With proper care, today’s horse owner can expect to have their equine companion for 20 to 30 years. Advances in veterinary care, parasite management and nutrition, allow us to sustain horses much longer than what would be observed in the wild. With proper attention to their nutritional needs, even the body weight and the condition of the horse can be maintained in a very good state. So what types of changes in the diet of the older horse should you address?

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The fall season is here and with it often comes the time for weaning of our foals. Many successful weaning strategies exist but it is important for the manager to choose the optimal one for their facilities and management style. These decisions are important and can affect the growth, well being and even the future behavior of your foal.

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Over the last few months we have been discussing exactly how many calories (or megacals for those who are paying attention!) your horse needs to consume, depending on what activities he performs, his personality and what the weather might be doing.

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In the last article, we tried to categorize exactly how much work your horse is performing, and how many calories he needs to consume to match his energy output with his energy input. If you have been following along our series, you now have determined how much your horse weighs, what his body condition score is (and what it might need to be), and how many calories your working horse needs at rest and during the period you are riding or training him.

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In the last two articles we discussed evaluating your horse’s body condition and then determined how many calories your horse needs to maintain their weight. We discussed factors that will influence the horse’s “at rest” or maintenance requirements; including his condition, his personality, and the weather. This month we are going to talk about more active horses, the Working Class.Be Realistic About Your Horse’s Workload.

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Last month we discussed your ability to evaluate your horse’s body condition, and what the optimal condition for your individual horse may be. This month we delve a little further into the energy requirements for horses. Remember – when referring to energy, we mean calories! As stated last month, it does not mean how your horse feels. There are many other factors that influence your overall horse’s attitude, and while certainly how many calories he consumes is part of it, it isn’t the entire picture.

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We can feed horses to maximize stamina and power, prevent digestive disorders, avoid metabolic disorders, prevent attacks caused by genetic diseases, grow horses to be sound throughout life — the list goes on and on. Trying to wrap one’s mind around all of these issues can be intimidating at best, even for equine nutritionists, let alone the average horse owner. However, we will begin with the basics, and then build to more complicated ideas.

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We have talked about what information should be included on a feed tag, regardless of type of feed. In this article we will put that information into use to aid you in selecting the best (and perhaps most economical) feed for you to use. So let’s start with what the guaranteed analysis means to you.

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Now that we have finished our discussion concerning our horses energy requirements, we are going to turn our attention to how best to deliver those calories to our horses. Over the next few months, we will discuss many confusing issues facing horse owners concerning the type, quantity, and quality of our feeds. As horse owners are barraged with information concerning grazing, metabolic syndrome, obesity and ulcers, it is sometimes easy to get lost in the conflicting information. So we are going to take it step by step, and do our best to understand these complex issues.

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In our previous series we discussed the energy needs of horses, how they are calculated, how they differ between classes or types of horses, and how your feeding strategies should reflect the energy needs of the horse. For this series, we are going to switch gears a little, and focus on understanding commercial feed tags. In today’s equine feed market, there are an overwhelming number of feeds and types of feeds available to select for your horse. It certainly can be bit confusing at times. Our goal is to clear up some of the confusion and allow you to make the best choices based on your horse’s needs.

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