What to do when your horse won’t eat

Updated on April 5, 2024
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Horses are known to be ravenous eaters. Sometimes, however, horses go off their feed. Many factors can cause loss of appetite in horses — some more serious than others. If your horse suddenly loses appetite or stops eating, it’s essential to find out why so you can get your horse back on its feed.

In this article, I will cover why horses stop eating, what you should do if your horse refuses to eat, and how to restore your horse’s appetite to normal.

Why is my horse not eating?

There are many reasons why a horse might stop eating. The first step to getting your horse to eat again is to identify why your horse has stopped eating in the first place.

Identify the cause

Some of the most common reasons horses stop eating include:

Unpalatable feed: If your horse’s feed is stale, too salty, or otherwise unpalatable, it will likely stop your horse from eating. Certain ingredients — e.g., soybean meal — can also make picky eaters lose their appetite. Feeding vitamin and mineral supplements in excess or putting medications into the feed can also make your horse’s feed unpalatable.
Pain: Pain can affect your horse in many different ways. It can cause your horse to struggle to sleep, cause behavioral problems such as kicking, bucking, and rearing, and it can also cause your horse to stop eating.
Disease: If your horse is sick or suffering from gastric ulcers, it is likely that your horse will lose its appetite.
Mycotoxin poisoning: Feeds containing hay, chaff, and grains can be contaminated with fungi (mold). These fungi can produce mycotoxins, which can cause your horse to lose its appetite.
Vitamin deficiency: Vitamin B1 deficiency is known to cause loss of appetite in many animal species including horses. Certain plant species — e.g., fern, nardoo, and horsetail — contain thiaminase that destroys vitamin B1 in the gastrointestinal tract before the horse can absorb it. This can lead to vitamin B1 deficiency over time.
Stress: If your horse has gone through a change in routine, lost a pasture buddy, or is being bullied by another horse, it might feel anxious, nervous, or stressed, resulting in loss of appetite.

You might also be interested in: “Headshaking in horses.”

Remove or treat the cause

Once you’ve identified the reason your horse is not eating, the next step is to remove or treat the cause of the loss of appetite. Your course of action will vary depending on the cause.

Unpalatable feed, over-supplementing, and medications

If your horse seems to have gone off its feed because the feed has become unpalatable, you need to locate the unpalatable feed and replace it with a palatable alternative. It is also important to consider that horses are sensitive to food, just like human beings. The food we provide for them can also be contaminated or processed, which these sensitive animals can have difficulties accepting in their system.

If you’re not sure which part of the feed is unpalatable to your horse, follow these steps:

Simplify your horse’s diet to one or two ingredients you know it will eat.
Once your horse’s appetite returns, gradually add ingredients one at a time, leaving a few days between additions.
Pay attention to your horse’s eating habits. If your horse stops eating after a new addition, remove this ingredient immediately and find a suitable alternative.

Salt will often turn horses off their feed. If the unpalatable ingredient is salt, don’t add salt to your horse’s feed. Instead, provide your horse with a salt lick.

Similarly, sodium can cause your horse to go off its feed, as sodium is a component of salt. If you have been over-supplementing with sodium, reduce the amount in your horse’s diet.

Finally, if your horse needs medication but is a fussy eater, avoid putting it in its feed. Instead, try mixing the medication with applesauce and administering it directly into your horse’s mouth via a large syringe or a clean worm paste tube. Make sure to feed your horse first—doing it before you feed might put your horse off eating.

You might also be interested in: “How to stop a horse from cribbing.”

Pain or disease

If your horse is in pain, this might put it off eating. This is particularly likely if your horse has mouth or dental problems, making eating an uncomfortable or painful experience. If you suspect this to be the case, you should have a dentist thoroughly examine your horse’s teeth and mouth.

If you suspect that your horse has stopped eating because it is ill or suffering from gastric ulcers, you should contact your veterinarian and work with them to treat the illness that may be causing your horse to lose its appetite.

Mycotoxin poisoning

If you suspect that mycotoxins are behind your horse’s loss of appetite, try to locate the source of the contamination. Mycotoxins are sometimes visibly present (mold), but this is not always true. You can send your horse’s feed off for a mycotoxin analysis if unsure.

Once you’ve located the source of the mycotoxins, remove them from your horse’s feed and replace them with a clean alternative. You can also consider using products like Mycosorb A+®, which bind the mycotoxins and help prevent them from being absorbed by your horse.

Vitamin deficiency

If you suspect that your horse has a vitamin B1 deficiency, the first step is to prevent your horse from eating anything containing thiaminase:

Plants: If your horse is eating plants containing thiaminase, remove the horse from the pasture and provide plenty of good quality hay.
Feed: If your horse is fed whole or uncooked grains, remove and replace these with cooked grains or high energy fibers like soybean hulls or sugar beet pulp. Make sure also to provide your horse with good quality hay.

To help replenish your horse’s depleted vitamin B1 reserve, you can supplement with oral vitamin B1. This can help stimulate your horse’s appetite and return it to normal.

Stress

Social stresses, herd dynamics, and changes in routine can affect your horse’s eating. If your horse is stressed following a change in routine, try to establish and maintain a consistent routine that will help your horse feel more relaxed during the day.

You should also pay attention to the social hierarchy of the herd. If a more dominant horse is bullying your horse, it might be prevented from accessing feed like it normally would.

Instead of placing all the hay in one large feeder, try placing smaller feeders or spreading smaller amounts of hay around the pasture. This way, a horse pushed away from one source of hay can always go to another.

You should also remember that horses rarely feel comfortable or safe when alone. If your horse has lost its pasture buddy, try introducing a new buddy as soon as possible so it will not feel alone.

You might also be interested in: “How to stop a horse from biting.”

Listen to what your horse is trying to tell you

Horses are known to be ravenous eaters, and they don’t go off their feed without reason. To be sure you know what is making your horse lose its appetite, the best thing you can do is listen to what your horse is trying to tell you.

Your horse communicates with you every day. Learning to read your horse’s signals will give you a thorough understanding of how your horse is feeling, what may be causing it to stop eating, and what you can do to ensure that it regains its appetite. A horse whisperer can help you do just that.

With the help of a professional horse whisperer such as myself, you can get to know your horse’s personality better. You’ll be better equipped to handle any behavioral problems your horse may have, learn how to listen to what your horse is trying to tell you, and get to the root of why your horse is not eating. Not only will this help you improve your horse’s health and quality of life — it will also help you strengthen the bond of trust and love between you and your horse.

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