Feed intake patterns of sport ponies and warmblood horses following iso-energetic intake of pelleted fibre-rich mixed feed, muesli feed and semicrushed oat grains.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare diverse feed intake patterns in sport ponies and warmblood-type horses after feeding iso-energetic amounts of three different concentrates: a pelleted fibre-rich mixed feed (PF), a muesli feed (MF) and semicrushed oat grains (OG). Four sport ponies and six warmblood-type horses received the concentrates and meadow hay according to maintenance (0.52MJ metabolizable energy (ME)kg body weight (BW)0.75 /day). Both breeds were allocated at random to three groups and received once daily for 8days either OG (1g starch/kg BW/meal) or iso-energetic quantities of PF and MF according to a crossover design. On the 8th day, feed intake patterns (chewing frequency (CF) in number of chewings (NC), NC/s), feed intake time (FITDM , min/kg dry matter (DM); FIT(neutral detergent fibre)NDF , min/kg NDF) and chewing intensity (CI, NC/kg DM) were measured using modified halters. In warmbloods, PF tended to be ingested faster than MF and OG (10.3±1.9, 13.0±1.3, 14.4±2.0min/kg DM, respectively; p=0.05). In ponies, a similar trend was observed (13.5±2.5, 13.6±2.0 and 15.4±1.1min/kg DM, respectively; p>0.05). Ponies needed more time to ingest PF than warmbloods (p<0.05). The CF of ponies was affected by the type of concentrate (PF and MF 1.43±0.11 vs. OG 1.28±0.093 NC/s; p<0.05). The results indicate that concentrate intake of breeds follows a similar pattern and that breed differences were limited to PF only. In both breeds, PF induced chewing patterns different from those observed for OG and/or MF. However, an interpretation of these differences needs to take into consideration the diverse chemical compositions of the concentrates. Upcoming studies should address the throwback regarding PF and also examine the metabolic consequences of concentrate intake in ponies.