What feed do horses eat? Introduction to common types of horse feed

Horses are herbivorous animals, and their main feed is forage, but they also need to take in some trace elements. From the perspective of equine nutrition, feed is divided into two major categories according to its nutritional composition and type: roughage and concentrates.

1. Roughage

As the name suggests, this is a type of feed that contains more crude fiber, such as various grains, but contains fewer nutrients. For horses, roughage is essential, and a horse's daily diet cannot do without roughage. However, roughage also varies in quality. Good-quality roughage can help horses grow healthily and better absorb the nutrients from the food they eat each day.

Poor-quality roughage, on the other hand, has many disadvantages. Low-quality roughage can cause horses to lose appetite and affect their absorption and utilization of nutrients from the food they eat. At present, the roughage commonly used in China is made from straw, hay, and other materials after crushing.

2. Concentrates

Concentrates are the opposite of roughage. Concentrates are high in energy, rich in protein, and contain less crude fiber. They are easy to digest and highly palatable, and horses very much like eating this type of feed. In addition, feeding horses also requires certain mineral feeds to supplement trace elements for them.

For horses, mineral feed mainly consists of salt and calcium-containing minerals. Salt is further divided by size and shape into block form and granular form. Block salt can be placed on the side of the feed trough for horses to lick freely, while granular salt is in particle form and can be mixed into concentrates, blended evenly with the concentrates, and then fed to horses.

Salt added to feed can supplement the horse's need for sodium and other trace elements, and can promote the horse's metabolism, encouraging it to drink more water, which helps digestion and can prevent a series of diseases caused by water deficiency in horses.