What is the longest a horse can safely go without food?" 4 hours, maximum.
Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS
I found this article written by Vikki Fowler on December 31st 2020. It reflect the reason we have found that our horses need to have grazing pasture, as well as their usual twice a day feedings.
Why?
Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines.
A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers.
So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern?
No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome).
Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS
Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation. Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different.
All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally.
But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway?Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours. They may spend a further hour or so dozing but 22-23 hours a day should be spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally.
Now I know the cob owners are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen “if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!!”
I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved.
There is much we can do to reduce calorie intake and control.
The easiest is small holes nets. My personal favorite is the Shires Soft Mesh 1” 🙄
Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want!
Their diet requires a vit/min supplement in the form of a balancer but no licks, treats, treacle, molasses, cereal based rubbish. Even if it says low sugar or the marvellously misleading “No added sugar”! Your horse would rather have a constant supply of hay, I promise.
