What wild horses eat

These feral horses on the Navajo reservation look just fine with very little green in sight. They travel all day to get enough to eat and drink. If you put these horses in a paddock of thick, nutrient-dense grass, they would be high risk for lamintis, too.

Feral horses in Australia travel many miles per day for water with very little feed available. Yet these horses look pretty good. So why are we feeding horses the same as cows?

Just a bit of green native grass from recent rain, and these brumbies are fat. They will get thin during the next dry season, which will give them some protection metabolically for the next season with abundant grass. These horses adapt well to feast and famine. It’s natural.

I’m sure these ponies get some hay thrown to them once a day, but the rest of the time they are traveling around this large section of scrub brush in northern New Mexico. How lucky we would all be to have such a perfect place for an easy-keeper pony.

These horses look to be in great shape, even the mares with foals. THIS is the environment that shaped the metabolism of wild horses. No wonder when we keep them belly deep in grass bred to fatten cows they get sick.

This is a very common native grass that feral horses eat. When compared to common improved grasses, it is much lower in sugar and starch. there is also a lot of bare ground in-between bunches, so horses have to travel farther to eat.

This newly planted paddock of mixed native grass will require several applications of herbicide, even after 2 applications of Roundup before planting. Native grasses are less competitive and need a lot of help for successful establishment.