Yet, horse owners should be aware of the potential negative side effects such as wood chewing and coprophagy when horses are not fed long stem hay or grazed. Wood chewing has not been strongly associated with feeding cubed forages. Preference of Forages by Horses Horses are notoriously selective grazers. Little documentation has established why certain areas are selectively grazed while other areas are ungrazed or become dunging areas. Since young, growing forages tend to be higher in digestible nutrients, it is reasonable to assume that the equine grazer repeatedly grazes the same areas to obtain more tender and less fibrous forage.
Climatic variations result in disparity among preferred forages by horses.
A creeping red fescue was favored by horses in Suffolk, England over creeping red fescue Canadian variety, crested dogstail, cocksfoot, and perennial ryegrass. In the southern United States where winter annuals are well suited to the mild climates, horse preferred annual ryegrass over oats and wheat. The winter annual preference was particularly evident later in the growing season, even though the forages were maintained in the vegetative state. Rye and triticale were avoided by yearlings in this research. A second cafeteria study demonstrated crimson, Berseem, and Subterranean clovers were equally preferred while yearlings avoided arrowleaf clover.