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

SummaryThe 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 (0.52 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) kg body weight (BW) 0.75 /day). Both breeds were allocated at random to three groups and received once daily for 8 days either OG (1 g 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 (FIT DM , 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 AE 1.9, 13.0 AE 1.3, 14.4 AE 2.0 min/kg DM, respectively; p = 0.05). In ponies, a similar trend was observed (13.5 AE 2.5, 13.6 AE 2.0 and 15.4 AE 1.1 min/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 AE 0.11 vs. OG 1.28 AE 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.

Feed Intake Parameters of Horses Fed Soaked or Steamed Hay and Hygienic Quality of Hay Stored following Treatment

“…In addition to the more or less manageable hygienic problems, the feeding of "long-stemmed forage", such as hay, in general, can help Animals 2021, 11, 2729 2 of 15 to satisfy the animal s innate need to chew [1]. Previous studies revealed that the chewing parameters in horses can vary between feedstuffs (concentrate or roughage; [2]), but also between concentrates (oat grains and compound feed, such as muesli or pelleted; [3]) and forage (alfalfa, timothy, and fresh grass; [4]), as well as between special treatments of concentrates (e.g., native, crushed and rolled cereal grains and compound feeds with different pellet diameters; [3,5,6]), with various effects on tooth wear, saliva production, and stomach health. The effect of roughage on feed intake (FI) behavior if, e.g., steamed hay is offered to horses, was also evaluated in recent studies.…”