What kind of feed do horses eat?

Horses are herbivorous animals, the main feed is mainly forage, but also need to absorb some trace elements. From the point of view of feeding horse nutrition, according to the nutritional composition and type of feed, feed is divided into two categories, roughage and concentrate.

1. Roughage

As can be known by the name, it is a kind of feed that contains more crude fiber, whole grains and so on, but contains less nutrients. For horses, roughage is essential, the daily diet of horses is not without roughage, but roughage is also good or bad, good quality roughage can make horses grow healthily and enable horses to better absorb nutrients from the food they eat during the day.

Poor roughage has more disadvantages, poor quality roughage can make horses lose their appetite and affect the absorption and utilization of nutrients in the food they eat. At present, the roughage commonly used in China is made from straw, hay and so on.

2. Concentrate feed

Compared with roughage, concentrate is high in energy, rich in protein, less crude fiber, easy to digest and has a strong taste. Horses like to eat this kind of feed very much. In addition, horses also need a certain amount of mineral feed to supplement trace elements to horses.

For horses, mineral feed is mainly salt and calcium minerals. Salt is divided into lumps and granules according to their size and shape. The bulk salt can be placed on the side of the feed trough for horses to lick freely, and the granular salt is granular and can be mixed in the concentrate feed, which is evenly mixed with the concentrate feed and then fed to the horse.

The salt added to the feed can supplement horses' need for trace elements such as sodium, and can promote horse metabolism, make horses drink more water to help digestion and prevent a series of diseases caused by lack of water.