefit from some vitamins. Depending on the soil they benefit from some minerals.
They don’t typically need grains. Or most supplements unless they have an actual health problem.
When I was young we fed grass hay and a big serving of sweet feed! Don’t do that anymore.
We didn’t even feed anything for vitamin minerals. I think we occasionally put out mineral blocks! Forage only diets arnt that popular. Bc to me forage only is forage only. Or u offer something where the horse chooses when they want it. What’s popular is the balancers or fancy vitamin minerals supplement u pay $$$ for! That’s popular right now! Which it wasn’t back in my 10-15 year old days!
The balancers and vit/min supps are popular BECAUSE forage-based diets are popular. The people using the balancers and supplements are those who are also expecting their horses to perform in some sort of discipline that requires a level of fitness and stamina that plain grass and grass hay won’t necessarily provide. These are also people who may have experienced problems due to deficiencies in their horses, so they want to cover those bases. Hoof health, skin and coat health, optimizing muscle development/recovery and healthy fat…all of these come into play, and when there is a deficiency in one of those areas, it is obviously traced back to nutrition.
Gone are the days when people fed buckets full of high carb sweet feed to fatten their horses and give them more pep in their step. Now it’s all about a forage-based diet with supplemental vitamins and minerals to make sure the horse is getting what it needs to look and feel its best while performing its job.
CAN horses survive and even thrive on just hay and grass? Of course! But they may have deficiencies that aren’t detrimental by any means, but are keeping them from optimal health, especially if their jobs require more of them than the grass/hay can support alone.
ETA: I’d be willing to bet that while I’m sure those horses from your childhood were perfectly fine, if they had been fed something similar to a ration balancer along with their grass/hay, you would have seen improvements in their overall health. Better feet, better coats/skin, better toplines/muscles, etc. Not saying any of these things were “bad” on those horses back in the day, but until you experience the benefits of a more balanced nutrition program, you don’t really know what you (and your horse) are missing.
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I currently feed triple crown30 so I do feed a balancer. But one horse I have doesn’t get anything but free choice hay bc he just works himself up for feeding and causes all sorts of issues being ridiculous waiting for it. He has a internal time clock in his head and it just goes off hours before he ever gets fed. I don’t see any differences in them by looking at them at least.
Good quality forage can provide all the calories a huge number of horses need, including the racing STBs used in a fairly recent study proving that.
What no hay can do is provide all nutrients, or in the right ratios, or both. None. At the very least, there’s little to not Vit E in hay. Lots of the US has way too much iron in the soil and therefore in the hay/grass, which by default means too little copper and usually zinc, either outright (not providing minimum NRC requirements) or in relation to all that iron. And then people spend buckets of money on sunscreen sprays and complain about how badly their horse fades.
I can’t imagine not feeding anything extra just because the horse gets worked up.
When we know more about what it takes for optimal health, we supplement to fill those deficits before they become a problem. Prevention is easier than treatment.
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another voice to the choir… I’m all about forage based diets, long before they were “trendy” because there is nothing new about horses being healthier if they get to graze at will. But like everyone said, there are a lot of deficiencies in soil and hay, so a good ration balancer goes a long way!
And just like non forage diets, every horse is unique and may still need modifications. I drive a Fjord (easy keeper) in combined driving, which requires a very very high fitness/strength level. An easy keeping pony, even one in heavy work, needs grass hay to control weight but in a perfect world an equine in his work level discipline would be better off with higher protein forage… But blimps don’t do well in CDEs! He gets some high protein (legume) hay and cubes, but it is still a very small portion of his diet. To ensure he meets his protein and Vit E needs, he is supplemented with tri amino and KER vitamin E and E/Se (although those are cut in half when grass is green and growing).
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We know much more about both human and equine diet now.
I grew up on a hearty suburban diet of meat, potatoes, mostly frozen veg, lots of home baking. I was active and grew up with a normal height weight ratio, healthy. But the diet wasn’t so good for sedentary adults. I don’t eat like that now and I take a vitamin pill daily.
I don’t think the connections between zinc/copper and hoof health were known in 1975. Like I said, I fed local grass hay, a lot of sweet feed, rode hours every day and it was fine. However, we also thought horses over ten were old, and that all horses needed shoes for trail riding (well, our area had rocky mountain trails). We also only looked at wither gullet for saddle fit.
These days I’m interested in keeping my horse going into old age (she is now 16, in perfect health), and in getting her feet perfect for barefoot (right now she’s on the edge of OK everywhere, or needing Scoots periodically). Also I don’t put in nearly the hours I did as a teen. I can do a 5 hour trail ride camping, but I don’t do that every day in summer like I used to!
Anyhow, real nutrition research has come a long way since they told us about fresh broccoli in Grade 9 Home Ec class and my sister made my mom start buying it.
Why not benefit from this increase in knowledge?
At the same time we do need to be informed enough to just skim by all the snake oil, false claims, and inflated advertising online. Smartpac are hugely alarmist, and overpriced. You are right to doubt them.
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The vet as said to keep this one one only free choice had and pasture when it’s there. It’s not worth the colic and ulcers he causes himself bc he wants his food. He won’t even touch hay when he gets it in his kind he want his added balancer! Nothing has worked besides just
Cutting it al out for dim. He has never been fed set time to where he should anticipate if either. Idk. Never had a issue after we changed him over to nothing. But I do feed tc30 otherwise to my other one.
I do feed tc30 with copper zinc to my
One but not to the other so I not against it I just wondering if it all needed! But yes I guess they may have been good or fine back then maybe we didn’t notice thing that were not right either who knows! I just felt there perfectly fine!
My other one gets tc30 copper zinc vit e and whey
Mine are on free choice timothy/orchard grass with minimal concentrated feeds. In the summer when there is good fresh grass, my Mustang doesn’t get any concentrates, but my older AQHA/FQHA mare needs more calories than what even fresh grass can provide when in ridden work. I feed Tribute Essential K to my Mustang and Senior Sport to my QH.
I firmly believe that all “healthy” horses should start with free choice long fiber forage and then use concentrated feeds/supplements to fill dietary gaps. Obviously there are horses with medical needs that wouldn’t fit in that “box.”
I have had many horses who were basically forage fed only. I used grain as a treat/ reward but that was all.
For me it depended on the individual horses needs and if they were an easy keeper or needed help to maintain weight despite good grass/ hay. Depending on where we lived my hay was either mixed grass or alfalfa grass mix. We grow and bale our own.
As our 2 mares have hit the mid-upper teens they seem to need a little supplementation once the grass stops growing . They get 1pound RB along with added Vit/Min supplement( 1/2 dose) since they aren’t getting the full 2 pounds of the RB ( easy keepers). It seems to work well fall-spring and I don’t need it during the grass growing season.
I have always fed my youngsters some grain as they grow and I think that the RB is an excellent way to get nutrients into them once the rapid growth spurts are pretty much over. I was able to drop the specialized feed on my 2 year old and go to just 2 pounds of the RB and he is way more calm.
I like the advantages of having more feeds to choose from, made with different ingredients to meet special needs. I have always tried to feed as minimal bagged feed as possible no matter what horse. I have been lucky that we have been able to grow and put up good hay every year ( sometimes it is difficult).
I feed the way I know and have never been pressured by others to change it. I know the way a horse should look and what has worked for me consistently I have had them for a long, long time.
