The Pros and Cons of Feeding Straw to Horses

The main reasons people feed their horses a straw ration:

• A hay shortage
• For economic reason
• To control the horse’s weight

The problems associated with Feeding Straw:

• Straw can be sprayed with a chemical just before harvesting to encourage the grain to ripen and this is common practice in England where round-up is still used
• Too much straw in a horse’s diet can cause a gut impaction
• It is a poor source of vitamins and the high amount of fibre means the mineral content is more difficult for horses to access
• If the grain is left in the seed heads this could be a problem for insulin-resistant horses
• Young and old horses may not cope with chewing straw

The 3 advantages associated with Feeding Straw:

• It has less sugar and starch than hay and it takes longer to eat, which is good for overweight horses
• The calorie content is about 12% lower than late cuttings of mature hay
• Horses take longer to eat straw and they remain occupied

Checklist to use if you decide to Feed Straw:

• Checked your horse’s teeth for the ability to chew the extra roughage
• Introduce feeding straw slowly and monitor how your horse copes with the extra roughage by monitoring his bowel movements
• Feed oat straw or if this is not available barley straw
• For horses living out in winter mix hay and straw in equal amounts
• In total don’t let any more than 30% of the roughage intake come from straw
• If your horse is insulin resistant check the staw grain content is low
• If your horse is prone to impaction colic do not feed straw