The society has taken a new direction towards a respectable relationship with the animals and a more conscious breeding, use for food, sports and company. The domestication and the use of horses by people have caused wrong feeding management, which is mainly due to reduced knowledge on feeding behavior. The pastures are the appropriate environment to horses feeding, but it is a complex system which interferes on the horse's decision while it is grazing. The appropriate horse's feeding management depends on the comprehension of their behavior patterns. As the sward is heterogeneous and the plants' structure vary in height, density, types of leaves, stems and reproductive parts, the horses select the sward. This selection allows them to ingest some important nutrients, vital for their maintenance and development. Stocking rate and grazing time, both results of horse management in stables, limit their selectivity. The forages supply nutrients and prevent clinical disorders and behavior stereotypic. Inputs of researches about pasture use are able to show the importance of horses' relationship with environment and the need of appropriate management can provide a better life quality for horses.
horses; pasture; roughages