Horses in their natural habitat spend most of the day with their heads lowered, grazing forage that ranges from easy-to-get grasses to blades and stems that are hard to extract and often contain little caloric energy. It’s a way of life that leads to virtually zero colic, ulcers, excess weight or metabolic imbalances. Cribbing, weaving and other boredom behaviors are non-issues. Very few horses live that way these days.
Most riding horses live in settings where stable management realities dictate feeding meals only two or three times a day. Receiving intermittent, small meals alerts the body’s food-scarcity mechanisms, including stress over the whereabouts of their next meal. The gaps between meals trigger fat storage, increasing the chance of obesity. And, less time spent chewing throughout the day means less production of saliva that protects against gastric ulcers.
Haygain’s Forager brings nature’s genius to healthy horse management. The Forager’s unique features result from extensive research that make it an ideal stable management solution for many reasons. The Forager holds approximately 26 pounds of hay and enables the lowered head eating position nature intended. A regulator grid with holes of different sizes sits on top of the hay. The horse pulls hay through one bite at a time, ensuring slow consumption and smaller bites.
Haygain is proud to include the Haygain Forager in its roster of science-backed horse-health products. The Forager is an important part of natural, healthy horse care. For more information, visit www.haygain.us.
See this article in the August 2021 online edition:
The Northwest Horse Source is an independently owned and operated print and online magazine for horse owners and enthusiasts of all breeds and disciplines in the Pacific Northwest. Our contemporary editorial columns are predominantly written by experts in the region, covering the care, training, keeping and enjoyment of horses, with an eye to the specific concerns in our region.
