From: Rob
Dear Dr. Jessica,
Help . . . I have been searching the web for some time, looked through the last several years of "Equus" and "Western Horseman," and have not found a useful answer. It has been awhile since I last depended on you for a personal question. In the meanwhile, your weekly dispatches have continued to broaden not only my understanding, but many others as well. You are doing a good thing for horses and their owners.
A few weeks ago the horsemanship director at our non-profit camp-ranch followed up on a new opportunity and left 44 horses in the care of several folks who are sharing the responsibilities of feeding, medicating, innoculating, scheduling hoof trimming, vet calling, and all the other things necessary for herd management. We are eagerly awaiting the selection and arrival of a new full-time horsemanship director!
A few of the horses have lost considerable weight over the winter and I separated them from the herd to reduce feed competition and to provide additional feed for them during the week -- both hay and grain. The question has come up among the care givers, "Why not feed additional grain to the other horses, also?"
I responded that none of the horses are "working." Except in the case of our "hard keepers," hay is sufficient for the rest who have maintained their weight.
This led to the question of what is "work" for a horse? A horse at pasture is not working. I recall a standard (from something that I read) that a horse must be active in human-directed activities for at least 3 hours per day to qualify as a "working" horse. Anything less is just excercise or conditioning and does not justify grain unless the horse manifests a need by failing to maintain weight. "Hard work" is human-directed activity that exceeds 4-1/2 hours and horses should be asked to work more than 6 hours.
The camp director asked me come with a source to validate the accuracy of the statement.
Can you help me with a more authoritative definition than my memory? It is OK with me if I am wrong; I can take correction. :-| We just need a meaningful definition so we have some objective measure of when to move from feeding hay to adding grain.
All of our horses are pastured 7/24. We feed hay during the winter when the forage is gone. Most of our horses only "work" one day a week for trail rides except during the summer when there are daily trail rides. We have 4 Belgians that we use to pull wagon rides and usually only ask them to work about 3 hours a day (when rides are scheduled).
Traditionally, the horses only get grain on the days that they work.
Otherwise, they do very well on hay or pasture (in season).
Thanks very much!
Rob
Hi Rob! A horse that is used by a good rider for light trail-riding, say an hour a day of walking through unchallenging terrain, is a horse that is getting some exercise, but no work.
A horse that is used in the same way for two or three hours a day would also be getting exercise -- more exercise, in this case! -- but very little work.
Now for the caveats! If horses are being used for trail-riding by people who are not good riders, they will actually work much harder than those ridden by good riders, because they will have to compensate for their riders' inadequacies of balance, position, and timing. Like riding in a trailer, this involves a lot of reacting and re-balancing movements, and is harder work than it seems. A few hours a day of such work, with turnout the rest of the time, is plenty for an average horse.
Cavalry horses worked hard, for many hours a day, but rarely at any speed but walk and trot. Their riders were not always brilliantly talented, but they were trained and closely supervised, their tack was checked and its fit adjusted with shims on a daily basis, and the soundness and fitness of the HORSE was always the number-one concern. Many people who run riding programs work their horses too hard and too often. They like to cite the twenty-miles-a-day progress of the cavalry, but don't take the other factors into account. But a well-run riding or camp program CAN work rather like the cavalry, if the horse's soundness and comfort are ALWAYS made the first priorities. These are wonderful concepts for campers and other riders to learn, as well. Do your campers a favour and teach them to consider (and HOW to consider) the horse: it's entirely likely that your program will be their only chance to learn and live these values.
If your horses are out in a big field 24/7, they will keep themselves fit enough for light trail-riding at walk and trot.
Grain is a supplement -- not a feed. A horse's feed is forage: pasture or hay. Horses kept by humans must be provided with suitable forage and with full-time access to salt and to cool, clean water.
If your horses are in hard work, or if your hay is poor quality and/or exceptionally low-protein, or otherwise inadequate to meet the horses' nutritional needs, then you would need to supplement the hay with some grain.
If the demands placed on a horse are stepped up to the point at which forage can no longer supply enough energy because (a) there aren't enough hours in the day to consume the amount of forage that would be necessary, or (b) the forage itself is poor-quality or available in insufficient quantities, then it would be appropriate to add grain.
If the horses' forage is of suitable quality and is offered in suitable amounts, and the horses' need is for additional CALORIES rather than for additional ENERGY, it would make sense to add fat to the diet rather than supplementing protein. It's also easier for the horses' bodies to handle, since offering grain once or twice a week can present a challenge to the equine digestive system. If you need to supplement the diet of particular horses that are old, "hard keepers", or otherwise in need of additional calories, you might consider using one of the high-fat, easy-to-digest feed formulations designed for older horses.
I'm assuming that these horses are getting regular farrier and vet care, are on a regular and effective deworming program, and that their teeth are checked at least twice a year, and floated whenever necessary. Sometimes a small investment in de-worming paste and tooth-floating will turn an apparent "hard keeper" into an easy keeper. ;-)
The best thing you can offer your horses is your own educated and attentive eye: LOOK at them every day, and do what you have been doing: separate and supplement the ones that aren't maintaining their weight well.
If the other horses are maintaining their weight, energy level, and coat quality, if the veterinarian finds them to be in good health, and if their bloodwork and a test of the forage and/or hay confirms that their diet is indeed nutritionally adequate, then there is no reason to add grain.
If you need a formula for "work", try this one for camp horses:
No work: pasture, no directed activities
(confinement to a stall or a tiny paddock goes beyond "no work", and will require that the horse be turned out for some time before being put back into any kind of work -- like a human confined to bed-rest, the horse confined to a stall or small enclosure will lose fitness in every way)
Exercise: walk-work (or primarily walk-work, with some trotting) on reasonably level ground under a competent rider
Light work: one and a half to two hours daily of walking and trotting, with some cantering
Moderate work: two and a half to four hours daily of walking and trotting, with some cantering
Heavy work: anything that increases the time, distance, and/or speed over moderate work! Six hours of active walking up and down hills would certainly qualify as work; if the horse were carrying an unbalanced and/or inept rider, it would qualify as hard work. Three hours of steady, demanding walk-trot-canter work could easily qualify as hard work. In a lesson program, for instance, if a horse is being used every day (with at least one day off per week), two lessons a day might well be all that it could handle, and it shouldn't be asked to do more than three.
I must say, it sounds as though yours is a particularly well-run program!
All too often, horses are simply left out in a field and not noticed until they are wanted -- THEN the handlers realize that some are fat, some are bony, and most are quite unfit. You seem to be paying attention to all the right things.
There's an old saying "The eye of the master makes the horse fat." This is still true: there is no better way to maintain horses than to look at them every day and do what is necessary for them as a group and as individuals.
You'll sleep well at night, and you'll also save money in the long term.
Good management and good maintenance are always a good investment -- quality control costs less than damage control. ;-)
Good luck with your program, and I hope you get your horsemanship director soon! It's always best to have ONE highly competent individual in charge.
With so many people involved, it can be hard to get everything done properly.... there's always a point at which everyone realizes that each person believed that "someone else" had done or was going to do something important, like deworming, or scheduling the farrier!
Jessica
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