The indigestible cellulose in the hay helps to keep their intestinal tract clean, it keeps them "regular". (Similar to why humans have to eat vegetables!)
The horse in the wild is a grazing animal, designed for basically non-stop eating of relatively low-quality food. A horse left to its own devices may graze for 20 hours a day.
When we take a horse out of its natural environment and make it work for several hours a day, much harder than it would in the wild, it needs concentrates as well to keep the condition on it. This usually takes the form of grain. Feeding only grain is very bad for a horse's digestive system. It must be kept well-supplied with roughage.
Also, domesticated horses are often kept in stalls or very small paddocks and do not have the freedom to roam and graze for most of the day. They cannot eat as much forage as they need by grazing, so we must give it to them in the form of hay or chaff.
* A horses' digestive system is very complex. Horses are grazing animals and are designed to be taking in food (grazing on grass and hay) about 22 out of every 24 hours. This keeps the digestive tract going. Failure to keep the digestive tract going can lead to impaction and colic which can be fatal. Colic is the #1 worry among horse owners. Hay is good roughage and is also lower in sugar content than grass, which can be loaded with sugar, especially in the spring,when the new tender grass is loaded with carbohydrates. Grass in good for horses and they need it but in some circumstances, hay is even better. * Horses need to forage, and hay is a good substitute for the grass that some horses may lack. It aids digestion. Grazing is the best for a horse, but hay will work too. * Whether or not hay is good for a horse will depend on the horse itself. Believe it or not some horses can be allergic to it. It can make coughing worse if the horse coughs too much under normal circumstances (I would suggest wetting the hay, because if it is wet a horse that coughs often will be able to take it down easier). The best part about hay is that it warms a horse up. A hay roll is the perfect thing for horses in the winter when they are turned out due to the lack of grass. When the grass goes back and they have enough grass to eat, I would suggest to either remove the hay from the field or give them a smaller hay roll. You should leave hay in a stall year round. Grass has nutrients that hay doesn't and it will balance out well. A couple things to ALWAYS remember before buying hay are, know your horse and his or her personal needs, make sure you know exactly what kind of hay you are getting, know that you can trust the person that you are buying the hay from, and check to see if there are a lot of mold and/or weeds in it (that could be bad for some horses). Also, certain types of hay can be dangerous to a pregnant mare.
* Keeps the digestive passage clean. Also they like it. * It helps their digestive system to.....digest their food! But they also just like it because it tastes nice to them!
pinto horses eat hay. dry feed, bran, oats, grass, barley, and hay.
Depends on what kind of feed you feed them. If it's just hay and grain, no. Moldy, dusty hay isn't good for horses, but it won't kill them, it'll just make them a bit sick.
yes, but it is not the hay you feed domestic horses. it is just more like dried wild grasses.
Hay is used to feed animals when grass is not available.
I belive the answer to you question is HAY
The same thing as other horses. Hay, grain, horse feed, etc.
hay, grains, supplements, apples, carrots.
Horses in Minecraft eat hay. This can be made using wheat. You can also feed them apples.
You can feed them at any time once they have been baled.
Horses are fed hay and oats as a stable diet.
The primary source of heat generation from feed is roughage (hay, grass etc.)
NEVER feed mouldy hay to horses( or mouldy pellets, grains or chaff) Horses will usually tell you if the hay is mouldy(unless they are very hungry) but not wanting to eat it. Dont confuse mouldy hay with silage or haylage, but be verycareful feeding silage and haylage to horses.