Why are fibre feeds important to the horse?
The horse is a herbivore which has evolved to eat plants and utilise feeds high in fibre. So the natural way to feed your horse is to supply as many nutrients as possible from fibrous feeds before adding anything else to its diet.
Feeding a fibre-based diet in this way helps to maintain the natural balance of bacteria in the horse’s hindgut, while reducing starch and sugar in the diet helps support a healthy digestive tract, maintains overall good health and reduces the risk of laminitis and tying up.
Our philosophy on feeding
1. Firstly, feed forage as the main fibre source
2. Top up with a digestible fibre feed like Fibre-Beet. If forage is of questionable nutritional value or your horse is a poor forage eater, Fibre-Beet can be used to replace up to 60% of your horse’s forage
3. Balance with a vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer, like Baileys Lo-Cal, and have fresh water available at all times
4. If you still need to feed more energy for condition or performance, you may wish to supplement further with a hard feed
5. Always monitor horse condition and adjust feeding accordingly
Why Fibre-Beet?
- Highly digestible conditioning fibre feed
- Wet feeding – the natural way to feed your horse
- Soft feed for recovering or veteran horses
- Added biotin to help maintain hoof condition
- Low in starch and sugar. Ideal for Ideal for horses and ponies whose starch intake needs limiting.
- Provides slow release energy
- Palatable for the fussy eater
- A useful source of digestible fibre to supplement poor forage or grazing