How do you know what to feed?

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Toz

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Hi
I don't have a horse or anything, but I was wondering, how do you know what to feed your horse? Is it anything
to do with breed or height? I know there is something about work and condition, could someone explain? How much should you feed?
I know it is quite a general question, sorry!
Thanks
 
Start by feeding it what is was on when you bought it. I tend to feed mine nothing at all bar plain chaff and vits and mins supplements. Ad lib forage.
I then up their feed to a plain nut if they need more, but with good forage I have hunted 3 days a fortnight with only a scoop of nuts a day on top.

Remember less is more and most people feed their horses far too much, they are designed to run on forage and that is it.
 
Keep it simple. Consider what the horse's digestive system has evolved to utilise. Monitor the condition and weight with weight-tape. Do not *ever* leave the horse to stand with nothing to eat, for more than a few minutes. This may mean feeding very low calorie chaff or soaked long forage.
 
I always start with the same basic diet - all forage, which is what the horse is designed to eat - and then make any alterations as required. Your average horse in fairly light work (which is all most horses owned by leisure riders are doing) will maintain condition and have enough energy for work on grass and/or hay with maybe a balancer or small amount of feed to ensure they're getting the right amounts of vitamins and minerals. Obviously, some horses do need extras but that should be looked at in relation to the individual as some horses do better on certain foods than others, and often there is no obvious reason for it! Keeping a horse slim can often be the biggest challenge in feeding as it's so important for digestive health that they have almost constant access to food.
 
With a new horse I wean it off its present diet by feeding just hay or grazing let it chill for a few days and then feed by eye but based on forage slowly introducing alfalfa chaff,vitamins and soaked grass nuts as a base then adding in various quantities of linseed and speedibeet according to weight and condition. A poor topline I would use topspec leisure time, Big fatty I feed molasses free hi fi or nothing if the grazing is suitable but I do tend to keep my grass very short so fatties do well with a small chaff feed to carry vitamins or equibites if they are very fat
Mine wont eat wet hay so not an option but for one that will well soaked hay is a good feed as long as it is also well rinsed if they are a bit porky
Skinny I now use micronised linseed but formerly used copra meal
 
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If you're asking this because you are thinking of getting a horse then heed the words 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'. Put your horse on full livery and get them to give you stable management lessons on all aspects until you are confident enough to go it alone. IMO giving you advice on here could cause more harm than good.
 
saddlesore said:
If you're asking this because you are thinking of getting a horse then heed the words 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'. Put your horse on full livery and get them to give you stable management lessons on all aspects until you are confident enough to go it alone. IMO giving you advice on here could cause more harm than good.
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I was literally only wondering! I'm not thinking of getting a horse, but if I was, I would ask someone in person who could see the horse, maybe get some advice from a feed company helpline, eg. Dodson & Horrell.
Thanks for all your help!
 
Toz said:
I was literally only wondering! I'm not thinking of getting a horse, but if I was, I would ask someone in person who could see the horse, maybe get some advice from a feed company helpline, eg. Dodson & Horrell.
Thanks for all your help!
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It really is worth doing that course if you're interested. It covers the basics about equine digestion and feed requirements.
 
Feeding is an art, and a lot of it is down to common sense, experience and individual preferences for both horse and owner. All of my horses are fed a feed balancer to make sure they are getting the correct vitamins and minerals regardless of what else they are fed. This is all they get in the summer aside from carrots, grass and a bit of hay when the grass is eaten down as they are both good doers and do very well on just a balancer. I add chaff at the end of summer to bulk out the feed a bit, again due to lack of grass/weather changing and getting a bit cooler, etc. In winter, one of my horses copes fine on just balancer, carrots and chaff alongside haylage but the other one who I hunt is a bit trickier and I feed him according to his condition, etc. Have already started him on a scoop of Leisure Horse and Pony cubes once a day alongside his summer ration to bulk him up a bit more for cubbing. Will be adding more conditioning type feeds as the hunting season progresses. Hope that helped. :)
 
Toz said:
I was literally only wondering! I'm not thinking of getting a horse, but if I was, I would ask someone in person who could see the horse, maybe get some advice from a feed company helpline, eg. Dodson & Horrell.
Thanks for all your help!
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The problem with ringing the feed companies is that they are all in business to sell bags of feed to you, not to keep your horse in good condition as simply as possible. The feed companies will tell you to feed starchy cereal-based mixes and will even try to sell you unsuitable bagged feed to give to overweight, laminitic ponies. The course in the link above would be well worth your time.
 
Its all very well saying to feed a horse on just the basic forage (which every horse must have) but not all horses will do well on just that.
If i fed only forage to my horse he would end up a hat rack! He currently lives out 24/7 and he still gets a haynet in his yard (so when he chooses to stand in he still has something to eat) and is fed 2 scoops of 12-13% protein low starch mix a day. I have only just stopped the calm and condition (basically is beet) which he got with every feed and I am monitoring his weight.

He as never been a fat horse - he gets a holiday out in field for 2 months (where still gets a 10% mix twice a day) and comes in not much fatter than he went out!! When he comes back in he gets as much hay as he wants which is normally a bale a day plus boiled feeds with his normal mix! And he is a ISH although mostly tb.

Other horses on yard are massive and are on no grass whereas mine has a 7 acre field for himself and donkeys?! There is no health reason for him to tend to lean on thin side of good - its like us, we all know that skinny mini who eats as much as she wants but never puts on weight and others that just have to look at chocolate to put on weight! :)

Basically every horse is different. If some horses on HHO had my horse's diet they would get lamintic, if mine had theirs he would be a rescue horse! Horses for courses as they say, and nothing is as valuable as a critical eye :)
 
only_me said:
Its all very well saying to feed a horse on just the basic forage (which every horse must have) but not all horses will do well on just that.
If i fed only forage to my horse he would end up a hat rack! He currently lives out 24/7 and he still gets a haynet in his yard (so when he chooses to stand in he still has something to eat) and is fed 2 scoops of 12-13% protein low starch mix a day. I have only just stopped the calm and condition (basically is beet) which he got with every feed and I am monitoring his weight.


There are however, plenty of other feeds that will help weight gain without feeding cereal based mixes. I've fed several elderly horses and have found that grassnuts and sugarbeet with dried grass chaff can be even better than mixes for adding/maintaining weight. Feeding starch can be self-defeating as horses often fret off the weight.


Basically every horse is different. If some horses on HHO had my horse's diet they would get lamintic, if mine had theirs he would be a rescue horse! Horses for courses as they say, and nothing is as valuable as a critical eye :)
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I certainly agree with your last paragraph.
 
Yes, but mine is eventing reguarly and pony cubes (i presume that is what grass nuts are? We don't have anything called grass nuts here just bog standard horse and pony cubes would be the closest i think?) wouldn't provide him with enough energy and maintain his weight. I would hate to think how much the feed bill would be if he was a stressy horse! :p

His is a low starch mix anyway, mostly rice bran :) boiled feeds and oil imo are the best way of increasing weight :)we have tried nearly every weight gain feed we can and only boiled oats/barley and sugarbeet work for him!

OP the rules of feeding, the biggest one is feed according to type, workload and height - a 12h showpony is unlikely to behave on racehorse cubes whereas a hunt masters horse is most likely to need a feed on the higher % :)
For your average riding club horse a balancer and chaff would most likely be sufficient :)
 
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Feeding by eye is the only way forward I have had everything from racehorses to shetlands to feed and have only had one with laminitis who was deliberately let into a field full of grass by a well meaning passer by just after they had been checked one morning by nightfall he couldnt walk. So I suppose the answer to your question OP is you learn the best way by reading forums, asking questions and talking to those with many year experience before filtering through the information to come to your way of doing it. A horse or pony should be covered along the top line with no poverty marks or hollowing along the loins and should have the last rib palpable if not visible with no huge belly hanging down.
This can be the most effective way of keeping your eye in. A big belly is not a fat horse it is a horse lacking in tone and muscle development
I have fed everything on a high protein high oil diet for the past 25 years and all have done very well on it eventing, show jumping and dressage and more recently showing. All kinds of doers too from poor to see food and blow doers all thrived and competed at high level on this base diet. It really boils down to learning from a wide range of sources
 
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