Chewing
Have you ever sat and watched your horse eat?
It’s an amazingly enjoyable activity. Unlike people chewing a horses chewing is soothing and peaceful.
More than that though, it’s amazing to watch how they can sort anything that they don’t want out. First with their sensitive agile lips as the tear pieces of grass from the ground. The if any stray pieces have made it into their mouths they carefully spit it out the side as they chew. Coarse pieces of grass, leaves they don’t want to eat. In the process of chewing they slip out the ides of the lips without effort and seemingly without thought. Most of the time, nothing makes to to a horses belly that they don’t very much mean to make it there.
Watching horses eat can be an educational undertaking in other ways too. We can see what foods they like to eat, which grasses are tastiest. What plants are good. We can tell the basic condition of their teeth, if they are able to get a healthy bits and if the chewing process is efficient.
It never hurts to take the time to sit with your horses and watch them eat.