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Pasture for Horses

The best way of giving young horses a good start in life is to make sure they eat well. That may sound obvious but according to AgResearch pasture and horse specialist Dr Warren Hunt, many New Zealand horse owners are not paying attention to the basics with a considerable number of horse paddocks being very weedy.

"Some attention paid to pasture quality means improved nutrition, which could mean major benefits for the horses," Hunt says.

Like all animals, horses need adequate quantities of energy, protein, minerals and vitamins from their food. The first nutritional priority is to meet the animal's maintenance requirements, and what is eaten above those needs is available for growth and development, work, reproduction and other activities. Good nutrition is particularly important for the mare and foal, and to give the young growing animal a good start.

While some paddocks may seem full of grass or growing well, horse owners may not realise what's there is inedible or not nutritional to horses.

Horses have been found to be very fussy eaters. Research has shown they preferentially graze particular grasses and legumes and prefer to eat young, vigorous growing plants. This has a big influence on the pasture composition, and encourages growth of less palatable species such as docks, dandelion and chickweed. Removing the most palatable plant species from pasture by selective grazing means that the nutritional value of pasture is reduced as the weeds grow, which means grazing horses then have to spend more energy searching for attractive food.

The most nutritious and digestible part of the grass plant is the most recently grown leaf, so pasture quality, and therefore its nutritional value to the horse, is highest when grass reproductive growth is controlled. Control of this growth by topping encourages high quality leaf production and discourages the growth of lower quality flowering parts.

Horses have also been found to reject grazing pasture because of dung contamination. In severe cases, as little as 10% of the pasture may remain acceptable to them.

Although horses like eating high endophyte ryegrasses, the toxins these grasses may contain cause ryegrass staggers.

Hunt, who has written Pasture for Horses for the Equine Research Foundation, suggests horse owners look closely at their pasture to see if it has the type of grass and legume species that are nutritional, low in endophyte, and that horses find palatable.

Where pastures need improvement, the choice is between pasture renovation, or complete resowing. Hunt believes well managed pastures can provide most or all of the nutritional requirements of horses. However supplementation is needed where animals are in work, where there are pasture shortages such as in droughts or winter and where there are mineral deficiencies.