Feeding for Behaviour

Dr Nerida Richards - Equilize Horse Nutrition Pty Ltd

There is nothing quite as unnerving or unenjoyable as riding a horse that is completely full of itself and constantly reacting before thinking. On a more subtle level a horse that won’t concentrate or continually overreacts to aids is frustrating. While education plays a major role in determining a horse’s behaviour under saddle, feeding can also have an impact. What you feed, how much you feed and when you feed it can make a big difference. Here are some tips for feeding to assist your horse to maintain a calm and responsive attitude under saddle. 

Tip #1 – Don’t feed too much

Horses that are fed more than they need for the work they do can become hyperactive and difficult to control. When feeding your horse, be careful to only feed it for the amount of work you are doing. To gauge if you are feeding enough, too much or too little, keep an eye on your horse’s body condition. If your horse is holding its weight, the amount you are feeding is just right. If your horse is losing weight you need to feed a little more, if your horse is gaining weight you need to feed a little less. Equally, take careful note of your horse’s behaviour and adjust the amount of feed you give according to behaviour, increasing the amount you feed if your horse is feeling flat or reducing the amount you are feeding if your horse is feeling too fresh.

Tip #2 – Alter feeding according to daily workload

If your horse tends to become hyperactive, especially following a day off, reducing the amount you feed from a working ration back to a maintenance ration on days off can help to solve this issue. Developing one diet for days your horse is ridden and another with similar ingredients but smaller portions for days off means your horse is only being fed what he needs on any given day.

To take this one step further, if you work your horse at varying intensities on different days you may develop a couple of different working diets. For example, if you lunge your horse for 30 minutes two days a week (light work), trail ride for 1.5 hours mainly at the walk and trot with some cantering two days per week (moderate work) and have dressage and show jump lessons or competitions two days per week for 1.5 to 2 hours each with mostly trotting and cantering as well as skill work (heavy work) and your horse has one day off you could have a maintenance diet for the day off, a light work diet for the lunging days, a moderate work diet for the trail days and a heavy work ration for the lesson and competition days. That way you are constantly adjusting feeding to suit workload and avoiding overfeeding.

Tip #3 – Feed ‘cool’ feeds

Fibrous feeds that are fermented in the hindgut to release energy are the most natural and also the ‘coolest’ sources of energy for horses. Using forages like pasture, hay, and chaff to provide the majority of the energy in your horse’s diet will help to keep your horse calm and responsive.

Horses in light work should be able to happily exist on a diet made up almost entirely of forages with supplements added if and when needed to cover vitamin and mineral requirements. So if your horse is in light work, don’t be too quick to reach for ‘hard feeds’, stick with forages, especially if your horse’s temperament is an issue.

However, horses in moderate to heavy work often need higher energy feeds added to their diet as most physically can’t eat enough forage to meet energy requirements. In these situations where energy requirements can’t be met by forage alone, cool energy sources such as high energy fibres (lupin hulls, sugarbeet pulp, soybean hulls and copra meal), oils and high oil feeds like rice bran can be used to boost energy intake without impacting on a horse’s behaviour (though there is no guarantee).

Tip #4 – Avoid ‘hot’ feeds

Grains and grain based feeds, molasses and forages like lucerne hay tend to be commonly blamed for making horses ‘hot’. Whether this is because they do actually make horses hyperactive, or because they are energy dense feeds that are easy to overfeed and therefore by default make horses hot is hard to determine. In any case, if your horse reacts to grains, grain based feeds or forages like alfalfa, avoid using these in the diet.

Many horses do well on grain based feeds and they make a palatable, economical and readily available feed option. However, if you are feeding grain based feeds, be sure to use ‘cooked’ feeds. Uncooked grain based feeds can result in the fermentation of starch in the hindgut which is well recognised as being capable of causing behavioural changes in horses.

Tip #5 – Feed a balanced diet

Some deficiencies like vitamin B1 (thiamine) and magnesium can have an impact on your horse’s behaviour. Have a nutritionist assess your horse’s diet to make sure these nutrients are supplied in adequate amounts and don’t impact on your horse’s behaviour.

Tip #6 – Beware of Spring Grasses

With spring often comes a flush of green feed and this has been long recognised as being capable of affecting a horse’s behaviour. Traditionally it was thought these behavioural changes were due to the high energy levels in the fresh pastures. While this could certainly be playing a role it is also possible that the high potassium and low magnesium content of rapidly growing grasses are combining to cause behavioural changes in horses.

Whatever the cause, if your horse reacts badly to spring grasses be prepared and manage your horse’s access to spring pasture to reduce the amount of pasture eaten. Providing access to hay and then strip grazing, using a grazing muzzle or only allowing your horse access to pasture for short periods of time will help to reduce the negative impact of spring grasses on behaviour.

A note on calming supplements:

There are a plethora of ‘calming’ supplements on the market aimed at helping to calm a hyperactive horse. Whether these supplements work or not is difficult to establish. Many studies have been conducted to assess their effectiveness with contradicting results. Most however are safe supplements, commonly containing large amounts of the water soluble (and hence virtually non-toxic) vitamin B1. Some also contain magnesium and an amino acid called tryptophan.

If you are already fine tuning your horse’s feeding regime according to the tips above PLUS have your horse well educated and its behaviour is still a problem, then trying calming supplements to see if they have a positive impact is a feasible option. If they work, keep using your chosen supplement. If they don’t, keep adjusting the diet and working on education until the right balance is struck.

Summary

Outside of a lack of education, overfeeding is the number one cause of behavioural problems in horses. If your horse is being difficult to handle, take a good look at what and how much you are feeding and try to see if you can go back to being on a largely forage based diet, only feeding extra when your horse really needs it to maintain the desired body weight. While avoiding overfeeding alone will solve many behavioural issues, feeding according to daily workload, using cool energy sources when needed, feeding a balanced diet and managing intake of fresh spring grasses will help to keep your horse cool and on its best behaviour, making your relationship more enjoyable and a whole lot safer!

 

For information on these feeds and help with how to use them for the best results with a horse prone to behavioural problems, contact Pryde’s EasiFeed on 1300 732 267, email info@prydes.com.au or go to the website http://prydes.com.au/.