The horse’s Body Condition Score (BCS) always trumps what our daily “Digestible Energy” requirement suggests. Horses are unique individuals that have different calorie requirements & we need to feed as such:
Example: an “above ideal” BCS horse should not be given added calories, even if their calculation suggests that they require more calories. Conversely, if a performance type horse is considered “below ideal” BCS we need to add additional calories to the diet, regardless of the calculation results.
Daily Digestible Energy (DE) Requirements of the average 1,100 lb horse:
Maintenance Type Horse 16,500 kcal/day
Gestation- Final Trimester 21,000 kcal/day
Moderate Work 23,000 kcal/day
Lactation- 1st month 32,000 kcal/day
Heavy Work 27,000 kcal/day
Yearling-2 year old 19,000 kcal/day
Example- Balancing forage DE in the diet:
1,100- Moderate Work level Horse = 23,000 kcal/day
The average “Grass Hay” contains = 909 kcal/lb
1.5-2% of Body Weight in forage = 16.5-22 lbs of hay/day
**This horse will require 25.3 lbs of this hay, per day to meet its caloric requirements without the addition of a grain or supplement. This amount exceeds the horses’ daily recommended amount of forage & no consideration for protein and/or vitamins & minerals has been given. In this example it is necessary to supplement the horse’s diet with a grain/concentrate to meet the daily caloric requirements.
We also must remember that caloric recommendations are just that- recommendations. These give us a baseline to work from, but each horse is an individual & we need to feed them according to what their body condition is suggesting they need. Your local equine veterinarian or equine nutritionist can help you determine your horse’s current Body Condition Score (BCS) and what would be considered ideal for their age, breed & working class.
No comments:
Post a Comment