"Long" fiber in horse feeding

The prolonged drought season with the consequent shortage of hay poses several problems regarding the proper feeding of horses. In the world of horses there are some recurring doubts, today more current than ever, that amateurs ask themselves and, among these, there is the age-old theme of the so-called long fiber.

These could be classic FAQs on this topic:

• Is it true that a horse must consume a certain amount of long and structured fiber to be healthy?
• Could the well-being of a horse suffer from the administration of ground fibrous foods?
• Can alfalfa and/or dehydrated and pelleted hay partially or completely replace the administration of traditional sun-dried hay?

In reality, since these questions raise complex problems, it is at least necessary to provide more articulated answers.

Some notes on physiology

In nature, wild horses spend 60% of their time eating. This is because, contrary to what a ruminant would do, the horse needs to carefully chew every single bite of food before swallowing it.

With an effect entirely analogous to a millstone, the horse meticulously grinds both grains and ingested forages between its molars. This physiological behavior is fundamental as it dramatically increases the digestibility of food by increasing the total surface area that can be attacked by endogenous enzymes and intestinal flora. Furthermore, the chewing process implies two other important effects. The first is the production of abundant quantities of saliva (we are talking about 6 liters/kg of forage) and the second is that the horse's stomach, in nature, tends to always contain food.

Dietary and behavioral effects on horses given unstructured fiber

As a result of what was said in the previous paragraph, the administration of ground fiber is not entirely equivalent to feeding with long fiber. Let us therefore see the points of contact and the points of difference.

Let us say immediately that from the point of view of meeting nutritional requirements, it is perfectly equivalent to administer ground fiber or long fiber. In other words, the energy obtained from the cecal fermentation of the fiber will be the same for both types of food. Therefore, theoretically a horse could easily be fed by replacing hay, for example with an equal number of kilograms of alfalfa cubes, without running the risk of undernourishing it. Furthermore, there is no need for physical stimulation by the fiber in the digestive system. That is, unlike ruminants in which the fiber also has the role of moving the rumen, in horses it only serves as food.

It should also be noted that often both the quality and the healthiness of dehydrated forages is much higher than that of traditional field-dried forages. In other words, traditional hay rarely reaches the quality obtained from this type of product.

At the same time, one cannot ignore that a healthy diet must take into account, in addition to the mere achievement of nutritional requirements, also general well-being.

Conclusions

In conclusion, totally or partially replacing long fiber-providing foods with ground fibrous foods is certainly feasible and in certain situations can be an appropriate and economically advantageous practice. As an example, here are some classic situations in which this technique finds valid application:

• The available hay is of poor quality and fundamentally unhealthy (for example it is full of visible mold);
• The space available for storing forages is scarce or absent, or equivalently, as happens in riding schools located within large cities, it is economically much more advantageous to allocate the available space to something else rather than a hay barn;
• The subject is particularly sensitive to the inevitable dust carried with the forages;
• Hay is not available or has excessive costs;
• During long trips for away matches.

Net of these examples, it must still be kept in mind that this method represents a further anthropization in horse management and consequently attention must be paid to diet management.

Our studies and our field experience have led us to create CH7K NUTRICOMPLETE, a feed that combines both the hay part and the concentrate part in a single product. It can be a valid help in these periods of hay shortage as it contains abundant hay from polyphytic meadow and dehydrated and thermoventilated alfalfa.