Holistic Boarding - cont.

The primary focus for the health of our animal guests is NUTRITION!  In my opinion, a holistic approach to animal nutrition means looking at what Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, fed an animal.  Then looking at how stress and caloric need changes affect their overall health and using foods naturally found in their diet to keep the body in balance.

First - horses GRAZE.  They are not designed to eat concentrated calories in short bursts.  In fact, concentrated feeds such as hay pellets & cubes and pelleted grains can lead to sand colic, teeth problems and overall poor nutrient assimilation.  Here in Arizona grass pasture is rare and expensive.  And it is less expensive to grow a low-water legume like Alfalfa than it is grass.  But feeding alfalfa is to save money is short sighted and can get very expensive in future veterinary bills.  Click here for a more complete article on Why Not to Feed Alfalfa. 

We feed grass hays supplemented by turnout to pasture.  We believe in feeding enough hay to have it in front of the horse throughout the day.  This helps keep food going through the gut all the time.  Sand doesn't have the opportunity to settle out, digestive enzymes stay active and the beneficial gut flora remains healthy.  This lowers stress levels and increases nutrient uptake.

My next posts will address how we approach the need for additional calories and supplementation.

Comments

[Thom Childress]

I couldn't agree more with what you are saying about most feed companies using by products of the food industry. We have performance horses and searched high and low for a quality feed manufacturer that wasn't a feed store first and came up with Buckeye Nutrition out of Dalton Ohio. We use the ration balancer for grass hay and have had great success.

[hollywoodheidi]

Hi! I just found this forum and it looks really cool.

Now, I gotta run off and read some posts. :)

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