Feed Supplements

feed supplements

Food for horses can be categorized into classic and functional food. Classic horse feed includes roughage, concentrated feed, grasses and herbs as well as supplementary feeds that support consistent performance and muscle building, stable bone structure and nerve strength. Functional feeds are given immediately before or after the training session or tournament to provide the horse’s musculoskeletal system with ideal nutrients.

The nutrients of feed supplements  contained in the feed supplement influence the correct course of biochemical reactions in the horse’s body.

Food supplements for horses are available in different compositions and can be individually adapted to the respective requirements.

In very few stables, feed is actually carefully weighed; rather, it is roughly estimated. Unfortunately, this does not guarantee difficult coverage of individual supplementary feed requirements. The required performance or health maintenance can only be guaranteed if the horse is sufficiently supplied with vitamins, trace elements, amino acids and minerals. In most cases, supplementary feed does not have to be fed continuously.

They are only added if there is a specific deficiency or increased requirement and this cannot be compensated for by feeding roughage and concentrated feed.

Changeover to supplementary feed

The feeding of supplementary feed should be built up slowly and started with small feeding quantities. Ideally, only one supplementary feed should be integrated into the new feed composition so that the horse organism can get used to the new feed at rest. In principle, a sudden change of feed should be avoided for horses. If the horse does not eat the food supplement even after a few days, it is advisable to switch to a different, analogous product.

After the conversion to the supplementary feed, the horse must be observed in the following weeks in order to be able to determine any side effects of the supplementary feed in good time.