What Is 'Ad-Lib,' Forage, And Is It Enough?

Many horse owners strive to provide their horses with ‘ad-lib’ hay, meaning free access to forage at all times. While this approach aligns with the natural foraging behavior of horses and supports digestive health, it is not always as simple as just providing unlimited hay. Several factors can affect a horse’s intake, and simply offering hay without monitoring consumption may lead to unintended consequences.

Why monitoring hay intake matters

When feeding a horse 'ad-lib,' forage, there will almost certainly be a time where we have heard the saying 'my horse eats as much as he needs,' or 'he will eat when he's hungry.' However, this isn't always the case. Even when hay is available at all times, not all horses will consume the necessary amount to maintain optimal condition, or indeed meet minimum recommendations. Some horses naturally have a lower appetite, while others may avoid certain types of hay due to palatability, dental issues, or underlying health conditions. For this reason, it is essential to assess whether the horse is actually eating enough to meet its nutritional requirements rather than assuming ad-lib access is sufficient. Weighing your horses forage prior to it being given to them, as well as what may then be left after 24 hours, is a great indicator as to whether 'ad-lib' forage is simply enough. No horse should receive less than 1.5% of their body weight in hay per day, meaning a 500kg horse should eat no less than 7.5kg of forage per day. This will not only support their mental well being, but also their digestive health too.

For a guide on how much forage your horse should be eating per day, check out our helpful guide here.

Quality and Type of Hay

Not all hay is equal in nutritional value, and horses may refuse certain types based on taste, texture, or dust levels. Lower-quality hay may not provide sufficient calories or nutrients, leading to deficiencies despite ad-lib availability. Testing hay for nutritional content can help determine if it meets the horse’s dietary needs or if supplementation is required. For more information on our forage analysis service, follow the link here. Selecting more palatable hay sources or those with a higher degree of digestibility will help to support energy (calorie) intake, as well as increase the overall quantity being consumed.

Additionally, horses with dental issues, aging horses, or those recovering from illness may struggle to chew long-stem hay effectively. In such cases, alternative fibre sources should be considered to maintain fibre intake and prevent digestive upset. These alternative fibres could include :

• Soaked Fibres : Grass pellets, alfalfa pellets, beet pulp can be highly digestible and readily consumed by horses with compromised dentition.
• Chopped Forage : Chaff or chopped grasses can take longer for your horse to consume compared to soaked alternatives, increasing the time spent chewing as well as the production of saliva.
• Pelleted Fibres : Super Fibre Cubes scattered in hay, used in treat balls or offered as a concentrate feed can increase fibre intake as well as encouraging natural browsing behaviours.

Bored of the same old, same old?

During periods of prolonged stabling or confinement, horses can “shy away” from eating their full intake of long-stem forage. Some horses seem disinterested in their hay and haylage, even if it is fed ad-lib. Rather than assume they are simply not hungry, consider how they eat in the wild and how this differs in domestication. Horses are natural browsers and in wild situations have been observed to eat lots of different types of forage on a daily basis. This is limited in domestication to one or two forage sources at most. Due to this natural behaviour being restricted horses exhibit ‘sensory-specific satiety’ where they become ‘fed up’ by one forage type but are still motivated to consume others. If we try to mimic a more natural approach to feeding forage, by offering horses a variety of fibre sources, horses will move from one source to another, mimicking their natural “browsing” behaviours. This has shown to stimulate appetite and consequently increase long-stem fibre intake.

Furthermore, a study conducted in 2005* set out to investigate the behaviour of horses when presented with a single forage vs multiple forages when stabled. Nine horses were used in the trial and they were kept at grass overnight and stabled for eight hours during the day (07.30 – 16.30). The horses were randomly allocated into two groups, one group started with the Single Forage diet and the other started with the Multiple Forage diet. The Single Forage treatment consisted of 6kg of hay tied in a haynet at the front of the stable. The Multiple Forage treatment consisted of 3 long chop forages (hay, ryegrass haylage, ryegrass & timothy haylage) and 3 short chop forages (molassed dried alfalfa, molassed dried grass, unmolassed dried grass) totally 5.5kg. The long chop forages were placed in haynets tied at the front of each stable and the short chop forages were placed in bucket underneath the haynets. The results showed that horses on the multiple forage treatment performed significantly more foraging behaviours and for longer periods. They also showed and significantly less searching behaviours. Stereotypical weaving behaviour was only seen on the single forage treatment.

Conclusion

To ensure an effective forage-based diet, owners should regularly assess their horse’s body condition, manure consistency, and overall health. Weighing hay portions periodically can help determine if actual intake aligns with estimated needs. Additionally, observing feeding behavior can highlight potential issues such as competition in group settings or selective eating habits.

Feeding ad-lib hay is an excellent foundation for equine nutrition, but it is not enough to assume it is sufficient in some cases. Monitoring intake, ensuring hay quality, and supplementing with alternative fibre sources when necessary can help maintain a horse’s health and well-being.