According to body weight??

Question

what is the average amount of grain fed to horses in a day?

according to a horses body weight how much grain do you determine to feed them? and according to weight how much hay do you determine to feed them?

for exmple say we have a 1000lbs pasture horse, how would ou determine his feeding amounts?

in winter, spring, summer and fall..

thanks!

Answer 1

A few things first, we all like to think that our horses get heavy work. Truth is, most horses are at moferate to light work. It sounds like your working your horse moderatly. A typical hunter is classified as light work while a jumper would usually be classified as moderate work. Being ridden for half an hour and jumped around is light work for an animal who is fit. Heavy work would be something like 45 minutes flat work while having the horses heart rate at its maximum level before exhaustion and then jumping another 45 minutes. Thats an awful lot of work and most horses, except your endurance horses, dont usually get worked that much.

The second things you need to consider are age, weight (very important), what you want to do with him, and what you want the feed to do, and most important of all... the health of the animal.

Age is a factor since you can feed a foal a senior feed nor can you feed your pasture "lawn ornimant" a performance feed. The result would be a disaster. Im going to guess your horse is not a senior in this case.

The biggest factor is his weight. When you feed it is by weight and BY WEIGHT ONLY. So many times my customers tell me they feed a scoop of this and two scoops of that. There are so many different feed forms that a scoop of one thing will weight very differently as a scoop of something else. Feeds are formulated by weight. The manufacture produces a feed and prints the reccomended amout to be feed on the back. Those feeding guildlines are important and should be followed. They are fomulated so that the animal will get to proper nutritional needs met as long as properly fed.

What you want to do with him is another factor. Are you going to be taking him to shows and competing? If so you will probably need a performance feed so that he is getting enough energy. Are you riding for fun and dont plan on taking him to shows? You would probably be fine with a sweet feed for an active pleasure horse. Are you going to retire him soon? You would probably need a compleate feed. Basically you want to look at the calories your horse is consuming. You want to keep them balanced so that your horse does not consume more then he uses (wieght gain among other problems) nor do you want to be "starving your horse" by not providing the proper amount of calories. When your horse does not consume the calories he needs, his body will use calories that are stored in his body. This is what you dont want since muscle, specifically the top line, is where those calories are taken from (basically). If you noticed his top line dissapearing, he probably needs more calories if he is a healthy equine with no health issues.

What do you want the feed to do? Is your horse a little lazy and you feel like you have to constantly ask him to move forward? You will probably need a sweet feed. Is he too forward and you need him to level out? You might want a pelleted performance feed designed to level out "hot" horses (Stratagy is an awsome one for this.) Do you want a compleate feed with forage "built in"? This would be ideal for poor pasture or poor hay quality, seniors who might have problems chewing, you cant get hay, etc. Compleate feeds are formulated so that your equine gets all the nutrition they need without having to be fed forage/roughage. But they need to be fed properly and BY WEIGHT to maintain the nutrition the animal needs.

Last but not least, the health of the animal must be factored into all this. Is your horse insulin resistant, over weight, under weight, cushings, founder, etc? Im assuming your horse is healthy since no medical issues were mentioned. When you do have health issues you want a feed that will meet all the nutritional needs that dont "upset" their condition. For example a cushings horse would need a low starch and sugar diet. The new WellSolve L/S is a great one to try for that.

Now that you know the basics, lets figure something out for you. Im going to guess your horse is about 1000 pounds. A 1000 pound horse with, from what you described, a performace lifestyle of light work would need about 20,000 calories. Any of the following diets should work for your horse-

For a compleate feed:

-18 lbs of Equine adult (a compleate feed, does not need forage supplemented, but reccomend 1-2 flakes to help with boredom)

-14.5 lbs of compleate advantage (same as above)

The following concentrates are reccomended with feeding forage (hay). You will want to feed 10-15% of the horses body weight in forage on top of the feed.

Performance feeds

-7 lbs of Stratagy supplemented with hay

-5.5 lbs of Ultium with the forage

Sweet feeds

-6.5 lbs of omolene 200 with the forage.

-7 lbs of horsemans egde with the forage.

Now these are guidlines to get you started. You will want to monitor your horse and adjust as needed since ever horse is different. If you do adjust, no more then 1 pound of something; either adding or taking away. If youre using alfalfa hay reduce the feeds reccomended by 1/2 -1 lb. You will want to make any feeding changes gradually over 7-10 days. Dont forget to weigh the feed out. You can use a fish scale available at most fishing stores and a plastic bag. And as always, water and salt should always be available at all times. Dont forget to consult your vet if you have any concerns and they can point you in the right direction as well.

When feeding concentrates (grains) to an average horse, remember to never give more then 5 pounds at a time.  Their digestive system is designed to graze in small amounts all day.  Ideally, spread out your concentrates throughout the day.  Depending on how harsh your seasons vary will determin feed increases.  In southern california, we rarely have to adjust our feed amounts since our season really doesnt change.  Just adjust as needed if you notice your horse losing or gaining weight, and follow the guildlines.

Answer 2

In my opinion, people grain their horses too much.  I think it's more healthy to provide more forage (grazing, hay) and less grain.  Mine get grain basically as a treat, and not that much of it.

Horses should have around 2% of their body weight in hay, and more in the winter.  So a 1100 lb. horse needs 22 lbs of hay.  I usually feed more, just to be safe.  Also, if the horse isn't overweight and is finishing all of the hay you're giving him, it's a good sign you're not feeding him too much.  You can up it a little and see if he cleans it all up.  If he's wasting hay and not finishing it, you're overfeeding him.  Or if he's overweight, feed a little less but stick close to the 2% rule.

Answer 3

If the horse isn't doing strenuous exercise (racing, endurance, polo, a lot of jumping, etc.)   and isn't underweight, then he doesn't need grain.

That said, if he is being ridden for 2 or 3 hours a day 6 days a week, or he's losing weight sith his current diet, you can begin adding a balanced feed, at 1/2 lb. per feeding, and gradually increase from there. 1.5 to 2% of the horse's weight in lbs. should be fed as forage (hay or pasture).  Another 0.5 to 1% can be in hard feed.  At least 70% of the horses' feed must be in forage.

Guidleines are:

1.5 Mcals/100 lbs BW for maintenance

strenuous work requires an additional 1.8 Mcals /100 lbs bw/hr of strenuous work

light work 0.9 Mcals additional.

So if you can't meet the calorie requirement with forage, then you add hard feed.

So for a 1000 lb horse in normal condition (not fat and not underweight, not pregnant or nursing)  you would start with  15 to 20 lbs of hay/day for a stabled horse. At pasture, a horse consumes the equivalent of 15 to 25 lbs of hay/24 hours, so no need to add hay to his diet.  Just be aware of how much grass there actually  is in the pasture, and supplement hay if necessary. Every horse is a little different, has a different metabolism, so the owner just has to monitor the horse's body condition, and slowly make changes as necessary.

If he needs the grain for calories for strenuous work, you could begin to add it. You'll need to know the caloric value of the grain you choose to feed.

Regarding seasons, a horse will burn a few more calories in very cold weather, esp. if kept outside and not blanketed.

In my opinion, the guidelines on the feedbags are too high.

Answer 4

(I've managed horses for a little over 26 years) wow - don't have just anyone answer - buy a horse management book - call the previous owner.  I'm a pony club mother - so I got to read excellent books about horse management - there is sooooo much to know.  I can't begin to imagine someone sold you a horse without 'beginning instructions' - to hold you until you've either spoken to a great equine vet or got a horsemanagement book!  

yes there are feeding formula's - total calories divided between hay and grain.  Hay has to be good quality, free of any dust.  

but you never 'change feed',  change feed time, without it being most gradual .

A sad story, my mother, fairly wealthy, acquired two lovely paso fino's in puerto rico, leased a barn to take care of them herself.  She ordered bales of alfalfa from the local race track and went to the local feed store - bought several bags of the most expensive feed - bought many supplements (she killed two horses with great intentions of just spoiling them)  they didn't die quickly - they suffered a long time - first they coliced (severe tummy ache) which often and did lead to laminitis (no blood flow into the hooves) the hoof walls actually fell off.  Since she had money she spent over 100k shipping vet in from texas to cut the rest of the hoof wall off the male horse and had a harness made for him - espanoleta - and he hung in his fancy barn as he couldn't step on his bandaged hooves - he lost all muscles in his legs.  In a few years he lost hundreds of pounds, the vet told her to feed him timothy hay and little grain until his hooves grew back - don't know how much she paid attention - do know the horse was merciful put down when this 900 pound animal reached approx 200 pounds - just bones

but all this is triggered by NOT KNOWING THE FOOD HE COULD EAT - what the previous owner fed, his lifestyle, etc.  the female horse - his daughter just died one day.  her feet were not as bad but she was lame.  

The male horse was a show horse the day before my mom bought him. He's pictured in a Paso Fino magazine with one of his wins!  maybe 1986  I believe she got his daughter for free -

sad story

point FIND OUT EXACTLY WHAT YOUR HORSE IS USED TO - IF DIFFICULT TO BUY, GET IT ANYWAY AND SLOWLY REPLACE WITH WHAT IS SIMILAR IN YOUR AREA.  Find out what activity your horse used to do - ride hard several days - or lounge in fields all day.  

The amount of food is determined by the age, activity, weight of your horse.  your horse needs roughage first, to start the digestion engine -

the grain must be stored in a covered container away from vermin or dampness.

if you miss feeding your horse a meal NEVER double the next meal

best get a book or a most knowledgeable horsey person

best of care to your horse

dorothy

Answer 5

in the colder weathers you should feed your horse more to give that horse more energy to keep itself warm. if you have a more active horse feed more than the regular and if you have a lazy horse, like a pasture horse, then feed less than the regular

for every 1,000 lb of the horse, feed it 10 lb of hay a day

and i think you should feed your horse 2 scoops of grain a day (1 scoop = 1 lb), i'm not too sure on the grain though. you should look it up in the web