Horses Eating Mesquite

I received a comment from Anonymous regarding a previous post on knowing the plant life in your area and effects on horses eating it. "We live near Phoenix, Arizona and have three mesquite trees in our horse pasture. Our horses LOVE the mesquite pods. They taste sweet. (FH note: see picture left). Some horses have become impacted from mesquite pods, but our horses have been fine eating the pods that drop from our trees in addition to their regular diet of bermuda grass and bermuda hay."

Thanks for your comment. If it wasn't for Mesquite beans a lot of cattle in West Texas would go hungry in this current drought we're in. Can't say as I remember any of my horses eating Mesquite beans, which are plentiful where I live. My horses have ate dried Desert Marigold plants, Chamisa (which is another cow staple), dried Yucca bulbs all without ill effects, however they eat very little of it at any given time....and it's not a feed I routinely let them have.

Several of my horses got out of the corral the other night and ate a row of corn that was about two feet tall and all that was left the next day was nubbins. I also noticed a number Cucumber plants conspicuously missing. I watched the horses pretty close for the next day or two and noticed no bad effects.

I think the key for horses eating any new feed intentional or not, especially in any quantity, is the gradual introduction of it. As you know changes in feed can cause a horse to colic and this goes for processed and natural grain, new cuts of alfalfa or grass as well.

Glad you are feeding Bermuda grass. I know what a pain it is to get sometimes, but I think horses are better off with a grass diet or a mixed grass diet. Again, thanks for the comment. Safe Journey.

The Basics of Horse Nutrition: Understanding Hay

I don’t know how many times I have been asked questions such as…. “Just how hay do I need to feed my Horse?” …..”Could you look at my horse and tell me if I’m feeding enough?”….. I like these questions since it shows the horse owner wants to ensure he/she is taking care of their horse. I always remind these people that my answers are my opinion and if they asked several other people, they will get several different answers. The following opinion is for people who do not have their horses on pasture.

Generally, a horse currently in decent body condition needs 2% of his body weight in daily feed. That means a 1,000 lb horse needs 20 lbs of feed each day. And I’m talking hay here. There are two general types of hay: Grass Hay and Alfalfa. Grass Hay usually runs about 10—12% protein and Alfalfa Hay generally runs about 17 –23% protein depending upon what cut of the growing season it is.

Hay should make up the bulk of the horse’s daily feed. With the feeding of grains or processed and bagged horse feed, the daily requirements of hay can be reduced, however, again hay should make up the majority of the horse’s diet and most horse’s do well on hay alone providing it’s a good quality hay and must be free of mold. If it smells bad, don’t feed it!

Although thousands of horses do well on Alfalfa alone, the protein content can present problems that are somewhat avoided with a mix of grass and alfalfa or a grass only diet. There is a saying that everything a horse eats goes straight to their feet. That’s true but it goes the way of the gut and digestive tract before it gets to the feet. High levels of protein are thought to cause blockages or colic in the horse’s gut and can affect the hooves in negative manner such as leading to founder. Generally a horse that gets into grass hay storage and eats and eats and eats won’t have near the problems that the same horse would have if he got loose and overfed on alfalfa.

The more times you feed a horse a day, the better, however most horses do just fine on being fed twice a day. I feed my horses four times a day, dividing up grass and alfalfa in near equal amounts.

My reference bible on horse feed is Equine Clinical Nutrition, Feeding and Care, by Lon D. Lewis, DMV, PhD available from Amazon. I understand that this book is used as a textbook in some college equine management programs. It is worth the cost.