How much hay should one adult horse get per day?

Question

My horse is a 17 year old quater horse mare. I ride her at least, well, it's different every day.

She's 15.3hh and there is not that much grass in the pasture, but enough where we need to start feeding her some hay.

I give her a bit of grain every late afternoon.

Answer 1

Depends is the horse only eating hay?  What kind of hay are you feeding?  Is the horse an easy keeper?  Are you trying to add weight or keep the horse about the same?  

An average 1000 lb horse should get about 3 to 5 flakes of grass hay a day.  Roughly 10-20 pounds of hay per day.  A horse depending on work level will also need 5-10 lbs of grain.  However some easy keepers don't need any grain at all.  

You may need a knowledgeable horse person to assess your horse to get a more accurate estimation.   Make sure to make feed changes gradually.

Answer 2

8 laps

Answer 3

About 1-2% of the animals body weight per day in hay.

Grain if needed.

Answer 4

2 flakes in the morning with grain and 2 flakes at night with grain

Answer 5

well in the morning we feed our mare a flake of hay and set her out in the pasture. she grazes for about 6-7 hours. Don't let your horse out to graze for more then ten hours. then we take her in the barn and feed her two flakes of hay and her grain. if you don't have grass then feed her like two flakes inthe morning and 2 at night. make sure shes not eating too much out in the pasture if you are going to do this tho. observe her for one day,

Answer 6

if the adult horse is really big like a draft horse or a TB, then 3 flakes per feeding. If the horse is a pony then 1 flake, a regular size horse 2 flakes at night and in the morning

Answer 7

... if you don't know a lot about horses you should have someone train you before you try and take care of him on your own... i learned the hard way. it depends on his size, and how active he is, and where you live [temperatures and such], and what else you feed him. I'm sorry that wasn't overly helpful. my horse i usually give 2 leaves in the morning and two leaves in the evening. but that's only because it's what he needs, it could be too much or too little for your horse.

Answer 8

half of a 90lb bale per horse

Answer 9

well, all horses should be "grazing" on hay or grass all day. they are natural foragers, so the foliage helps keep them from getting compacted and colicing. but, if you can supply that much, each 100 lbs of a horses weight sould equil 1- 1 1/2 lbs of hay per day.

Answer 10

1 stak

Answer 11

You are missing a lot on this question.

Size of the horse, age of the horse, amount of work, intensity of work, type of work, how much grain, how much grass in the pasture available.

It really depends on all of those things.

EDIT: I'd say 2 flakes of hay each time you grain (there are roughly 10 flakes in a bale, so 1/5 of a bale) would be about right if you'd like to maintain your horse's weight.

Answer 12

I feed about a half a bale a day per horse, the bales being around 50 lbs.  I actually offer it free choice, but that's what they eat.  They also get pasture over the summer, and my 15.3 gelding, not an easy keeper, also gets 4 to 5 lbs of Senior Feed daily (4 in summer, 5 in winter).

Answer 13

Our lesson horses get about 5 or 6 flakes per day... 2 in AM, 1 for lunch, 2 for PM... and they get a couple quarts of oats for breakfast and dinner.  It does depend on the horse... some horses need more to keep their weight, some need less.  For the best answer to this question, you'd have to ask your vet because that person will know your horse and how much grass there is and things like that.  I used to know an exact percentage that a horse is supposed to eat per day but I don't remember... it's some percent of their body weight... your vet would know... give him a call.

Answer 14

That would totally depend on what you are doing with your horse. Is he ridden every day? How old is he? Is he an easy keeper? How much does your horse weigh? I would think somewhere between 7-10 lbs of hay twice a day plus any supplements or grains that you are feeding.

Answer 15

it matters it xercise plu dont just feed it hay it wll need horse feed approx 2%of it body weight min

Answer 16

usually its about 2% of body wieght and then adjust for activity. Add more if horse seems to need to eat more. My horse is about 1,200 lbs and he eats about 4 flakes of grass a day. 2 in the AM and 2 in the PM

Answer 17

My 975 pound TB in medium work gets approximately 8 flakes per day, plus 8 pounds of high fat feed.

It really depends on the horse. Give her hay in the am, when she runs out give her a little more.