NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS FOR HORSES - EXCELLENT SOURCE
OF HORSE FEEDING RESEARCH INFORMATION

The design of a feeding program is very important to a horseman who is concerned with maximizing efficiency and performance, and safety, and minimizing cost. Fortunately, there is a great deal of information available on feeding horses, unfortunately not all this information is research based and accurate. When a horseman builds a feeding program on inaccurate information, "he does good ... but does wrong."

When evaluating nutritional information, check to be sure the information is referenced to specific study(s) or reviews by recognized equine nutritionists. No doubt one of the best recent compilations of scientific horse nutrition and feeding reports, easily accessible to horse people, is the publication, "Nutrient Requirements For Horses," fifth revised edition, published in 1989 by the National Research Council. The publication has six sections. Section one, "Nutrient Requirements - Deficiencies and Excesses" summarizes studies on energy protein, vitamins, minerals and water. Section two, "Physical Characteristics and Suitability of Feedstuffs," covers forages and concentrates and feeding problems. Section three is a short section on "Feeding Management."

Section four, "Nutrient Requirement Tables," lists absolute nutrient requirements as well as requirements as a percentage of the total diet, for horses from 200-900 kilograms (or approximately 500-2000 pounds). For persons interested in finding out exact nutrient requirement of a particular horse(s), the publication contains a user friendly floppy computer disc for use on a standard IBM or IBM compatible microcomputer. Viewers can plug in, the age, size, sex, activity level, etc. of any horse and the screen displays that horses nutrient requirements. Section five is "Feeds Composition Table" which lists the average energy protein, vitamin and mineral content of a variety of commonly used horse feeds. Equine nutritionists, County Extension Agents, and feed company technical representatives utilize these two sections to formulate horse rations. Section six is listing of research studies summarized in the publication.