Keeping a Backyard Horse

Food

Horses can have a wide range of nutritional needs depending on age, condition, working requirements, and even climate. A young horse obviously needs more calories than a mature horse, as does one who is a working horse or an athlete. For my purposes here, though, let's just assume a horse ranging in age from 5-15 years, one who is a pet and who is taken for light rides once or twice a week. Our most important food source is nice green grass, but most people don't have enough space to meet our daily requirements. I live in a pen roughly a half acre in size, and I've eaten every single blade of grass, except for weeds or ground cover that I don't like.

So, in the absence of grass, good quality hay must be provided to me. There are several types of hay in two basic categories: grass hay and alfalfa. Grass hay can be Bermuda, coastal, timothy, or any mixture of those. It will usually contain around 10% protein. Alfalfa is a legume hay, meaning it's leafier than grass hay. It's also higher in protein at around 14%. When choosing a hay to feed your horse, it's important to know how to choose a quality product.

Grass loses its nutritional value quickly if not cured and dried properly. When choosing hay to buy, ask the feed store or dealer to see several bales. You won't need to open any bales to decide if they're good. Well-cured hay should look dry, but the long strands should still be green in color, and still have some elasticity. In other words, you should be able to bend them a little without breaking them. Smell the bale; it should smell like fresh-mowed grass. If you can detect an odor of mold, don't buy it. Horses have very little tolerance for eating moldy hay. Grass hay will have long slender blades, and thick stalks, whereas alfalfa hay has wider leaves, and is usually heavier per bale than grass hay.

Hay comes in two kinds of bales: large round bales that fill the entire bed of a pickup truck, and square bales about 4 feet long by 2 feet wide. Some farmers can also bale smaller, half-size round bales, though the first time I've ever seen these was in Missouri. You'll need to have a vehicle or a trailer capable of bringing hay home to your horse.

Whatever type of hay you choose, you need a basic understanding of how our digestive system works. Horses are strict herbivores, meaning we don't eat meat, and we're grazers. We can spend up to 20 hours a day eating! Because of that, our stomachs and intestines are designed to have a constant flow of feed, feed high in fiber like grass or hay. Most horses do well when given free access to hay, like I am, so we can eat when we want to.

However, there are some horses, especially those in smaller pens or who are not regularly exercised, who can and will eat too much, resulting in their becoming overweight. This condition is commonly called "being hay-bellied" by horse people. You can easily recognize a hay-bellied horse; they have a pot belly appearance like that of starving children in third-world countries. A horse's specific breed and age can have an impact on their metabolism. A pony's metabolism operates slowly; so they have a tendency to become overweight easily. In my case, being part Thoroughbred, I have a very high metabolism and it's harder for my human mother to keep me at a proper weight.

Your horse's breed and specific metabolism, as well as the size of its pen and amount of exercise should all be taken into account when choosing to feed free-choice or in measured meals. Like people, horses who exercise more need more calories. Horses that lead a sedentary life need less. Climate is also a consideration, as the digestion of hay in the intestines helps us to generate body heat. Close observation of your horse's body condition can alert you to over- or under-feeding.

A good indicator of body condition can be the ribs. If you can see our ribs at all, it should be along the midpoint of the rib, halfway between the back and belly. If you press in, you should just be able to feel the ribs, and the hollows between them should be well-muscled. If you can't feel the ribs or the spaces between, then you need to reduce the amount of feed. On the other hand, if you can plainly see the individual ribs, your horse needs more food (or medication for parasites, and I'll talk about that later).