feeding horses

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sandraban

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i was just wondering what the correct ratios are to feed horses.

also i need advice on what to feed a 14h riding school pony, a 16h dressage horse and a 17h three day eventer.

all help appreciated :D
 
How much and what depends on such a lot of things! Are they out 24/7 on good grass/poor grass, in on hay/hayledge, or a bit of both?

What work are they in, are they poor doers/good doers? you get my drift?!

Generally if in light work and at the correct weight, they should be on a forage diet ie high fibre/low starch/low sugar. If in harder work but have plenty of energy, then I see no reason to feed any different than above. If they need anything more ( like if they are dropping weight ) then I prefer to feed a low sugar beet or Fast Fibre and add oil/ linseed.

You can get your grass/hay analysed ( i think D&H do it ) so you can find out what vitamins and minerals are lacking in the diet and feed accordingly.

How much depends on whether you want to feed less plus a multi vit and min supplement or the full rations which will be on the back of the feed bag
 
Hmmm... This sounds very BHS stage 1 (which i did a LONG time ago so I may be wrong and am happy to be corrected!!)

Ok, so a horse should eat 2.5% it's body weight. If on a diet, this reduces to 1.5%.

A horse at rest should get 100% roughage.

A horse in light work (now this is Ridding club horse, regular schooling, lunging, hacking) would get 20% hard feed and 80% roughage.

A horse in medium work (eventing, dressage, regular comps, jumping etc) should get 30% hard feed and 70% roughage.

A horse in hard work (racing, polo, etc) should get 50% hard feed and 50% roughage.

... The only one I'm hazy on is the medium work, can't remember if it's 30% or 40% hard feed... I'm sure someone will say!!!

ETA - Just to add, the BHS also say (one of the 10 rules of feeding) that a horse is fred according to age, weight, workload, ability of rider, etc as well!!
 
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Sounds very old school to me, surely if the horse has the energy for the job they are doing then why feed it anything else but grass/hay and a bit of high fibre feed and making sure they get all their vitamins and minerals ( although you would have to get your grass/hay analysed to see what they are lacking )
 
AngieandBen said:
Sounds very old school to me, surely if the horse has the energy for the job they are doing then why feed it anything else but grass/hay and a bit of high fibre feed and making sure they get all their vitamins and minerals ( although you would have to get your grass/hay analysed to see what they are lacking )
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I completely agree! :D I personally don't go by the BHS rules with my two (far too much phaf, and not appropriate), but from the original post, it sounded like a BHS question... Hence the gumph :p
 
sandraban said:
thanks for the help, and yes im doing equine studies at college and preparing for my BHS stage one :)
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In which case, follow the rules I have mentioned above (but check the medium work ratio as I can't remember for sure!!)

When it comes to calculating what to feed, in our classes we were told to suggest things like chaff and some cubes for the light work, chaff and mix/sugar beet for medium work, and oats/barley and mix for heavy work, etc.

When it comes to what the weight of a horse and how much to feed, they said approximately that a 15hh is 500lb, a 16hh is 600lb, 17hh is 700lb etc, so you just work out 2.5% of that, then split the feeds according to the ratio's I mentioned above (obviously in real life this isn't always the case!!)

So a 16hh in light work:

600lb - 2.5% is 15lb of feed per day, split 80/20 (hard feed and roughage) 12lb of roughage and 3lb of hard feed.

4lb hay in morning net 1.5lb breakfast feed
2lb hay lunch net
6lb hay night net, 1.5lb evening feed

You would feed chaff and cubes in each feed.

When I did it, the examiners were pretty nice and gave you chance to correct yourself and gave lots of thinking time.

Heads up though- Know your 10 rules of feeding!!!! There are great books out there that cover all of the stuff you need to know! I would seroiusly invest!!

Good luck!! Let us know how you get on!! Have fun!!!! :D
 
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