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Feeding Horses through the Ages-Advances in Equine Nutrition
by Karen E. Davison, Ph.D., Land O’Lakes Purina Feed Manager-Equine Tech. Services
Nature designed horses as free-roaming herbivores. This means that horses evolved out on vast ranges and grazed plants. They ate all day long because they needed to in order to take in enough nutrition. These free-ranging animals were also small, approximately 12 hands tall. The all-forage diet they consumed wouldn’t support larger stature. However, as horses were domesticated, man began to feed them harvested grains to supplement the all-forage diets. This was partially because these horses were used for work or for battle and couldn’t spend all day grazing to meet their nutrient needs. Also, the army with the largest, strongest horses had a greater chance of being victorious. Armies that fed harvested grains to their horses had bigger, stronger horses with more stamina than those whose horses grazed native range alone.
In fact, as early as 1345 B.C., Kikkuli, Horsemaster to the Hittite king Suppililiuma recorded a war horse training regimen for chariot horses. This document outlined a very rigorous training regimen and a very specific feeding schedule, which included the equivalent of 10 – 20 liters of oats and barley three times a day along with free-choice hay or chaff. Throughout history, war horses have been among the largest and best maintained horses of the culture. At war time, maintaining these valuable animals could get to be a logistical nightmare. During the American Civil War, rations for cavalry horses were reported to be 14 lbs of hay and 12 lbs of grain (oats, corn or barley) per day. This could get to be quite a challenge to supply feed for the number of horses in a quickly moving company. It is interesting that although pasture was available from time to time, the concern regarding horses foundering on green pasture caused them to use pasture sparingly and usually only when hay and grain rations couldn’t be delivered.
Horses played a significant role in early America as transportation and as work animals. These working animals couldn’t spend hours every day grazing and required supplemental grain to support their work load. In fact, that was the origin of what is currently Land O’Lakes Purina Feed company. William Danforth founded the Robinson-Danforth company in 1894 to provide grain for working horses and mules in St. Louis, MO and the surrounding area. This company became known as “Purina”, which was coined from a company slogan “Where purity is paramount.” Early products were Horse & Mule feed and O-Molene, as they found that a blend of grains worked better than a single grain. In 1898, people didn’t know much about nutrition for themselves or for their animals, the word “vitamin” didn’t even exist, but William Danforth was convinced that feed had a big impact on health.
Some horse owners today feel that horses would be better off if we took care of them more like Mother Nature intended. However, there are some problems with that thinking. First, not many horse owners have 50,000 acres or more of free-range grazing for their horses to roam and select the best forages. When we confine horses on a small acreage or in stalls eating harvested forage, their ability to select the best forages is significantly limited, so the nutrition is not the same. Second, when you look at the horses Mother Nature alone can develop, like the little plains horses standing barely 12 hands tall, weighing less than 750 lbs at maturity and often not living past their early teens, you see that those horses couldn’t compete in today’s horse industry. Those little horses didn’t have to carry a man or do any physical work other than graze all day and outrun a predator from time to time. The athletes of today must grow stronger, mature earlier, work harder and hopefully live longer than Mother Nature can support. So our horses must have proper nutritional support to meet these higher physical demands.
For over 70 years, Purina has operated an Equine Research Facility where veterinarians and Ph.D. nutritionists work with the sole purpose of defining and delivering the future in equine nutrition. Through this research, scientists at Purina have been able to determine important nutrients that impact and improve the health, development and performance of our horses. These discoveries have resulted in many new, innovative products over the years. Mr. Danforth passed away in 1955, but he left a tremendous legacy with his company. He instilled a culture of searching for the very best way to nutritionally support animals, and an integrity in his employees that remains today.
The history of Purina Mills is important to the history of horse nutrition. From the first pelleted horse feeds, to the first high fat supplement for horses, the company truly has been the innovator of better ways to nutritionally support horses and help them excel under modern expectations and demands.
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