Transitioning your horse to pasture safely takes time. Start by grazing your horse about 15 minutes and each day increase the time on pasture by 15 minutes until your horse is on grass for about four to five hours per day. | Photo: iStock

A: If spring hasn’t arrived yet where you live, it’s likely right around the corner. And with the new season comes spring grass. Most of us love the idea of our horse grazing green pastures. But before you take advantage of this wonderful resource there are things you should do to ensure your horse remains healthy and your pastures stay in good shape.

Consider the Horse’s Digestive Tract

Your horse’s digestive tract has become adapted to the diet that you have been feeding all winter. This means that hindgut bacteria are honed on utilizing whatever type of hay you’ve been feeding, and enzymes in the small intestine are prepared for certain types and levels of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. These adaptations take time to change, so you need to slowly transition your horse to pasture grazing to safeguard his digestive health.

Sudden changes in forage sources, especially to pasture (which has a higher water content and potentially a very different carbohydrate profile than hay) can lead to hindgut disruption. If consumed in too great a quantity, starch and sugar that should be digested and absorbed in the small intestine might reach the cecum and colon, where they can cause rapid fermentation and gas production. Fructan sugars that exist in cold season grasses can have the same effect. This shift to readily fermentable carbohydrate results in lactic acid forming in the hindgut