What to feed a horse?

[wellington77]

Hi, I’ve just started sharing a horse, now I’ve ridden most of my life I’m in my 30’s however I was never the one when I did have a pony growing up who was incharge of knowing what to feed to horses in terms of actually knowing what and how much should be given. I just remember, hay, carrots and some pellets and grass. I havent lived at home since I was 18 have had horse shares etc since. Anyways I have become interested in what should be fed to a horse as the horse I’m sharing at the moment is fed all sorts of things and it has bamboozled me! Eg- coconut! Anyways, I’ve had a read and can see that horses need protein, carbs, fat, minerals and water. Is there horse feed that combines all of them, to make it simple for everyone? also how do people get fat into that horses diet? And lastly how do you know how much to feed your horse and what on earth is a balance?! Thank you if you have read all of this!

I think you could ask 100 horse owners and get 100 different answers to this question.
In my opinion most people make this far too complicated. I feed grass only 9 months of the year. Then it runs out and I supplement with good quality haylage though I used to feed hay when I had a reliable supply.
We have apple trees so throw them into the mix for a few months in autumn. May or may not get hold of some decent carrots in the new year when the apples run out.
Other than that I do give a handful of pony/grass nuts so they come running up to be ‘fed’ when I turn up at the field.
This has always been enough for my native good doers in regular but not heavy work.
When I rode a lot ( 15 hours a week with a lesson, schooling session and 4 long hacks per week) I used to give my cob a small amount of racehorse feed. I was giving him a more normal course mix and he didn’t have enough energy. I called the feed company helpline and they recommended a smaller amount of the higher energy feed.
Then when my ds’s pony club pony was lacking energy we were advised to put him on oats. Worked great for him as he is very well behaved so put all the extra energy into his job.
The feed companies will try to persuade you every horse needs a concoction of feeds and supplements but in reality most just need high quality forage be that grass, hay or haylage.

It depends on the horse and its circumstances.

A thoroughbred will need more supplementation with hay and/or mixes than a native pony. (Carrots are treats, not part of the diet, imho.)

If it has 24/7 turnout in a large well-grassed area it will have different needs from a horse which is mostly stabled.

Are you responsible for feeding your share horse? Or is this more general interest?

You feed according to:

• current condition
• level of work doing now (not what you might do in 3 months)
• temperament
• age

The basis of all diets should be forage ie grass/hay. Most leisure horses are in light work so you want 90%+ of diet to be forage.
If horses are in work you need a broad spectrum balancer.

There is a real issue with over feeding and we have lost sight of what a healthy weight looks like. A lot of horses are obese. Most horses don't need a hard feed beyond a balancer, as long as they are getting sufficient grass + hay.

Personally I feel straights rather than mixes but that's because I have a good level of knowledge. The issue with mixes is:

• people add multiple mixes which then unbalance the diet
• has some ingredients I prefer not to feed my horses eg soya etc

Mixes are formulated for specific activity and issues and many are already balanced.

Marketing + advertising have created a mind blowing range of horse feeds but a lot of people don't understand the basics of nutrition eg Coolstance Copra (coconut) has to be treated like bran so you have to supplement with calcium. Linseed has to be balanced with Vit E etc.

They are trickle feeders and graze 16-18 hours out of 24. Hard feed should be fed little and often. Never leave a horse without hay if stabled as they should always have access to forage 24/7.

For further learning would recommend you get the BHS feeds + feeding manual as a starting point.

Most people over feed leisure horses (in terms of bucket feed). As above, 90% of leisure horses are in low work. If you look at what constitutes work levels (I’ll see if I can find the link) low is a lot more than people think.

When my cob was training/competing on endurance he was the fittest horse on the yard, doing more work than anything else, and he was just in medium. Off the top of my head that was at least 1.5hrs of trotting per week and 30 min of canter. I used a tracking ap to measure what we were doing- trust me most people do a lot less than they think. I remember when I started I’d come back from a ride and think we’d done two long canters but actually it was only, say 1m 47sec of canter- it goes v quick when you’re covering a lot of ground!

With my cob I stuck to grass/hay and a balancer when he was in low levels of work. When he needed more I added a small amount of Alfa pellets for more protein but low sugar/starch (some horses are sensitive to Alfa, mine wasn’t), and oats.

But really I found fitness the thing that gave them more ooomph. The fitter they are the more willing and forward because it’s easier.

However, it really depends on horse type. We had a 17.2 gangly warm blood for s while who struggled to hold weight- which was novel, having always had good doers. With him it was upping the calories, whilst keeping the starch and sugars low- in his case copra (coconut meal), was useful as the starch and sugar is low but it’s high calorie. He had free access to haylage and hay 24/7 but we couldn’t get enough volume in to match his calorific needs so we had to introduce high density calories in a smaller volume.

If you keep an eye on the local feed merchants they will very often have evening events where reps from the firms give talks / answer questions about nutrition and the different feeds . Obviously they will be biased towards their brand but still interesting and informative . Personally I feed as little hard feed as necessary. Back in the day when I was feeding ours / doing it myself I used to feed breakfast and dinner and it was a combination of alrounder mix , chaff and nuts with soaked sugar beet or molasses on the dinner , amounts varied for who I was feeding . I think feeds have moved on , supplements certainly have as our last remaining pony is on all sorts .

https://extension.psu.edu/characterizing-the-exercise-workloads-and-energy-needs-of-horses

There you go. I used to use a heart rate monitor to check how hard he was actually working too, but that’s beyond what you really need.

You need to think why you’re feeding- is your horse loosing or gaining weight, obviously a native type is more likely to be a good doer and hold onto any fat stores. A lot of leisure horses just need a balancer to top up their protein/amino acids because they are getting their calorie needs met in forage alone. Plus owners like to feel they are getting something if everything else on the yard is fed at the same time, so a small amount of balancer is a good way to meet those needs.

But if you’re thinking of your share horse, I’d probably just defer to the owner so you don’t tread on their toes.

Good luck!

Also, feed companies come out and do free weight checks/advice sessions if you can get enough people to participate- I think spillers used to be 10 horses on a yard.

They condition score your horse, weigh them and suggest a suitable feeding regime (from their range of course!)

Don’t forget the advice lines if you have fewer equines. Very useful for the average owner with a specific query. Obviously biased towards their brand but you don’t have to follow their advice or pick up their brand if your local shop stocks something similar.

I've never fed anything more than forage & a balancer to mine.

The perfect diet would be forage based but not exclusively grass/hay as high in sugar. Most of our grass is rye grass which was introduced to feed & fatten livestock. . In the wild horses eat a variety of forage - grasses, trees, bark, heather, gorse etc. This gives the horse all the energy, vitamins, minerals & protein they need.

Most leisure horses still do best on diverse grazing/browsing but that is not always possible & few people have access to this & horses often end up with mainly overgrazed rye grass with little in the way of diverse browsing. That's why most people top up with a balancer that provides vitamins, minerals etc that are lacking.

It varies alot between horses though. A foal/youngster or an older horse may need hard feed, as will thoroughbreds or 'poor doers' there's different advice for horses with metabolic issues etc.

Always start with low sugar forage and a balancer & then take it from there. If they are gaining weight then restrict the forage and if they are losing condition then increase the energy content of the forage. The coconut meal you have seen is still fibre based but it's more conditioning.

Horses need a constant supply of fibre/forage going through their system so small amounts over a long period of time rather than humans/dogs/cats that have 2-3 large 'meals' a horse would get ulcers if they were fed 3 meals a day.

just general interest 😊

Thankyou guys for all the replies. I’m not sure why but basically I have become quite interested in it the past week, then the more I read it’s like going down a rabbit hole! There is horse complete feed mixes?- why doesn’t everyone just use those along with hay and grass and salt lick , instead of buying lots of single items?

I also find it very interesting. So many choices on the market - and as PP said, so many different opinions :)

I've explained why in my post: mixes contain things I don't want to feed my horses and I prefer straights as I can alter and control them more easily. Straights also work out cheaper. But to feed straights you need more knowledge and experience.
When I was young we only ever had straights so we were taught correctly how to use them properly ie protein/DE content. Today people just grab a bag of mix without understanding the ingredients etc

PP have explained that to you.

Most horses won't need a hard feed as most of the things they need are in the fibre/forage that's the main part of their diet. A balancer will replace any missing vitamins, minerals, proteins etc. Something like Spillers daily balancer or Top spec balancer.

Cereals aren't good for horses. They aren't evolved to eat them. Sometimes they are necessary eg to keep condition in young/old/intense work but most horses do best on a forage based diet with a balancer.

You can get complete feeds eg happy hoof that include a balancer so if you are feeding the recommended amount you don't need to add a balancer. There's also 'straight' chaffs eg Honey chop lite & healthy or mollichaff light that don't include a balancer. I use the latter as mine will only ever have a token amount eg 1 stubbs scoop so wouldn't get the required vitamins from the happy hoof.

@wellington77 in addition to not wanting to feed a complete mix because it’s more expensive and it may contain ingredients an owner doesn’t like, most of them have absolutely whopping feeding rates! If your average hobby horse ate the amounts recommended on the bag it’d be obese.

As an example (this is not what I feed btw, I’ve literally just googled a well known brand and what I could see as their bog standard leisure horse mix): If you wanted to feed Saracen’s horse and pony cooling mix, for your average sized large native pony/small horse of 400-600kg you would need to feed 2 to 3.5kg of the mix per day!

If you don’t feed it at the recommended feeding rate, then you are not meeting the horse’s vitamin/mineral or protein needs…. (Which I’ve seen is something some people don’t seem to realise- they seem to latch onto the idea of complete feed and think job done). But for a lot of horses if you fed them mix at those sort of quantities they’d be very fat, and your wallet would likely be very empty!

That is an interesting point @Stillplodding - a bit like humans trying to get their daily fibre intake from currant buns :)

Thankyou a very interesting read everyone

Ours get:
Grass
In the winter they get:
What grass is left
Hay
Alfa a oil mixed with sugar beet
If mine starts losing weight I add some micronised linseed.

Light/medium work.

Please may I ask what Alfa an oil does and sugar beet do?

Please do proper reading on this topic. I already advised on the BHS book of feeds + feeding. It is complex and you can damage a horse if you don't understand the basics

im not in charge of feeding a horse, I’m just curious, please don’t be so sharp with me. I’m not buying a book for that reason. You did not state what sugar beet does or the oil. I’m messaging someone else not you. If you feel I’m asking repetitive questions feel free to not be involved in the chat

Alfa-a provides slow release energy with low starch so it doesn’t give a sugar rush.

Sugar beet pulp is also high fibre and good for adding condition without a rush.

You said you wanted to learn about core nutritional elements etc. Best way to learn correctly is through an approved book. Feeding is complex and whilst on here you've been given sensible answers, another forum you may have been given incorrect answers as there is a huge lack of understanding and knowledge amongst horse owners today because they've never learned the basics.
I'm trying to help you but point taken.

Oh you asked about fat sources. Horses need much less fat than humans typically eat. Forage will contain a small percentage of fat. Commercial feeds will often use a vegetable oil to add fat; chaff is often mixed with canola oil to make it less dusty and this adds fat content. Linseed has a high fat percentage, and other fat sources are used in commercial feeds too, such as sorghum or rice bran.

It is mumsnet I am allowed to ask questions, instead of been told, stop asking questions to read a book. I’m not wanting a degree in it, I’m not in charge of feeding a horse, I only want to know what sugar beet is for! Please get this bee out of your bonnet!