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Although you might feel this is a easy thing to perform - feed your horse - you'd be shocked at the quantity of horse owners that don't know the fundamentals.  There is no actual rule of thumb for feeding, as each horse's dietary needs will vary depending on age, weight and level of activity.

To start out with, your horse naturally uses forage as being a primary component of their diets. It is likely one of the Main necessities for a correctly working digestive system. When we speak of forage, we usually mean natural pasture and cut hay.

Mature horses ordinarily eat almost 2 to 2.5 percent of their body weight in feed every day. So a one thousand pound horse will consume approximately 20 to 25 lbs of feed a day. Therefore high quality feed, not low quality high fibre feed (that may interfere with proper digestion).

In a perfect pasture world, your horse ought to eat a minimum of 1 percent of its body mass in hay/pasture fodder every day. In case your horse does not do much work, they will do well on strictly forage, with no grain introduced in.  On the other hand, developing, in breed, or working horses need dietary supplements in combination with forage - for example grain or perhaps a supplemental concentrate.  Imagine it this way, forages ought to offer at least one half or more of the whole weight of the feed consumed every day for maximum growth and development.

Before you can feed a balanced "meal" to your horse, it's a must to be aware of the nutrient content and quality of the forage. Once you know that, you can work out the correct amounts of each to fulfill nutrient requirements.

The very best resource, and the least costly one for summer feed is your pasture.  And, typically good pasture by itself can offer all the nutritional needs your horse needs.  How can you determine the amount of pasture is needed to give food to a horse?  Here's a rough and ready guideline that can assist you: (using a weight of 1,000 - 1,200 lbs)

Mare and foal 1.75 to 2 acres
Yearlings 1.5 to 2 acre
Weanlings 0.5 to 1 acre

Wintry weather feed naturally would be cut hay, and again, premium if you can find it.  It ought to be cut early, be leafy and green in color and as free as achievable of dirt, moulds, weeds and stubble.  This feed is often abundant with protein, minerals and natural vitamins.

Yes, it's possible to use alfalfa hay, but take care about the higher protein contents if you are feeding to young developing horses, as it could contain an unnecessary amount of calcium in relationship to phosphorus.  Too much calcium isn't good for rising horses.  If you're not positive about hay quality, have it analyzed.

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