Tumi: Spring Feed For My Horse: The Best Feeding Regime For Spring

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Spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year; the grass is growing, the trees are blooming, and summer is one the way. For horse owners, spring can sometimes be a sigh of relief. The days of what seems like feeding bales of hay are over as the spring pastures again become available. Unfortunately, despite its beauty and welcomed growth, spring holds risks for all horses regardless of weight, age, and breeding.

Especially during early spring, it can be extremely important to your horse's health to use extreme caution when it comes to grazing habits. The process of spring grass growing is a beautiful cycle, but if caution isn't heeded, can be harmful to your horse. As science would have it, the earliest grasses to grow will work hard to ensure that sunlight is converted to food; using photosynthesis the grass emerges as a fructan, or plant sugar, to make sure that growth will continue for the rest of spring and summer. Depending on location, night time temperatures in the spring can still get to 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. When this happens, the grass has to store its energy in order to continue growth; this means that the grass will store more sugar than usual, meaning that the sugar levels in the grass will be at their highest.

Horses, like people, need to have a enough, but not too much sugar in their diet. Horses should be slowly introduced to new spring grass to avoid foundering. Horse owners should use strategic planning to make sure their horse isn't at risk. Although it may be tempting to let your horse eat its fill of the grass, doing so can be very detrimental. Once a horse founders, he's damaged for life.

When introducing your horse to new spring grass, try to do so on days where the temperature has not been below 40 degrees as the sugar levels in the grass will be lower. The safest way to transition your horse to spring grass is to do so in 20 minute increments. The time can be gradually increased until your horse is at his or her ideal grazing time.

When it comes to feeding your horse concentrate in the spring, you may want to make slight adjustments to complement the spring grasses. If your horse is a hard keeper, you'll want to be careful not to cut back on its concentrates, however, be advised that if your horse is on a high protein energy feed, the sugar in the grasses may combine in his system to create a fire breathing dragon; in which case you may want to consider a lower protein feed until the sugar in the grasses decreases. For an easy keeper, you may want to cut back on feed rations as the spring grasses will provide an additional food source.

Remember that the key to balancing your horse's diet is attention to detail and making any changes gradually; making hasty changes to your horse can be extremely detrimental.

If during the spring, you see any alarming symptoms of founder, gas colic, or laminitis, contact your veterinarian immediately.