Gauteng Smallholder July 2017 | Page 29

HORSEMANSHIP concentrate per meal. From page 26 ment. It is therefore impor- include these species and The processes that occur in tant that horses have access many others which the horse the cecum and colon are less to roughage at all times. will consume according to about breaking down food Good quality grazing and hay their palatability ~ and into smaller, absorbable will improve the horse's availability. particles with the aid of overall condition. You can also consider baled enzymes and more about In general in Gauteng, you lucerne as a fodder but this fermenting complex carbohy- have a choice of three species generally is fed in very small drates (fibre) into useful end of baled fodder. They are two quantities, especially to products with the assistance Eragrostis species, E teff, children's' ponies, lest they of the “good bugs.” commonly called teff, and E become impossible to In addition to generating fatty curvula, called eragrostis, manage. acids, which supply energy or weeping lovegrass or The general rule for feed calories, these helpful micro- oulandsgras, and a Digitaria concentrates is that 1% of the organisms also produce B- species, D eriantha, formerly horse's body weight per day vitamins, Vitamin K and some known as Smutsfinger grass. should be enough. Horses amino acids. The colon then Common field grazing will can only digest about 2kgs of serves not only to absorb these nutrients but also a portion of the water that accompanies food as it moves along the digestive tract. About 70% of the diet should be made up of fodder or roughage. Roughage requires more chewing than concen- trates, which leads to more saliva being produced. The saliva helps to neutralise stomach acid which leads to healthy stomach environ- There is a large variety of brands and formulations of horse concentrates to choose from. 27 www.sasmallholder.co.za There are many brands of horse concentrates on the market. Some come in meal form, others are pelleted and still others cubed. Small ponies may find the size of cubes too large for their mouths. Some feeds contain maize, some are free of certain components such as maize, but all are rated according to their protein content, stated in a percentage. Common protein percentages are 10%, 12% and 14%. All made-up feeds must be registered and certified in terms of the Animal Feeds Act although buyers should be aware that this is not a guarantee of quality of the feed or its ingredients , but rather a simple certification that the proportions of the stated ingredients are present in the stated proportion s. Factors such as the size and age of the horse, its breeding Continued on page 29