| One of your most important responsibilities as a horse | | | | of exercise, you can cut down to two flakes every |
| owner is to make sure your horse is always well | | | | day. A flake of hay is a substantial amount of hay that |
| taken care of and properly fed. If you overfeed your | | | | weighs roughly four pounds. Most of the time, you can |
| horse with too much grain, you can give him gas colic, | | | | mix timothy hay with alfalfa hay for your horse. If your |
| which is a horse's inability to burp, which can be a | | | | horse ignores the timothy hay to get to the alfalfa, |
| serious problem. If the horse cannot burp, they will | | | | feed him his timothy first on the next feeding when he |
| develop gas in their digestive system and they will | | | | is very hungry. The timothy has more nutrition and is |
| experience very severe abdominal pain. | | | | less fattening than the alfalfa hay. |
| In order to avoid the problem of colic, be sure to feed | | | | If you don't have a lot of storage room for hay bales, |
| your horse at regular intervals. You will need three | | | | you can think about giving your horse horse fiber. The |
| smaller meals a day instead of one large one. Each | | | | hay cube is one of the most popular versions of horse |
| meal needs to include plenty of fiber for the horse's | | | | fiber. You can get tightly compacted cubes of hay that |
| digestive system, so they will need a lot of good | | | | will take up a lot less room. The most popular version |
| quality hay. You will also need to make sure that your | | | | is the cubes made from alfalfa. You can also find |
| horse's water is frequently changed. If your horse is | | | | cubes in pet stores, but generally, these cubes are for |
| extremely active or even pregnant, you will have to | | | | bunnies and other small animals, not horses. You need |
| put in horse grain or pelleted feed. | | | | to ask for at least 50 pounds in hay cubes to get the |
| Fiber is extremely important for your horse. You will | | | | best deal. You can also get pelleted hay, but |
| need to make sure that you have the right kind of | | | | experienced horse owners don't typically prefer this |
| feed for your horse at all times. You will need horse | | | | option. |
| quality hay delivered to you to avoid getting hay that | | | | If you compete in horse shows frequently or prefer |
| wasn't cut or dried properly for your animal. In fact, if | | | | long trail rides, you will need to give your horse |
| you give your horse bad hay, it can kill it. You will need | | | | supplemental pieces to his diet, including more grain or |
| to break a bale of hay open and smell it before you | | | | pelleted feed. Most of the time, pleasure horses will |
| think about feeding it to your horse. If it looks or smells | | | | just need a cup of grain a few times a week. You can |
| dusty with a musty scent, do not feed it to your horse. | | | | talk to your vet about what is appropriate for your |
| Hay that comes from the first or even second cutting | | | | horse, but you shouldn't give your horse grain every |
| is okay and has a lot of nutritional supplements. The | | | | day or else you will end up with an overweight animal. |
| third or even fourth cuttings are worthless to a horse. | | | | Definitely ask your vet if your horse qualifies for |
| Your horse will need to consume around three flakes | | | | vitamin or mineral supplements as well to make sure |
| of hay every day. If your horse is getting fat from lack | | | | that all of his requirements are being met! |