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