How to provide your horse with a good diet

It forms a mat in the horses stomach and helps to reduce acid splash back in turn lowering the risk of gastric ulcers. I find this particularly useful at a competition when the exracehorses I have ridden over the years have tended to be too excited to eat the haynet in front of them. A scoop of chaff was too good to resist though.
This is a good habit to get into if you ride your horse first thing in the morning before work for example especially if your horse has run out of hay or stopped eating it a few hours earlier. You can then ride confidently knowing that your horse has a fibre mat in their tummy helping to keep them comfortable.
Bear in mind that horses who appear to be in good condition and even those who are overweight can suffer with gastric ulcers too. Its not just a disease that affects poordoers and fit sport horses. The amount of time between eating forage and being exercised on an empty stomach are two risk factors which can be managed with a good feeding programme.
Generally speaking horse diet is an enormous topic. You never stop learning and youll find that as different horses come into your life what works well for one wont work for another. Before you know it youll have a feed room full of all sorts of feed bags supplement tubs and liquids ready to be mixed into a bucket.
Carbohydrates in horse diet
Although it is the core of correct horse diet forage alone rarely provides all the nutrients they need. So how can we tell whether the diet we are giving our horse contains what they need? A good place to start is by understanding the key components that horses and ponies need in their diets.
Carbohydrates provide the largest source of energy in your horses diet and are required for cell processes and basic functions such as breathing and moving in the form of muscle contraction. Excessive carbohydrates can lead to equine obesity whereas deficiency can cause the horse to break down body reserves to supply necessary energy leading to loss of body condition and muscle wastage.
Nonstructural carbohydrates
These simple carbohydrates are starch sugar and frutan which is the storage form of sugar in grass and other forages. Starch is broken down by enzymes in the small intestine along with sugar.
High starch and sugar diets may lead to