For comprehensive information on the grasses and legumes listed, please visit http://plants.usda.gov/

Hay! And other nutritional needs

Appaloosas are a sturdy breed. They carry you in performance classes and on trail rides, compete in long-distance events and produce the next generation of winners. It’s no wonder you want what’s best for them!

Yet the choices of forage for your favorite equine are not limitless, and are often easy to confuse in the hustle and bustle of buying hay or seeding pasture. But you’re off to a good start: “The base of every horse’s diet should be roughage: pasture or hay,” says Tanja Hess DVM, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University. “Because a horse’s digestive system is adapted to continuous intake of forage.”

With that in mind, you can use this quick reference guide to identify the top forage choices for Appaloosa owners across the United States, and continue to have the best available for your spotted pal.

Cool-season grasses

Timothy

* Uses: Chiefly for hay, but can also be grazed

* Location: Across the U.S., but favors cool, humid environments found in the Northeast, the Lake states, the Corn Belt, the Rocky Mountains, the coastal Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

* Facts: Tolerates cold weather and establishes quickly on rich, fine-textured soil. Timothy is often fed to horses with heaves because of its low propensity for dust. Grows best in the spring and fall. Horses generally enjoy the taste of timothy hay.

* Nutrients: Contains 8–10 percent crude protein; .8–.9 megacalories per pound (energy); and has approximately 0.4 percent calcium and 0.2 percent phosphorus.

Orchard grass

* Uses: Primarily for hay

* Location: The northern U.S.

* Facts: It produces early spring growth and is drought and heat tolerant. It’s also fairly palatable to horses. The grass is blue-green in color, with wide leaves.

* Nutrients: When cut in the early bloom stage, orchard grass is high in nutrients. Early-bloom orchard grass contains approximately 13 percent crude protein, while late-bloom contains about 8.5 percent. Energy wise, it has .87–1 megacalories per pound; it has .26–.5 percent calcium and .3 percent phosphorus.

Tall fescue

* Uses: Primarily grazing

* Location: Across the U.S.

* Facts: Fescue is found across the country, though it prefers cooler climates. It’s a very aggressive, resilient grass that can quickly dominate a pasture. Because it can handle close grazing, its use as a pasture grass is standard.

* Nutrition: Contains approximately 10 percent crude protein in grass and 11 percent in hay; and .821 megacalories per pound.

* Caution: Tall fescue can be infected with endophytes that can cause problems in horses, specifically in mares in foal or nursing mothers. “It can cause prolonged gestation, and low to no milk production,” Dr. Hess explains. Test your pasture for the fungus before turning your horses out, and remove broodmares from fescue pastures in the third trimester of gestation.

Kentucky bluegrass

* Uses: Pasture

* Location: Kentucky, but variations of bluegrass can be grown across the U.S.

* Facts: Horses love Kentucky bluegrass, and it’s a productive pasture grass because it can tolerate grazing and trampling.

* Nutrition: Contains 9–17 percent crude protein depending on age and form. It has .821 megacalories per pound of energy. Fresh grass contains .6 percent calcium and .4 percent phosphorus; bluegrass hay contains .3 percent calcium and .4 percent phosphorus.

Redtop

* Uses: Hay

* Location: Northeast U.S.

* Facts: Redtop is more commonly used for pasture.

* Nutrition: As a grass, redtop contains 15 percent crude protein, .6 percent calcium and .35 percent phosphorus with .9 megacalories per kilogram of energy. As hay, the crude protein is reduced to 12 percent, with a decrease in energy and mineral content as well.

Smooth brome

* Uses: Pasture or hay

* Location: Great Plains region but is grown across the U.S.

* Facts: Smooth brome is most often used in the brome family. It adapts best to cool climates, and can tolerate drought and extreme temperatures.

* Nutrition: As hay it contains 8–10 percent crude protein as hay; .8–.9 megacalories of energy per pound; and has approximately 0.4 percent calcium and 0.2 percent phosphorus.

Warm-season grass

Coastal Bermuda

* Uses: Pasture and hay

* Location: The southern region of the United States.

* Facts: There are many varieties of Bermuda grass, but Coastal is most often used as forage for horses. It prefers warm climates and mild winters. Bermuda grass can yield 4–5 cuttings in one year under proper management.

* Nutrition: Contains 7–10 percent crude protein; .85–1 megacalories per pound of energy; .26–.4 percent calcium and approximately .2 percent phosphorus.

Legume

Alfalfa

* Uses: Primarily hay, but can be used for pasture

* Location: Across the U.S.

* Facts: Alfalfa is commonly mixed with grasses because it bolsters the nutritional value. By itself it offers higher nutrient levels and is very tasty to horses. Be cautious when introducing alfalfa to your Appaloosa’s diet; its high-energy contents can cause bloating when fed fresh. Alfalfa is well balanced in calcium and phosphorus; it’s sometimes used to increase the percentage of calcium in a horse’s ration.

* Nutrition: Contains 17–19 percent crude protein; approximately 1 megacalorie per pound of energy; .9–1.5 percent calcium and .2–.35 percent phosphorus. When feeding alfalfa, be sure to monitor the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, because alfalfa is naturally low in phosphorus.

* Caution: Blister beetles love alfalfa flowers, but are toxic to horses. Always check alfalfa for dead blister beetles, and if you find them, don’t feed it!

Don’t feed: Sudan grass, Johnson grass or sorghum grass. These are warm-season grasses that have the possibility of toxicity to horses, so it’s best to steer clear of these grasses.

Digestive tract details

* Mouth: Digestion starts here, where the horse takes in feed and breaks it down. Saliva begins to break down food as it travels to the stomach, but very little digestion occurs between the mouth and esophagus.

* Stomach: The stomach can hold approximately 2–4 gallons (8–15 liters) of food or liquid, and accounts for 10 percent of the digestive tract. The stomach is adapted to small meals and a continuous supply of feed.

* Small intestine: The small intestine is a narrow tube 50–70 feet (15–21 meters) in length. It comprises 20 percent of the digestive tract and has three parts: the duodenum, the jejunum and the ileum.

* Large intestine: The large intestine contains the cecum and the small and large colons. The large intestine is the remaining 60 percent of the digestive tract, and can hold 30 gallons (100 liters) of water and food.

Mineral mania

There are two classifications of minerals: macro and micro. The macro minerals are calcium, phosphorus, manganese, potassium, sodium chloride and sulfur. The micro minerals are copper, zinc, magnesium, iron, iodine, selenium, cobalt and chromium.

Minerals are necessary for a variety of functions in the horse’s body, from components of tissue (for example, calcium and phosphorus in bones) to regulatory and physiological needs (sodium, potassium and sodium chloride as electrolytes).

Some forage will have adequate supplies of minerals, while others will not, depending on geographic area. Commercial supplements (grains and other dietary supplements) are formulated to provide additional minerals that are more difficult to find in the natural diet.

For example, many parts of the country are deficient—or in some places, excessive—in selenium levels. A lack of selenium can cause various deficiency diseases (for example, tying up); while an excess of selenium can cause toxicity. Consult your veterinarian or United States Department of Agriculture for more information about selenium levels in your state.

Feeding a lactating mare

Lactating mares will need extra energy, because producing milk is hard work! “To maintain milk production and to re-breed, you need to supply good quality forage,” Dr. Hess says. “That means feeds that are higher in energy content.” She recommends feeding an energy supplement, such as a commercial grain, to lactating mares. Because there are many grains available that are formulated for lactating mares, it’s best to purchase a quality supplement from your local feed store.

“Commercial feeds have guaranteed analysis and are balanced as far as minerals go,” Dr. Hess explains. “Many times, if you try to formulate your own ration, you’re going to make mistakes.”

Combine an appropriate supplement with a quality forage, and your lactating mare will have plenty of energy for her own maintenance and the maintenance of your new foal.

By Tafra Donberger

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