Feeding Confined Horses: Balancing Nutrition for Recovery
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Author: Dr Nerida McGilchrist | PhD Equine Nutritionist and Founder of My Happy Horse
Feeding a horse confined to a stable is a balancing act!
You need to balance between giving them plenty to eat, to keep them chewing, happy and occupied… AND not giving them so much to eat that you have them bursting with energy and climbing the walls.
Here is a little help on how to do it!
Horses are sometimes required to be confined due to illness or injury with no exercise allowed. It’s certainly not ideal for a horse, but, with some diseases, injuries and surgeries it is critical that a horse does stay confined AND calm for long periods of time.
In this situation their nutrition… what you feed and how much, makes a very real difference to how well a horse will cope during confinement! And how quickly they will heal and recover from whatever illness, surgery or misadventure they have had.
Horses are funny creatures in that they will express the amount of calories they are being fed, in their behaviour.
So, if you feed them a lot of energy (calories) you will give them a lot of energy!
And having a lot of energy while confined (and often needing to stay calm) is not ideal.
Which means feeding a confined horse needs to walk that fine line of enough calories to hold weight so that healing/recovery can occur… but not so much that behavior becomes a problem!
An overly energetic confined horse is not safe for you, or for them.
While it sounds easy enough to just feed a low energy diet, where it gets really tricky is that, mentally they need enough to eat to keep them occupied and of course we need to keep them chewing and salivating and their stomach full of fibre to lower the ever-present risk of ulcers!
So it’s a classic catch 22… We need to feed lots to keep them munching all day without exceeding their energy requirement!
And our saviour is low quality, low energy hay!
If you can find it!!
Average quality grassy hay is perfect for these horses because it is low in energy, meaning they can eat a lot of it without blowing their energy budget.
Plus it’s often stemmy and requires a lot of chewing, so it keeps them busy for long periods and makes them salivate a lot which is great for maintaining the health of their stomach.
And… they don’t particularly like it, so they won’t eat it really quickly… a benefit in keeping them busy and preventing ulcers!
Of course, you can’t just feed average quality grass hay, there would be deficiencies in the diet everywhere that would hinder recovery and general health.
You need to add other forages and feeds to their diet.
My go to with these horses is:
1. Average quality grassy hay (and a variety of grassy hays if you can find it to help with hindgut microbiome diversity and health[NM1] )
2. A portion of alfalfa/lucerne hay
3. A high-quality balancer pellet for protein/amino acids and vitamins and minerals; and
4. A small amount of 50: 50 flaxseed oil + canola oil for omega fatty acids
This diet gives them the quantity/bulk they need to stay sane with a healthy gut, the high quality protein needed for healing/recovery and it will cover all the vitamin, mineral and omega fatty acids needed.
MyHappy.Horse has a specific function to help you create diets for horses recovering from illness or injury based on these three levels of confinement:
| Level of Confinement | Description |
|---|---|
| Fully confined | Movement needs to be restricted and energy levels kept low |
| Partly confined | Movement is partly restricted and energy levels kept under control |
| Not confined | Horse is allowed free exercise and energy levels not a concern |
Nutrition during confinement and recovery is so important for your horses physical and mental health. MyHappy.Horse makes it super easy to get the diet right to keep both you and your horse happy!
If you haven’t already, download the free MyHappy.Horse app here.
About the Author
Dr Nerida McGilchrist
Dr Nerida McGilchrist is an Australian equine nutritionist with a PhD and over two decades of experience. As the founder of Equilize Horse Nutrition, and advisor to some of the world's largest nutrition companies, she’s built an international reputation for blending science with practical solutions. Now, she’s bringing her expertise to My Happy Horse to make advanced nutrition accessible to all.