9 myths about feeding horses that need “busting.”

1. Myth: Horses need lots of grain.
Mythbuster: No, they don’t. The digestive system of the horse is the perfect engine for processing forage, but overfeeding grain causes digestive problems that are manifested in ways that hurt horse health and contentment.

2. Myth: Grain is critical as a protein supplement.
Mythbuster: Nope. There’s plenty of protein in a diet rich with high-quality roughage. A good feeding program should be based on forages with very little in the way of supplements.

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3. Myth: My feed salesman said horses need grain to stay healthy.
Mythbuster: These folks may be well-meaning, but they’re selling grain, not horse health. Too much grain is harmful to horses’ digestive systems.

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4. Myth: I need to buy multiple feed products and supplements to keep my horse healthy.
Mythbuster: Again, no. Horse owners aren’t nutritional experts – they just love their horses. They should be able to rely on a one-source nutritional solution such as Square Meal to assure proper horse health. Dr. Anderson advises Square Meal, plenty of fresh water and free choice loose salt as a complete diet.

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5. Myth: My horse is suffering from boredom and needs “busy hay.”
Myth buster: Most of the signs of boredom are actually actions that your horse is telling you that there is something wrong with the way it’s being fed.

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6. Myth: The horse will choose what they need to eat based on what they need.
Myth buster: I have never met a horse that has a degree in equine nutrition. The horse is like the rest of the animal population (including people) — eating what tastes the best. If an animal is so deficient in some nutrient that they will crave it, they have been incorrectly fed for a long time. The one exception to this is salt. People and animals do have the ability to self regulate themselves when it comes to salt and therefore it is good and safe to make free choice salt available. (Salt blocks are made for cows. Horses have tongues similar to people and should have loose salt made available to them rather than salt blocks.)

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7. Myth: Horses need long stem hay.
Myth buster: The horse usually will not swallow stems longer than two inches in length. When horses are offered long stem hay they will chew it into small pieces before they swallow it. In the process of chewing, the horse is producing large quantities of saliva. Saliva has bicarbonate-like products that when swallowed will act as a buffer to the acid stomach. The saliva will also help to lubricate the food that will pass down the esophagus. The esophagus does not have the ability to secrete a lubricant; therefore dry food that is swallowed will result in possible choke — the inability of the horse to pass the food completely into the stomach. (Square Meal is produced in a biscuit form to control the nutrients but also so that the horse will not swallow it before chewing it and lubricating it with saliva.)

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8. Myth: Horses will choke on hay cubes.
Myth buster: It is possible for the horse to choke on hay cubes, or pellets, or anything else that the horse will swallow in a dry form without saliva. However, proper feeding of hay cubes or biscuits will not cause choke. Choke occurs when the horse has gone without food or has been fed a very low quality feed or forage. Especially in a herd setting, even high-quality food is consumed as quickly as possible for fear herd mates will take it away or the food will run out. There should be no pressure to eat with the fear that it may be taken away or disappear. That is why Square Meal biscuits are to be fed free choice continuously, so that the horse can eat at its convenience. The horse will chew and generate the needed saliva before attempting to swallow.

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9. Myth: If one ounce is good, two ounces will be twice as good.
Myth buster: Without full knowledge of the ingredient, you must be careful about overfeeding because of the harm that can be caused to the horse. There are a lot of micronutrients that are very necessary to a healthy horse. If quantities are fed in excess of the recommended levels they can easily become toxic. An example would be iodine – an element with health benefits. But some horses are being overfed iodine. When iodine is added to salt and other livestock concentrates, having too many sources of iodine result in iodine toxicity. Even if each livestock concentrate has an appropriate amount of iodine, the manufacturer has no way of knowing what else the livestock owner is feeding. While there are hundreds of additives that can be fed to the horse, there is a danger of the wrong balance of these ingredients being fed together and resulting in significant harm to the horse, or even death. Square Meal does not recommend the feeding of any supplements unless a veterinarian has diagnosed a particular condition that requires a certain element or drug. The advice of a veterinarian is very desirable.