question about Hay and grass

[Aimee005]

Im reading a book on Miniature horses... you may have heard of it "The Book Of Miniature Horses.. Buying, Breeding, Training, Showing, and enjoying"... and Im at the part about nutrition. The author says that a pasture is the most natural diet for a miniature horse and that a mix of grass and legume forage is probably all a mini needs. I was wondering if I put my mini on grass would I still have to feed hay along w/ a certain type of feed or will the grass do just fine? Note : My mini will be a pet so I dont really have any heavy work plans for him or her, but Ive been strongly thinking about learning to drive.

 

[kaykay]

How old is your horse??

MOST idle mature minis do just fine on a pasture only diet as long as its not overgrazed and is good quality pasture. Now this is for a miniature already in good condition and weight that is not breeding and not in the growing years.

Honestly some miniatures can get too fat on all pasture but some do just fine.

Remember if switching from hay to pasture to do it very slowly

 

[Aimee005]

How old is your horse??

MOST idle mature minis do just fine on a pasture only diet as long as its not overgrazed and is good quality pasture. Now this is for a miniature already in good condition and weight that is not breeding and not in the growing years.

Honestly some miniatures can get too fat on all pasture but some do just fine.

Remember if switching from hay to pasture to do it very slowly

I dont have a horse yet. Just doing a little research before actually getting one.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

What that book says is true for all horses. All horses, doing minimal work, can survive quite nicely on good quality pasture or high quality hay. Unfortunately most horses a) don't have pasture b) don't have really high quality hay and/or c) don't do "minimal" work, and this need the supplimental help of grain.

I don't feed my minis ANY grain, just good green grass hay. When I make my stud work hard, or if he does a lot of breeding, I'll give him a half cup of grain to keep up his energy levels. My big stud gets more, but even he's getting cut back because he's not working. Right now he's getting 1lb of grain/day and 20lbs really nice alfalfa. When I finish the 60lbs of grain I have left, he'll either get just hay, or a little handful of sweetfeed.

 

[WLS]

I think the question is: how good is your hay or pasture.?

I have my hay tested and then decide if supplements are needed. For example, this year our local hay crop was crap, I had it tested at only 7 percent protein (should be about 15), so I have all my horses on Purina.

As for pasture, it can be all horses need in the spring and early summer, but come late summer or fall when if the weather conditions are unfavorable, may need to add some supplements.

There are no rules.........and of course every horse is different. That term easy keeper does not describe every horse. Each horse has to be fed according to age, condition and activity.

Wish you well. Wendy