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How to Keep Racehorses in the Best Shape? Maintain Ideal Weight of Your Horse
Horses which are prone to gaining some weight rather than losing it during the cold winter, then you should be happy as your horse is easy to keep. Although a horse that is obese is unlikely to draw that much attention from animal rights activists than horses which are underweight but the risks to their health are still quite serious. So before you feed your horse the set pattern of its daily food, you must sit down and reassess its diet. Overweight horses are likely to develop EMS or Equine Metabolic Syndrome which is a condition that results from the excessive fat deposit, resulting in resistance to insulin and a tendency to get laminitis. The high amount of carbohydrates can cause insulin spikes, and your horse might get pasture laminitis, which tends to affect obese horses.
Maintaining the weight of your horse
The secret to weight loss is exercising and reducing calorie intakes, but how does one reduce calories of a horse that is almost always munching. In this article, you will learn about some such tips which will help you in maintaining your horse’s weight. The key is eliminating high-sugar grains and giving it a diet of unadulterated roughage.
Tip 1: Replace its grain with roughage
Despite traditional belief, horses do not require grain regularly; they can get every essential vitamin and all minerals through a simple diet of hay and grass, and other roughage. You can replace your horse’s regular feed with some pulp of soaked beet. It will provide the equivalent caloric value as the feed, but exclusive of the starches, carbs, and sugars. If you have to feed grain, then keep away corn and high levels of starch. Keep the feed that is composed of grains which have less than three percent of fat, and try to feed the horse as little of it as you can.
Tip 2: Double-Bagged hay nets
You have to have your horse do harder work before allowing it to get his hay. This will force your horse to eat at a slower pace. Double-bagging will also keep your horse chewing longer, thus providing it with constant saliva and that food which will help in buffering acids in its stomach and, therefore, protect it from ulcers. This is also good for its brain as it will be alleviating issues of food-envy which might arise if it sees that its mates in the stable are getting standard rations of food. To learn more about horses, visit TVG Horse Races now.
Tip 3: Re-evaluate your hay
Horses are quite remarkable at extracting whatever they require from their usual food sources. Keep away from feeding any clover hay and also protein-rich alfalfa. These are high in calories, much more than grass hay. Give it hay which has lower calorie content. However, remember to keep it smelling fresh all the time.
Tip 4: Limit its access to the new spring grasses
It is essential that you familiarize your horse with the new spring grass gradually at a slow pace, regardless of its being on a diet or having a regular feed.
Conclusion
Horses are wonderful creatures. You must keep your horse from becoming overweight as it can result in causing health issues later.
Author Bio: Silvia Watson is a freelance content writer. She has written many good and informative articles on different categories such as technology, health, fashion, education, career, travel etc. She is a featured author at various authoritative blogs in the health and fitness industry and currently associated as a blogger with https://www.tvg.com/
