HAY or Soup?

By Alessandra Deerinck

One of the many �mes that I used my cell phone as a camera was when I saw Allegria de Los Cielos li� a bundle of hay with her mouth, submerging it in the water bucket and ea�ng it slowly. The slowness and precision of her movements was impressive. She looked like a child who dunks biscuits in milk and eats them with gusto.

AAllegria’s behavior was certainly very interesting. In nature, the food of choice for a horse would be fresh grass and occasionally dry grass or some wood bark, while in the domestic environment, we mainly supply hay. The main advantages of hay are that we can store and handle it more easily than fresh grass, but the water content of hay is clearly different and affects the horse’s ability to digest. In a natural situation, the horse eats small amounts of food throughout the twenty-four hours while, in the domestic state, this happens at specific times dictated by our stable management needs. Feeding inadequate food and with unsuitable frequency is certainly one of the factors that cause stress to the domestic horse.

Providing for the nutrition of the domestic horse is our job, as are many of its other needs that we have taken on for having ‘tamed’ horses. Very often the horse consumes all the amount of hay that is given to him, but taste also plays an important role in the choice of food and making different types of hay available to him is a good idea. One of the criteria of the genetic selection operated by man at the level of domestic animal breeds is the ability to digest and maximize the use of food. Even in the horse, in which man has operated a vast genetic selection, there are breed differences regarding the ability to assimilate food. Certain horse breeds may feed on weeds and be ‘chubby’ while others have difficulty both gaining and maintaining weight. These characteristics are genetic and linked to the cellular structure and metabolism of the digestive system. Taking this into account certainly helps the animal and prevents problems that can also be very serious.

The fact that some horses put the hay in the drinking water is very often classified by us men as a problem, because it implies having to clean the drinking water every day. On the other hand, it struck me and made me think about how I can favor the horse’s natural tendency to adapt to the environment in which we keep him. I had already observed Allegria de Los Cielos, a Mangalarga Marchador mare, perform the same action in Rancho de Los Cielos, where she was born and raised. Allegria is part of the first US-born generation of Mangalarga Marchador horses, who are native to Brazil, and the breeder told me that Allegria’s sire, actually had the same habit. Typically, giving a horse wet hay is a human choice. Scientific studies suggest administering wet hay to manage the feeding of horses with metabolic problems, laminitis, or respiratory system diseases. Of course, as the reasons are medical, this practice is always adopted without consulting the preferences of the individual horse. One reason Allegria and the other horses on the ranch wetted the hay was that in Brazil the breed was kept on pastures and ate grass and their digestive systems was accustomed to fresh grass. Brazilian mares live on pasture for most of their lives, and foals grow the same way, eating a food they choose themselves, and which grows in the environment where they live. Their digestive system has more functional ease when the feed has a higher water content than that of hay. To help the horse adapt to domestic life, it is good practice to make available different types of hay. In the case of Allegria, however, the problem was not the type of hay, but its water content. Allegria only wets the hardest hay, while consumes the grass hay without wetting it. With their behavior, Allegria and the other horses on the ranch clearly demonstrated that they had made a choice guided by a simple form of ‘reasoning’, dictated by physiological needs, in which they had deduced that by wetting it, the hay was a better food. Alongside this hypothesis, it is noteworthy that we have also had the opportunity to observe the hereditary and learned factors of behavior at work. In fact, in the case that I have had the opportunity to observe, there is a family history and the horses all live within view of each other.

Starting from this experience, we are trying to see if it is possible to ‘teach’ other subjects to wet their hay by themselves. It will certainly be interesting to see the results that could be of help in the management of some horses that are difficult to ‘maintain’ from a feeding point of view. The reason we have considered the fact that the horse has the possibility to soak the hay and eat it is that we have observed that when this happens the horse eats more and also gains weight in a very short time. The fact that the horse itself wets the hay has the obvious advantages that the hay does not have time to ferment and that it retains its nutritional value. How to do it? Following the principles of HH Sensing, in teaching the horse we always start from a situation where he has an interest in the action. In the case of food, this situation is certainly always easy to obtain. One of the ways used to teach horses actions that make immediate sense to them is to do it by imitation, so we showed a horse that we were wetting hay and we let the horse have it. By communicating with the horse through the sense of taste, we will teach him that if he immerses the hay in water, it will be more palatable. To overcome the problem that the horse gets into the habit of dirtying the drinking water, another water container can be placed at its disposal to immerse hay. The second container of water should be placed near the hay, so as not to create confusion, while the drinking water should be placed as far away as possible. The bucket into which the horse will dip the hay should not be too full, so that the horse does not have to submerge its nostrils to reach the bottom where the hay falls. Naturally, we must also be prepared for the fact that while eating, the horse may spill the water or even dirty the water container, but, after all, the benefits of giving him the opportunity to feed in a more physiological way are certainly greater than the problem of keeping the water clean.

About Human Horse Sensing

Human Horse Sensing is dedicated to enhance horsemanship potential to support the interaction between human and horse, keeping their wellbeing in mind. Our method can be taught through private sessions, workshops, online classes and clinics, at our location, or anywhere you desire. You can find our published book Human Horse Sensing Horsemanship on Amazon, videos on YouTube, and bimonthly articles in print or online at EliteEquestrian.us www.hhsensing.com Email: hhsensing@icloud.com

With Human Horse Sensing solid horsemanship foundation you will have the chance to be successful in any equestrian discipline, and to take challenges that you would not imagine being possible even with good traditional training. With Human Horse Sensing, human being and horse work together freely with or without tack, through how they perceive the situations. Human and horse establish an active and dynamic dialogue, where you and your horse can exchange information or execute without being submissive, and you can become a leader of leaders.

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