Is Your Horse Feed Truly Gut-Friendly? A Pure Feed Guide

A “gut-friendly” feed cannot compensate for long periods without forage, oversized meals or an unsettled routine. The whole ration and management system matter. Product labels are useful, but they need to be read alongside how often the horse eats, its workload, turnout, stress and veterinary history.

The Pure Feed Company’s current complete-feed range is fibre-led, contains a built-in balancer with prebiotics and live yeast, and is formulated without molasses, alfalfa, soya or nutritionally improved straw. Those features can be useful, but the following five principles are what make the ration genuinely gut-conscious.

1. Prioritise forage and avoid long empty periods

Forage encourages chewing and saliva production, supplies fermentable fibre and helps support the horse’s normal feeding behaviour. Check that enough suitable forage is available across the day and night; an apparently full net is not useful if the horse cannot or will not eat it.

Horses with poor teeth or difficulty managing long-stem forage may benefit from a soaked alternative such as Pure Feed Meadow Mash. It is a partial hay replacer, not a token bucket feed, so the quantity has to be calculated as part of the full forage ration. See our soaked hay-replacer guide.

2. Be mindful of starch and meal size

If a bucket feed is needed, choose its energy level to match the horse and divide the daily amount between manageable meals. Several Pure Feed products are low in starch: current specifications list Pure Condition Mix at 2%, Pure Working and Pure Veteran Mix at 4%, Pure ReFuel at 4.5%, Pure Easy at 6%, and Pure Balance and Fibre Balance at 7%.

Pure Performance is different. It includes bruised oats for fast-release energy and contains 23% starch, so it is intended for horses with a genuine high-performance requirement rather than those needing a low-starch ration.

3. Choose an energy source that suits the horse

A horse needing more condition does not always need a high-cereal feed. Fibre and oil can provide slow-release energy. Pure Working supplies 10MJ/kg with 34% fibre and 8% oil, while Pure Condition Mix supplies 11MJ/kg with 12.6% oil for horses needing more calories.

For good doers, the priority is often adequate vitamins, minerals and protein without unnecessary energy. Pure Balance, Pure Fibre Balance and Pure Easy offer three different ways to do that, depending on whether the horse needs a concentrated balancer, balancer-plus-chaff format or a larger high-fibre bucket feed.

4. Support the hindgut microbiome—but keep expectations realistic

The complete Pure Feed range includes fructo-oligosaccharides and live yeast. These ingredients are included to support the hindgut environment, but they do not diagnose, treat or cure digestive disease. Consistent forage, gradual changes and sensible meal sizes remain fundamental.

If you suspect gastric ulcers, speak to your vet. Signs such as poor appetite, recurrent mild colic, girthiness, weight loss or reduced performance are not specific to ulcers, and gastroscopy is required for a definitive diagnosis. Read our guide to Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome.

5. Keep changes gradual and the routine consistent

Change feed over at least seven days, and take longer for a sensitive horse. Try to keep forage access, turnout and meal times consistent around travel, competition or yard changes. When workload drops suddenly, review calories promptly while maintaining suitable fibre; our guide to feeding during sudden stable rest can help.

Which Pure Feed format fits?

• Concentrated balancer: Pure Balance, fed at 100g per 100kg bodyweight per day.
• Balancer with fibre: Pure Fibre Balance, fed at 200g per 100kg bodyweight per day.
• Low-calorie, high-fibre feed: Pure Easy, fed at 400–600g per 100kg bodyweight per day.
• More slow-release energy: Pure Working or Pure Condition Mix, selected according to calorie needs.
• Older horse: Pure Veteran Mix, with a soft chop and senior-focused fortification.

“Gut-friendly” is not a medical claim and no bag suits every horse. Match the product to the individual, feed the correct amount and ask your vet or an equine nutritionist for advice if there is a history of ulcers, colic, weight loss or metabolic disease.