Horse Eating Too Fast? Slow It Down!

KER.Equinews.com - FUll Article

By Kentucky Equine Research Staff · November 25, 2014

Most horses love to eat; that’s normal. However, if your horse eats too much, or too fast, or too intensely, he may be in for some problems. Maybe he chokes, or gets fat, or runs out of hay several hours before the next feeding. As his owner, what can you do to slow him a bit and avoid feed-related problems? Fortunately, there are a number of gadgets you can use to smooth out his consumption of grain, grass, and hay. Each of these inventions decreases the chance of overloading the digestive tract and leads to a more gradual glycemic response as horses eat.

Slow-feeder grain buckets. A number of feed buckets have been designed to slow down horses that bolt their feed. The designs are slightly different but the effect is the same. A typical slow-feeder bucket has several wells or depressions in the bottom. Each well holds only a little feed, so the horse can’t gobble huge bites of grain. In days gone by, owners would put three or four large rocks in the feed bucket so the horse had to pick out the grain from among these obstacles. The same principle is used in slow-feeder grain buckets...

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