Behavior Associated With Food Consumption
Grazing clocks and extended observation
watches have been utilized by researchers to determine what a
horse does during the day. The relatively small stomach and energy
needs of a large horse necessitates extended grazing periods.
In a pasture grazing situation with forage readily available,
horses grazed approximately 72% of a 24 period. In a similar
study of horses grazing bermudagrass pasture, horses grazed 67%
of the 24 hour period, but when grazing lush ryegrass, only 57%
of the 24 hour period was utilized for grazing. Presumably, enhanced
bite size of the forage decreased grazing time of ryegrass. It
is interesting to note that feral horses also spend approximately
75% of their time grazing forages. It has been estimated that
a horse will consume between 2.0 and 2.5% of their body weight
in forages during a 24 hour period.
From the above data, one may conclude that
horses tend to be more continuous consumers of forage than ruminants.
Yet stalled horses are usually fed twice during a 24 hour period.
Consumption time for stalled horses has been reported to represent
approximately 13 to 15% of a 24 hour period, depending on the
amount of grain vs. hay. Horses fed only concentrates were 6
times more likely to chew wood and 2.5 times more likely to eat
their feces.
A subsequent study established a direct
correlation between length of consumption time and wood chewing.
The less time a horse spent eating, the more likely the horse
was to chew wood. It is true that pelleted forages may ease a
storage or availability problem associated with fresh forages.
Yet, horse owners should be aware of the potential negative side
effects such as wood chewing and coprophagy when horses are not
fed long stem hay or grazed. Wood chewing has not been strongly
associated with feeding cubed forages.
