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Many horse owners often take pride in choosing the highest-quality, most nutritious forages, feeds, and supplements for their horses. The idea of feeding straw—yes, the remnants of cereal grain harvests—must therefore be baffling to some horsemen. In actuality, feeding certain horses straw may be beneficial.

Countless domesticated horses are overweight, largely due to the provision of energy-dense rations. These rations frequently include unlimited lush pasture or too much high-quality hay.

“In this instance, ‘high-quality’ refers to the nutritional value or the caloric density of the hay. While horses should always be fed a hygienic product without dust or mold, the nutritive value of hays can differ and be used strategically based on the needs of the individual horse,” advised Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., a nutritionist for Kentucky Equine Research.

“Immature alfalfa and second-cut orchardgrass are typical examples of nutritionally dense hays,” Whitehouse described. Any hay harvested at a later stage of maturity generally has lower crude protein and greater structural fiber, which is indigestible to horses, making the forage less nutritious.

Need for Roughage

In the wild, horses consume a variety of plants, grazing for 16-18 hours a day. In contrast, domesticated horses are often confined to stalls for most of the day and offered two or three meals. Horses can finish these meals quickly, which means hours may pass with nothing to eat. Driven by their natural instincts to eat almost continuously, horses without access to roughage will sometimes resort to eating their bedding or chewing wood.

“Horses require roughage not only for energy but also to maintain gastrointestinal health. Near-continuous consumption of roughage stimulates saliva production and decreases the chances of gastric ulcers. Forage also helps maintain a healthy hindgut environment by supporting the intestinal microbiome,” Whitehouse said.

While forage is the foundation for all horse diets, many overweight horses benefit from reduced-calorie forages. A study was recently conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing 50% of a horse’s daily forage allowance with good-quality wheat straw.*

Horses were fed either a diet composed completely of grass haylage or a diet in which 50% of the grass haylage was replaced with wheat straw. “Both diets provided the same number of calories, with the straw-haylage diet being fed at 1.43% of body weight and the complete grass haylage diet fed at 1.22% of body weight,” Whitehouse explained.

All horses underwent gastroscopy to allow direct inspection of the stomach lining for gastric ulcers on days 0 and 21 of the study.

“Previous studies reported that feeding straw increased the risk of gastric ulcers. This study found that a diet containing 50% wheat straw in lieu of haylage did not result in an increased prevalence of gastric ulcers,” Whitehouse shared.

In addition, adding straw may prolong feeding time, leaving horses idle for fewer hours of the day.

“Feeding straw is a practical option when it is not possible to source low-energy forage suitable for horses that need a calorie-restricted diet. Feeding straw or straw-based products is a common practice in areas of the world outside of the U.S.,” said Whitehouse.

She also recommended forage analysis when selecting any forage product but definitely prior to feeding straw products. Hygienic quality is an important consideration with straw, as it carries a greater risk of mycotoxin contamination.

Finally, Whitehouse warned, “As with all new feeds and forages, straw products should be introduced slowly to the diet. The transition period may take as long as a month when changing out 50% of diet, as was done in the study mentioned here. All feedstuffs should be fed on a weight basis, especially when planning a calorie-restricted diet.”

Owners concerned about nutrient imbalances can also offer a low-intake vitamin and mineral supplement suitable for calorie-restricted diets.

*Jansson, A., P. Harris, S.L. Davey, N. Luthersson, S. Ragnarsson, and S. Ringmark. 2021. Straw as an alternative to grass forage in horses: Effects on post-prandial metabolic profile, energy intake, behaviour and gastric ulceration. Animals (Basel) 11(8):2197.

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