I love to hear my horse whinny to me. The sound of his satisfied munching is another reward I find in horse ownership. Of all the things we enjoy doing for our horses, feeding can be one of the most emotionally rewarding. Sometimes we can be guilty of "over-kill" when it comes to feeding our horse.

In order to avoid causing damaging imbalances when feeding our horse we need to calculate the nutrients the horse is receiving from his basic feed ration in the first place. Once that is established then a decision to add supplements to his diet can be made. Supplements can be beneficial to our horses if they need them. Overloading nutrients can be harmful when we are feeding our beloved equines and must be avoided.

When feeding our horse we must not overlook the significance of availability of fresh water at all times. Having access to fresh clean water will reduce the chances of impaction colic. This is very important for horses kept mainly on dried forage. The horse will drink more often if he is offered fresh clean water. This will help prevent dehydration in the horse also. In cold weather heated water will encourage horses to keep drinking water. Heaters for water tanks are available commercially that keep the drinking water at a palatable temperature. This will encourage them to drink more water during cooler weather. Often decreased water consumption as the temperatures drop can lead to colic.        

Another consideration if you have more than one horse make sure there is more than one source for water and easily accessible to all of the horses. When

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