Mouth cavity - PC Horse

A tip!

Use the training page in PC-Horse to learn how to estimate the training intensity that corresponds to a level of feeding you wish to keep to or, alternatively, to estimate the right level of feeding for a training intensity you wish to aim for.

Use the calendar function to enter (and remember) dates for mating and parturition. You may also enter the date when your lactating mare was re-bred.
Remember that horses that go out in the cold require more feed to maintain body heat. The most effective solution is to provide additional forage during cold periods.

PC-Horse graphics give you a rapid analysis of the contribution of each feed to the total provision of every nutrient in the ration.
In the grazing season PC-Horse adjusts the estimated intake of pasture based on the quality of the pasture and on the time spent grazing.
A help function assists you in calculating body weight (kg) from chest girth (cm) - and vice versa.
Enter a tick in the tick-box to show that your horse is more than usually active. PC-Horse will then increase the requirement for energy by 10%

You may provide feed prices both at the horse level (i.e. if you have different feed prices for different horses) or identical prices for all horses in the stable.

In the Consultant version you may select the nutrients which will be shown on the screen or included in the written reports.
Provide a better service to your clients! Send reports to your horse owners at regular intervals! PC-Horse allows you to mail most reports directly from the program.

PC-Horse will calculate feed requirements for each stable (per day, week and month) to help in your procurement of feeds.
Are you nervous about trying a new feed brand? With one or two clicks PC-Horse allows you to compare nutrient contents among a set of feeds.
PC-Horse will warn you and provide suggestions when your ration is deficient of too high in one or more nutrients. Tolerance levels are already built into the program.
You may add your logo to the contact information you use to ”brand” your advice in the Consultant version of PC-Horse

You will always know when the Ca/P or Zn/Cu-quota is correct when you formulate a diet in PC-Horse.

A useful tip if you are interested in planning feeding costs is to make several feed lists with different feed prices for different purposes (i.e. on a per bag or wholesale basis etc).
You may save time by working with ”model horses” in the Professional and Consultant versions. Create the horse types that you use often, and activate them when you talk to a customer.
Use the speed buttons on the ”horse diary” page to enter the latest information on the ration and other horse parameters.
All previous reports issued on a horse or a stable can easily be retrieved in the stables archive
PC-Horse enables you to customise feed lists. You can copy one or more feeds between feed lists, and copy across all feeds in a brand in a single operation.

Mouth cavity

The horse has strong, sensitive and highly moveable lips. Grass and other vegetation is cut using the front teeth, and the lips and the tongue are used to collect and ingest feed. Horses are highly selective grazers and can efficiently avoid unpalatable or indigestible herbage. Ingested food is ground between the large enamelled surfaces of the cheek teeth (premolars and molars). Horses chew on one side of the mouth at a time; large horses chewing 60-80 times per minute. The time spent eating varies greatly depending on the structure of the feed. Ponies usually take more time to consume their feed than larger horses. The time taken to consume 1 kg of oats or pelleted concentrate is about 10 min and 1 kg hay is usually consumed in 40-50 min. However, there is a large variation between individual horses. Table 2 gives estimates of consumption for rations with different proportions of grains and roughage. If rations are consumed too quickly, bad habits such as excessive licking, crib biting, and eating dung may develop.

Consumption time of different rations (min/kg feed)

Type of feed	Large horses	Ponies
Hay	40	80
Straw	40 - 60	100
Oats, whole or crushed	10	40
Concentrate (non-pelleted)	20	30
Pelleted concentrates	10	40

It is commonly recommended that horses are fed at least 0.5 kg of roughage dry matter (hay, haylage or straw) per 100 kg of body weight. Normal diets usually contain more roughage than this minimal amount. The chewing process grinds the feed between the molars in the upper and lower jaws, and reduces the particle size to about 2 mm diameter and 1-4 mm length. Young grasses are more juicy and may be swallowed before the particle size has been reduced by this much. Thorough grinding of the fibrous parts of the diet is required to ensure the passage of the digesta through the alimentary canal. Chopped roughages with a particle length shorter than 2 cm may not be chewed sufficiently, and this may cause colic.
For a horse with normal teeth there is usually no problem with chewing grains or pelleted concentrates It is recommended that teeth are inspected and if necessary rasped twice a year to prevent protruding edges which may bruise or cut the epithelium of the cheeks (upper jaws) or the tongue (lower jaw). Young horses may periodically experience problems with chewing when milk teeth have been lost and permanent teeth are emerging. Bad teeth result in reduced consumption, chewing rates and digestion. The periods when teeth are lost or emerge are shown in Table 3.

Age at which teeth are lost or emerge in the horse:

Tooth	Change	Type
I1	2 ½ years	Front
I2	3 ½ years	Front
I3	4 ½ years	Front
p1	2 ½ years	Premolar
p2	2 ½ years	Premolar
M1	6 - 9 months	Molar
M2	2 - 2 ½ years	Molar
M3	3 ½ - 4 ½ years	Molar

Premolars (P) and molars (M) are the cheek teeth of the horse and are the teeth that need to be rasped. Incisors (I) are the front teeth.