Horses balance their diets annually
Horses do not just eat grass. In the modern world we more often than not, we have been seduced into feeding them monocultures of heavily sprayed and fertilized pasture grasses and hays along with a plethora of pricey, extra supplements to make up for the shortfalls in the feed. Nature never works in a monoculture and is a complex, self organizing system. This complexity ensures not only an availability of continuous feed, as if something is not thriving there is always something else that can step in and take its place, but also ensures a wide variety in nutritional inputs. (Watch for and learn more about this in an upcoming Blog titled “Life is Solar Powered”)
A monoculture pasture where every mouthfull is identical
Horses will naturally balance their diets annually. This means that they do not need to enjoy a nutritionally complete and balanced meal every day, but rather will load up seasonally and intermittently as nature permits and provides. They not only eat grass plants, but also will brows on legumes, forbs, bushes, berries, trees and much more. Many plants have many different nutritional properties and the collective of these is what brings in a diverse and varied nutrient base for optimum health. Many different plants equate too many different micronutrients for the synthesis of things such as an assortment of necessary vitamins and a strong, healthy immune system.
A diversity of grasses, plants trees and shrubs etc… makes for a diversity of nutrients
As modern humans we have come to believe that the nice clean, uniform (monoculture) grass field with the white fences is perfect, not only for our sometimes misguided senses, but also for our horses needs. We see the diverse and sometimes “weedy” pasture as messy and unkempt and cannot see that this diversity is what builds health and resiliency in our animals and in our ecosystems. Not only are they getting a wide assortment of plants and nutrients to eat in this “salad bar” of forage, every plant has a diversity of microbes that the animal is also taking in for improved gut health. It is now estimates that 60 -80 % of your DNA is non-human, but rather that of the trillions of microbial helpers that you have living symbiotically in your system. A healthy micro biome is now linked to things like healthy brain health, immune health and much more. Why would a horse be any different? If we continuously feed low nutrient, chemically assaulted feeds, we are not enhancing or even maintaining gut microbes that help with optimum health and nutritional assimilation. These microbes need support. Embrace, and look for the beauty in those messy pastures filled with biodiversity.