5 Things Your Horse Wants For Christmas..

With Christmas just a few days away, there is still some time left for last minute Christmas gifts for your nearest and dearest. With our horses being our favourite four-legged friend to spoil, here are some Christmas gifts that we know they will really love.

1) Quality Forage

A happy horse will inevitably involve a happy tummy with plenty of quality forage available. Forage should form the basis of any horse’s diet, and ensuring your horse does not go for longer than 4 hours without access to some form of forage is crucial for their physiological and physical health. A horse should never receive less than 1.5% of their body weight in forage on a dry matter basis.

2) A balanced diet

Forage alone is unlikely to supply the horse with all of the vitamin and mineral requirements they need on a daily basis, and so supplementary feeding is quite often required in order to meet recommended intakes. Whilst many horses are tolerant of minor deficiencies in their diets, ensuring you are feeding a balanced diet is essential for supporting optimum health and immune function.

3) Time to be a horse

Whilst we all feel the pressure of fitting in some time for riding throughout the winter months, the Christmas period can be the perfect time to give your horse a well-earned break too. Allowing a little bit of extra time for turnout and a mental break for your horse will ensure you both come back ready for a full-on new year.

4) Re-Covery Mash

Whether your horse has been naughty or nice, Re-Covery Mash is the perfect treat for any horse or pony this Christmas. It contains a blend of ’Super-Fibres’, known for their superior digestibility and provision of non-heating calories helping to keep weight and condition on over the winter months. A source of electrolytes helps to helps to maintain optimum hydration and thirst response, something which is especially useful during cold spells when horses tend to drink less water, increasing the risk of impaction colic. The further support digestive health Re-Covery Mash also includes a live yeast to support gut flora and stabilise the pH of the gut. Re-Covery Mash also includes an elevated level of vitamin E. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that protects the horse from free radical damage. The best source of vitamin E for the horse is fresh, green grass so over the winter months it is important to provide an additional source of vitamin E when grass is scarce.

5) You!

The best gift a horse could ask for is a person who will love and care for them properly. Horses rely on their humans to provide the majority of their care, and so having a loving and dedicated owner is something any horse would wish for! We are here to support our dedicated owners all year around, and we can’t wait to support you all as we go into an exciting New Year.

Contact us.

If you would like any further information or if we can help with your horses feeding requirements, please feel free to contact our nutritional team on 01622 718487 or email info@saracenhorsefeeds.co.uk.