This educational article is brought to you by Standlee Hay Company, the Official Forage of the USEA.
Forage is the single most important ingredient in a horse’s diet, even compared to grains and supplements. We’ll help you understand which factors are important when evaluating forage for your horse.
There are several different types of plants that can be used for horse forage. Horses can also eat multiple types of forage assuming they’ve adapted properly. Forage can roughly be divided into 2 types: legumes and grasses. Legumes commonly include alfalfa and clover. Grasses consist of plants like timothy grass, orchard grass and blue grass. The trick is matching up which forage type best meets your four-legged friend’s needs. Performance horses, broodmares and horses needing to gain weight will all benefit from the additional calories and quality protein in legume or legume mix forages. On the other hand, easy keepers (horses with slower metabolisms) and those undergoing moderate to light exercise will do well on grass-based forages.
Forage comes in a variety of different physical forms including pellets, cubes, chopped (chaff) products and bales. Like forage types, a horse can digest multiple formats of forage without upsetting their system, assuming they’ve gradually adjusted. When it comes to forage format, there’s no universally “better” or “correct” option. Instead, you should be using formats that match your horse’s specific needs and eating habits.
No matter what format of forage you’re using, proper storage is crucial to keep your horse happy and healthy. Forage that’s kept outside without a cover runs the risk of being rained on. This can cause the forage to mold or become weather damaged, no matter what type of physical form it’s in.
Why not find out if you’re giving your horse the ideal forage to meet their needs? Click here to use Standlee’s Forage Finder, a special tool developed by our nutritional specialists to help you provide the best diet to your favorite four-legged friend.
It's the final day of dressage at the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event (K3DE) and following yesterday's schedule, the final four-star pairs will get the day started before we see the remainder of the five-star field later this afternoon.
Germany’s Michael Jung hasn’t competed in a five-star since the last time he won the Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2022 with his longtime partner fischerChipmunk FRH, but his love for the bluegrass and his horse’s readiness compelled him to return this year and break an all-time record for lowest dressage score at this event (which they set at that 2022 event with a score of 20.1) at the same time. They lead the five-star field with a nearly 10-point lead on a score of 18.6.
“It's day 1, so I'm not getting too excited yet. There's a long, long way to go in this competition,” said Phillip Dutton after his dressage test aboard Denim in the Cosequin CCI4*-S leaving the pair in the overnight lead upon the conclusion of the first day of dressage at the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.
Are you following along with the action from home this weekend? Or maybe you're competing at an event and need information fast. Either way, we’ve got you covered!