When we stable horses it is for our convenience  - saving pasture, protecting the horse from flies, the cold or bad weather. The rule of making changes to the feeding routine and diet at this time is ingrained in horse management, but let us look at some of the reasons why, by investigating the impact of these changes on the digestive tract.

A horse at grass feeds much as in the natural state, continually grazing throughout most of the day, ensuring the stomach stays partly full, with the digestive tract receiving an almost continual supply of small meals.  Depending on workload and with plentiful grass, additional forage and hard feed requirements may be minimal.  Once the horse is brought indoors, however, this pattern inevitably changes with grass being replaced with additional hard feed and hay or haylage etc. 

For the horse on a settled dietary regime, the population of beneficial bacteria in the large intestine adapts to ensure the most efficient combination of different species. If the horse’s diet is changed, then this delicately balanced combination must change also.  Even when strict care is taken to change feed gradually there will be a transitional period while the bacterial population re-adjusts.  This is particularly important when bringing a horse in, as the changes are quite marked and instead of sending a steady flow of food through the intestine, feeding becomes more sporadic, with set mealtimes and browsing in-between on hay or other forage.

Hence changes must be made gradually to allow the gut population to adjust, as without this, digestive upsets from mild indigestion to diarrhoea and colic can result. The bacterial population of grass fed horses is less able to cope with a forage and grain diet and vice versa and the bacterial population needs time to adjust to suit the new diet being fed.

In order to support the gut during these changes it is beneficial to ensure the bacterial population is sufficiently high.  This can be achieved by feeding a PREbiotic.  This is a targeted energy source for the beneficial bacteria in the gut.  Unaffected by the pH variations throughout the intestine; it simply feeds the bacterial population enabling the numbers to increase naturally to provide the safeguard of high numbers throughout the dietary changeover period.  High numbers of beneficial bacteria will help ensure the right population balance is present to tackle the new diet, minimising the potential for digestive upsets.

Minimising the digestive stress caused by dietary change can have many advantages.  Obviously reducing the risk of colic is paramount, but additional benefits such as fewer behavioural problems during the transition period, better feed utilisation and less diarrhoea and looseness are also key to maintaining the overall health and well-being of the animal.