Assessing and Optimising the Meagre Appetite

Written by Briony Witherow MSc RNutr. FHEA

What is appetite?

A horse’s appetite changes throughout the year and is driven by a combination of factors including dry matter, hormones, nutrient content, chew time and passage rate through the gut. Native pony breeds in particular are reported to retain strong seasonality with respect to appetite and body condition. This seasonality typically predisposes them to gain weight through the summer months, where food is plentiful, before losing this weight over the winter months, where food is scarce, but there does appear to be variation between breeds. Whether you have a horse with a seemingly insatiable appetite or a horse for whom every mouthful appears a real effort, read on for information on assessing your horse, signs we aren’t getting it quite right and some management tips.  

Assessing Appetite

For those with a fussy horse where you are concerned about whether they are consuming sufficient forage, it can be common for us to provide forage on an ab lib basis and assume they are consuming enough.  To assess this weigh forage in and out of the stable each morning and evening over the course of a week and take an average to find out just how much of the ration they are eating. You can then compare this against their ideal intake as a percentage of bodyweight dry matter tailored for workload and body condition. If intake is markedly lower (below the minimum 1.5% bodyweight dry matter) it is worth ruling out any potential health issues with your vet, alongside employing management techniques to maximise intake.

Monitoring the number and consistency of droppings produced can also be an indicator of intake and knowing what’s normal can act as an instant indictor if things change. Where appetite is not quite being met, behaviours such as wood chewing, coprophagy (eating droppings) and consuming shavings or soil can indicate that their motivation to chew/eat has not been met (low fibre diets for example).

Tips to increase appetite

• Maximise palatability and quality. Select high quality feeds and ensure these are stored correctly. While the type (hay or haylage) and cut (early or late) can impact the palatability and hygienic quality of forage to an extent, this can be manipulated further through management. Research has shown that while soaking hay makes hay less palatable, steaming hay improves palatability. Multiple studies show this to be the preferred choice over dry hay, haylage and soaked hay.
• Keep things interesting. For those that perhaps lack the motivation for slow feeders, consider creating a stable-based smorgasbord forage feast. Presenting a selection of forages can help to encourage natural foraging behaviours and in doing so may help to increase overall intake.
• Additional support. In heavily exercised horses, B-vitamin supplementation (such as Haemavite B Plus) may help restore appetite and kick start your efforts.