The Rationale for Ration Balancers
Getting the right level of nutrition into a barnful of horses can be a balancing act. There are the hard-training competitors and the laid-back weekend warriors. Then there’s that lanky gelding who gobbles up huge amounts of food and never puts on weight. And practically every barn, at some point, has a pony “of a certain age” who seems to just keep getting fatter no matter how dainty her servings.
The equine digestive tract is designed to thrive on a diet composed mainly of hays and/or pasture grasses. But for many horses that’s not quite enough. To maintain a healthy weight, some may need more energy—calories, to be burned as fuel or stored as fat—than they could ever get from forages alone. Others, such as growing youngsters and hard-working athletes, may need more protein to help build and maintain muscle.
In addition, hay and grasses may be deficient in some vitamins and minerals all horses need. “Here at Michigan State, we have analyzed a lot of hay over the years for various research projects, and very few samples we’ve looked at would have met the requirements for every nutrient,” says equine nutritionist Brian Nielsen, PhD, of Michigan State University.
