Animal Feed & Supplements

Horse Fees and Supplements

Grazing animals can be supplemented with mixes of phosphate, calcium, and trace minerals during the dry or wet seasons as needed for pastures with a poor supply of minerals and trace minerals. Supplemental animal feeds and minerals are fundamental for horses, especially those in training.

Equine Feeds and Supplements

Equine animals are among the most challenging and gratifying to work with. Their enormous size and extraordinary intelligence make their care and nutrition more complex than other animals.

Good equine nutrition can be extremely challenging to attain regardless of the size of your herd. Therefore, every producer working with horses should educate themselves on the fundamentals of equine feed to understand how they may improve the health of their animals.

A diet consisting of mostly forage (high-quality hay or pasture), salt, and water should be the base of all horses’ diets, with other feeds and supplements only added in as needed for the horse’s individual circumstances. Horses in moderate to heavy work, broodmares, and others with high nutritional and caloric needs may require additional feeds. Horses being fed a forage-based diet should be supplemented with the minerals that may be lacking in their areas’ soil

 

Some of the types of feeds and supplements include:

• Grains and Grain Mixes

Grains, grain mixtures, and supplements are utilized when pasture cannot supply all of a horse’s nutrient demands. Horses may be fed cereal grains such as oats, corn, and barley in order to add calories. Cracking and rolling are popular processing processes that can improve digestibility by breaking the grain kernel’s outer shell.

Finely ground grains produce a dusty feed that may be less attractive to horses. However, grains can be ground and then pelletized to make them ideal for feeding horses. Unfortunately, despite their actual caloric content, grains provide only a moderate protein quantity.

Additionally, oats, corn, and barley lack calcium, essential for optimal bone development, milk production, and maintenance. The majority of grains are also poor in important trace elements and vitamins.

 

• Commercial Feeds

Most commercial diets consist of cereal grains and by-products like beet pulp. In addition, they are fortified with very nutritious fillers, such as soy meals, to boost the quantity and quality of protein, vitamins, and minerals.

Variable ingredient proportions are used to build a diet with the desired nutrient profile, often designed for distinct classes of horses, with multiple options available for each category. For instance, diets designed for growing horses, athletes, mature horses, and elderly horses are available.

• Fats

Fats are a highly efficient source of concentrated energy for horses. They may be provided as animal or vegetable fats like Cocosoya oil.

Dietary lipids are necessary for absorbing fat-soluble vitamins and providing linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid. Including fats in the horse’s diet also improves the hair coat and increases the energy density of the diet without increasing the amount of feed.

• Protein supplements 

The vast majority of protein supplements are derived from oil extraction from soybeans, cotton seeds, flax seeds, and other oil seeds. Typically, these supplements have 32% to 50% crude protein by weight.

• Minerals

At least 21 minerals are necessary for a horse’s diet, although calcium, phosphorus, salt, selenium, copper, and zinc are the most important. Mineral shortages and toxicity are possible, but except for selenium, calcium, and phosphorus, they are uncommon when medium or better-quality feeds, and trace-mineralized salt is utilized. It is important, however, to look at the soil composition of your area and supplement accordingly. For example, here in the Northeast, the soil is rich in iron, but lacking in selenium. Most horses in this area are also deficient in Vitamin E, due to a lack of grazing ability from late fall through mid-spring. Finding a feed that has no additional iron, and supplementing with a vitamin E supplement is vital for horse owners in the Northeast.

The Highest Standard in Horse and Animal Nutrition at The Trainer’s Loft

Improved nutrition is essential to prevent performance and health issues. However, maintaining feed quality and nutritional value cannot be accomplished solely through proper harvesting and storage methods. Additionally, horse owners must consider solutions explicitly designed to protect feed integrity. The Trainers Loft provides high-quality animal feed and nutrients to maintain the health of your animals or horses.

The Trainer’s Loft Is here to Supply Your Needs

To address some of the most challenging horse nutrition issues, our trained staff combines research with their passion for horses to provide new solutions based on the horse’s greatest needs. We carry feeds and supplements that are made from the highest quality ingredients and are renowned for their efficacy and absence of contaminants.

Our products are offered in a variety of premium packaging sizes. Our products are also available in large quantities and at the lowest possible cost. Order animal feeds and supplements easily from our website.

Contact us for any inquiries.