Start with forage, never with concentrates
A horse is a hindgut fermenter. Its caecum is populated by bacteria that break down structural fibre, and those bacteria need a continuous trickle of forage to stay alive and balanced. When a horse goes more than a few hours without fibre, stomach acid accumulates against an empty gastric lining — the single most common setup for equine gastric ulcer syndrome in stabled horses.
In Bahrain and the Eastern Province, the practical baseline is good-quality grass hay — Rhodes grass, Bermuda (cynodon) or an alfalfa/bermuda mix. Alfalfa alone is rich: it runs 18–22% crude protein and high calcium, which is useful for lactating mares and growing foals but too much for a horse in light work.
How much: the 2% rule
Feed total dry matter at roughly 2% of body weight per day. A 450 kg Arabian therefore needs about 9 kg of dry feed daily, of which at least 60–70% should be forage. Horses at maintenance can run on forage alone at 2–2.5%; horses in hard work, broodmares in late lactation and underweight rescues need the balance topped up with concentrates.
- Weigh the feed. A scoop of pellets and a scoop of chaff can differ by 40% in mass.
- Change rations over 7–10 days, replacing a quarter at a time.
- Feed little and often: three times a day beats one large meal.
Reading a feed label in this market
Every bag sold into the GCC carries a guaranteed analysis: crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat, ash, and increasingly digestible energy in megajoules per kilogram. Two numbers matter most. Digestible energy tells you how much of the ration the bag can replace. Crude protein tells you whether it suits the animal in front of you — 10–12% for an adult at maintenance, 12–14% for a horse in regular work, 14–16% for youngstock.
Be careful with starch. High-starch cereal-heavy mixes push the hindgut towards acidosis and are associated with tying-up in susceptible animals. If your horse is a hot-blooded type or has a history of exertional rhabdomyolysis, look for a low-starch, fat-and-fibre based feed — often labelled "cool energy", "calm" or "non-heating".
Water: the nutrient nobody budgets for
An idle horse drinks 25–40 litres a day; a horse working in Gulf summer conditions can double that. Water troughs in unshaded yards here reach 45 °C by mid-afternoon, and horses will refuse water that is too warm. Shade the troughs, scrub them weekly, and check automatic float valves — a stuck valve is the most frequent cause of a colic call-out in the region.
Supplements — and what they cannot do
A balanced ration usually needs only three additions: plain salt (offered free-choice, about 10–15 g per day for an idle horse and more when sweating), vitamin E with selenium where the forage is old or sun-bleached, and a hoof-quality biotin product if the horn is genuinely poor.
Supplements are feeding stuffs. They are not medicines and they will not treat lameness, colic, respiratory disease or a metabolic problem. If your horse is losing condition, coughing, or off its feed, call a veterinarian before you call a supplier.
This summary is provided for convenience. The full registered text governs.
