Herbs & Healthy Feed Supplements

Wild horses eat a very varied diet in the wilderness. Herbs, seeds and berries as well as branches and leaves are an essential part of their natural diet. These contain important nutrients that are often lacking in today's hay and pastures. This is why the healthy OKAPI herbal mixtures and feed supplements offer an all-natural and balanced spectrum of these important nutrients by providing valuable fatty acids, bitter substances and vitamins.

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13 products

Equine Appropriate does not always Mean Type Appropriate. Every horse is Different.

Little by little, the realization is gaining ground that the common practice of concentrate-based feeding is not appropriate for horses. What a sport horse or an active warmblood may be able to 'put up with' will quickly be the undoing of a baroque or leisure horse. Horses are not naturally designed to eat a diet rich in grains. Instead, they eat a wide variety of lean grasses and herbs, which not only provide energy but also support the metabolism. However, horses do not nibble on the same herbs all year round, as anyone who has watched their horse graze or go for a walk can testify. Depending on the season and the state of their metabolism, horses choose exactly which herbs are suitable for their diet.

Feed Changeover without any Problems. With the Right Blend.

Normally a change of diet or even a healthy change of feed should always be done slowly over several days by mixing the old feed with the new. However, the green oat herb that we use throughout all OKAPI 4Seasons Feed ensures that you can switch to the new variety overnight without having to worry about disturbances in the digestive tract.

100% Pure Nature. No Cheap Fillers.

OKAPI 4Seasons Feed and OKAPI PastureHerbs are modelled on the natural feed intake of wild horses. They are pure herbal mixtures with no grain content and a fibre length that can be easily digested by horses. The herbal mixtures, which are formulated to adapt every two months, provide the metabolism with the support that the horse would also seek for in nature, without any habituation effect of individual herbs. The all-natural, grain-free alternative for enriching the diet with herbs and rewarding the horse after a ride, or for putting something healthy in the trough when everyone else is getting their concentrated feed.

Modelled on Wild Horses.

The wild relatives of our domestic horses feed exclusively on what nature has to offer. This includes lean grasses and various herbs, as well as leaves and bark from trees and shrubs, which provide valuable nutrients and are essential for healthy digestion. Wild horses obtain vitamins from their basic forage in summer and from dried berries and fruits occasionally found on shrubs in winter. The seeds of plants are not spurned in winter either, as they provide high quality fatty acids in a digestible form and protein, which the body needs to maintain weight.

The Change in Nature also has an Impact on the Feed.

Our domestic horses rarely have the opportunity to forage freely in nature. They have to eat what we give them or what grows on their pastures. It turns out that the loss of biodiversity is not just limited to insects. Botanical analyses of hay from 50 years ago found more than 50 different plant species. By comparison, our modern hay only contains an average of 6-9 plant species. In addition, hay has become much richer in sugar and nutrients, which all too often causes health problems, especially in native pony or horse breeds, baroque breeds and leisure horses.

Complementing Today’s Diet is not an Option, but a Must. But with Care.

The feeding of shrubs and foliage, as our grandfathers did, is no longer practised because many owners are too afraid of poisonous plants. Even pastures are becoming monocultures. Often the horses themselves are to blame, as they compact the soil and make it difficult for herb seeds to take root. There are also often far too many horses on the land, which contributes to overgrazing and the spread of stress-resistant, high-sugar grasses.

The Way to a Horse's Heart is through its Stomach. And the Intestines.

Although more and more stables are trying to bring nature back into the stable in the form of colourful 'edible' hedges or nibbling branches in the paddock, most of them are still a long way from being able to provide horses with even a rudimentary natural diet. With the healthy complementary feed by OKAPI you can offer what is often missing in normal diets: leaves and bark, which provide valuable trace elements and bitter substances, rose hips, whose seeds contain essential fatty acids, dried berries with their naturally high vitamin content and wild seeds, which we have put together from a mixture of oil seeds, as they are also found in nature by wild horses. In addition to the species-appropriate, low-sugar hay, this is another step towards a more natural diet.

Do You Have any Questions? We will be Happy to Advise You Personally.

Do you have any concerns or questions? Do you need advice or tips about our herbal mixtures and healthy feed supplements? Whether you are a breeder, veterinarian, therapist, ambitious leisure rider, stable owner or professional rider, we are passionate about helping you choose the right product for your horse and yourself. We are still committed to taking the time to provide you with individual and, above all, expert feed advice right from the start. From one horse lover to another - because your horse's health and your mutual wellbeing are our motivation. Just get in touch, we would love to hear from you! 

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