Natural Feeding for Horses - the book
Learn how to feed your horse the natural way!
Natural Feeding For Horses is now available on Amazon!
Feed your horse the healthy way! As the first book of its kind, Natural Feeding for Horses introduces a step-by-step feeding system based on how horses live in nature. Also included are example diet calculations which give an insight into how a Natural Feeding diet should be constructed. The book is written by independent horse nutritionist Alexandra Wesker, MSc RNutr MRSB RSciTech.
Here's what you get in the book...
Chapter I: What Natural Feeding is
About the concept and how it works.
Chapter II: Reasons for Natural Feeding
There are many reasons to feed your horse more naturally. There are:
- musculo-skeletal reasons: the way the body is designed
- gastro-intestinal reasons: the way the digestive system and metabolism works
- psychological reasons: the way the brain works.
Chapter III: Natural Feeds
In this chapter you learn about the different ways in which roughage can be preserved: as pasture, hay, haylage/silage and straw. This chapter also discusses common grasses and legumes and their characteristics.
Chapter IV: Factors affecting the nutritional requirements of your horse.
This chapter gives you an understanding of factors that affect nutritional requirements. These include body weight, exercise, breeding and other factors such as growth, temperament, breed and age.
Chapter V: Providing continuous feed
This chapter helps you to take a major step in feeding more naturally: how you can make sure your horse has feed continuously available!
Chapter VI: Enhancing diet uniformity
The second major step in creating a more natural diet: making the diet more uniform, taking a big step towards a healthy gut.
Chapter VII: Benefits of Natural Feeding levels
An introduction into what Natural Feeding levels are and why they are so useful.
Chapter VIII: Your horse's Natural Feeding level
In this chapter you estimate the Natural Feeding level that is right for your horse. You can feed your horse healthily and specific to their needs!
Chapter IX: Suggested diets for Natural Feeding levels
In this chapter you find diet suggestions for your horse, based on the Natural Feeding level you have previously determined.
Chapter X: How to amend a Natural Feeding diet
If you need to make changes to the diet to optimise it to you horse's individual requirements, then here is how you do it.
Chapter XI: Monitoring body condition
Monitoring your horse's body condition is the prime way to knowing whether your horse is fed at a Natural Feeding level that is right for him/her.
Chapter XII: Responding to changes in body condition
Is your horse gaining or losing weight? Here is what to do.
Chapter XIII: Changes in activity
Dietary requirements change if you increase training or go on a holiday. This chapter tells you how to adapt your horse's diet to these changes.
Chapter XIV: Changes for breeding and age
If you breed with your horse, or if your horse is growing or getting older, then this affects his/her dietary requirements. This chapter tells you what your horse needs in his/her diet.
Chapter XV: Practical feeding tips
Whether you can decide on the grass species on the pasture or whether you cannot change you horse's diet at all, here you will find further tips to make you feeding practice more natural.
Chapter XVI: Example horses
This chapter discusses a variety of example horses, each in their own situation, and how their diet can be made to be more natural.