How to Select Grain for a Horse
Choosing the right grains for your horse is important to his overall health and longevity. This article will help you identify and pick the right type of grains.
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Instructions
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Selecting Grain for Your Horse
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Choose the right type of grain. Choosing the right type of grain for your horse is actually a lot harder than you might think. For the great majority of horse owners, a standard sweetfeed bought at any feed store should suffice. But it is important to know about the different grains and how they work in the horse's diet. Begin by doing online research and book research into the different grains available. Also, look at the feed bags and read the ingredients.
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Include oats in their diet. Feeding oats is the most popular grain diet for horses--with good reason! Oats are excellent for horses. They are high in fiber, high in fat, midway in protein and taste delicious to a horse. have never met an oat a horse didn't like. Oats are often mixed in with every horse feed, as their taste and smell guarantees the horse will eat it. If you choose to feed straight oats, try and buy "rolled" oats. These have been through a machine that has crushed the tough outer hulls of the oat shell, making it easier for the horse to digest.
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Consider corn as a factor in their diet. Choosing corn is another favorite. Corn is a mixed blessing. It has a very heavy starch and carbohydrate load--which means too much can cause your horse to founder--a very VERY bad thing. Corn is also low in protein. But, it is a great feed for winter as all those starches and carbohydrates help the horse keep warm and build a layer of fat to protect it from the cold. Corn is also a horse favorite, although the whole kernels are hard to chew and digest, so pick the cracked corn. Corn is best mixed with oats and not fed as a stand alone feed.
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Look into other grains. There are other grains for horses--barley being the most common. It has many of the same benefits of corn, but must be crushed or rolled before you feed it, as it can swell in the stomach otherwise and cause problems. It is not as palatable as the above two, unless mixed with molasses.
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Watch the quality of the grain you choose. When choosing any grain for your horse, make sure the grains are sweet smelling and clean. You do not want big chunks of chaff or other material mixed in with the grains the horses will eat. Steer clear of blackened or foul smelling grains.
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Tips & Warnings
Always visually inspect your grain before you buy.
NEVER feed moldy or rotten smelling grain to your horses.
