b'NUTRITION STACEY OKE, DVM, MSCTheHorse.com/NutritionRecipes for SuccessDoes your horse need a dollop, dab, pinch, or peck? Learn to formulate a diet based on age, body condition, and health statusEven the best chefs in the world, however, cant please every palate. Youll likely need to fine-tune your horses diet based on his particular needs and preferences. Maintenance DietForageFeed 1.5-2% of body weight (BW) on a dry mat-ter basis (including pasture or hay/haylage) per 24 hours. This is equivalent to 15-20 pounds of dried forage each day for a 1,000-pound horse.SaltOffer a salt block (not a red mineral block) or top-dress feed with 1-2 tablespoons of table salt per day.WaterProvide ad-lib.A maintenance diet is one that provides all the essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, carbohydrates, etc.) a horse needs to maintain a healthy body weight. The mainte-nance diet is suitable for many pleasure horses without medical conditions, including horses in light work.If your horses forage source is primarily hay, with minimal pasture, it becomes particularly important to weigh your hay ISABELLE BEAU DE LOMENIErather than simply counting flakes. Fine-tune your horsesThe National Research Council and recent research have diet based on his lifeshown that our modern-day forages are low in some essential stage, needs, andnutrients, says Crandell. This is why equine nutritionists often preferences. promote a ration balancer or vitamin/mineral supplement for horses on pasture or hay alone.W hether your adult horse is an average Joe, an easy orA ration balancer is designed to provide horses with all the hard keeper, an athlete, a golden oldie, or has an underly- nutrients they need that arent already met by quality forage.ing medical condition that requires a special diet, he hasYou can easily modify this maintenance diet to meet the needs certain nutrient needs and calorie requirements you must factorof easy keepers, defined as horses that easily maintain a body into his daily rations. condition score (BCS) of 5-6 on the nine-point Henneke scale Diet is the foundation of equine health and welfare, says(TheHorse.com/137703). The major difference is youll need to Kathleen Crandell, PhD, a nutritionist with Kentucky Equinerestrict the number of calories they consume. Try decreasing the Research in Versailles. This holds especially true now moreforage you feed to 1.4-1.7% of BW for easy keepers, and monitor than ever, considering the recent explosion of equine obesity andbody weight and BCS routinely to avoid obesity. In addition, other nutrition-related diseases.consider adding more exercise. Several studies show that a com-In this article well provide practical recipes for adult horses atbination of diet restriction and exercise achieves better results various life stages and with specific medical conditions.than instituting either change alone. 30December 2019The Horse|TheHorse.comNutrition_Dec USE.indd 30 11/1/19 1:50 PM'