Abstract

Grass hay is the traditional conserved fodder fed to horses in the UK, yet good quality hay is often scarce and expensive. Working or breeding equines often require a higher plane of nutrition than that provided by hay, yet feeding high levels of concentrates can lead to a number of metabolic disorders such as colic and laminitis. Furthermore, the high dust content of hay can elicit the onset of the debilitating disorder, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thus, there is increasing interest in feeding horses forage-based diets which are both low in dust and have enhanced nutritive values. The aim of this experiment was to determine the intakes and digestibility of four types of conserved forage by ponies.

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