Horse IQ

No doubt about it. Your horse loves to graze. And if he were still in the wild, he’d do it 12-16 hours a day. But if he starts eating the bedding in his own stall, that should send a message to you. And it’s probably not that he’s still hungry.

Just because your horse is no longer in the wild, doesn’t mean he has lost his natural grazing instincts. He’d put away a whopping 25-30 pounds of natural feed every day if he could. It’s just how horses are wired.

But domesticated horses don’t need that much food, especially if his horse feed includes grain or alfalfa hay. He’d make himself sick in a hurry on 12 hours of that. So if he starts eating or chewing on his own bedding, does that mean he’s still hungry? Probably not, says Cherry Hill, author of “Think Like A Horse.” Cherry goes on to say…

“You can limit their intake, yet horses still have a strong urge to chew for many hours a day. This need to chew can be satiated by feeding long-stem hay. I usually have four or more types of hay in my barn. One of them is ‘busy hay,’ which is mature grass hay, high in roughage and low in protein and energy. It comes in handy to use as a satisfier part of the ration.”

Now, granted, if you truly aren’t feeding your horse enough, he will eat whatever he can find, including toxic plants, manure, and even his own bedding.

But if you know you’re feeding your horse adequately, he’s probably just bored and needs something to chew on. So take Cherry’s advice. Have some low-protein hay on hand for him to chew on. You’ll be satisfying his basic instinct, without overfeeding him.