What is it about?
This review looks at why chewing is so important for horses—not just for digestion, but for overall health and welfare. Chewing breaks food down, stimulates saliva production, and supports dental health, but it also plays a key role in meeting a horse’s natural behavioural needs. When chewing opportunities are restricted—such as when managing weight or dental issues—horses may develop frustration-based behaviours like wood chewing. The article explores how different feeds, feeding strategies, and new technologies can help ensure horses get the chewing time they need to stay healthy and content.
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Why is it important?
Chewing is often taken for granted, but it directly impacts digestive health, dental condition, and behaviour. Modern feeding practices sometimes limit chewing time, which can increase the risk of digestive issues like colic or gastric ulcers, as well as stress-related behaviours. Understanding and optimising chew parameters—such as duration and frequency—could help us refine feeding strategies to better support equine health and welfare. This area of research has the potential to improve not only diet management but also the overall quality of life for domestic horses.
Perspectives
As an equine nutritionist, I see firsthand how small changes in feeding management can make a big difference in horse health. Many owners focus on what horses eat, but how they eat is just as important. This article sheds light on why chewing matters and how we can optimise feeding strategies to support both digestive and mental well-being. Future research and better feeding approaches could help prevent many common equine health issues, making this an exciting and essential area of study.
Briony Witherow
Anglia Ruskin University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The significance of chewing in horses, UK-Vet Equine, January 2025, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/ukve.2024.0035.
You can read the full text:
Resources
The role of nutrition and feeding in equine weight management
Increasing awareness of the prevalence of overweight and obese horses has shed light on to the importance of appropriate nutrition and feed management within weight loss programmes. The review presents a basic approach to weight loss programme design and appropriate feeding and shows that while there is sufficient information upon which to base weight loss programmes, the findings of recent research into compliance and communication is likely to improve future success. Further education for livery yards and establishments is also a pivotal piece of the weight loss puzzle. There is still ground with regard to the most appropriate conserved forage, and a shift in responsibilities and mindset when it comes to forage analysis may be required. Ultimately, success may lie in a multidisciplinary team approach to weight recognition and management, and the development of a framework for fostering and maintaining communication across paraprofessionals and owners is an essential first step.
Nutritional Management of Gastric Ulcers
Over the last 10 years there has been increasing awareness and subsequently recorded cases of equine gastric ulcer syndrome and with this comes an increased interest in appropriate nutrition and feed management. This review presents a systematic approach to assessing the ration of a horse at risk of or diagnosed with equine gastric ulcer syndrome and demonstrates the ample evidence upon which to base nutritional recommendations for horses with equine squamous gastric disease, and to a lesser extent, equine glandular gastric disease, with an emphasis on forage. Careful selection and management of the forage ration should be the first step in designing a suitable ration, followed by selection of an appropriately low starch and sugar (less than 2 g per kg body weight per day and 1 g per kg body weight per meal) complementary feed.
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