Horse how much hay

Most horses are given grain twice a day for the convenience of their human caretakers. If for some reason you must give your horse a large quantity of grain, consider an additional lunchtime feeding. Small, frequent meals not only are more natural for the horse, but they also allow the horse to better digest and use their food.

When a horse is fed too much at once, the food isn't digested as effectively. Sign up to receive our exclusive e-book full of training techniques, problem-solving and important information about caring for your pet.

Sudden differences in the amount or type of feed can lead to colic or founder. One method for changing the type of feed is to replace 25 percent of the current food with the new food every two days, so that in six days the horse is eating l00 percent of the new food. The average thousand-pound horse who relies on hay for all their forage typically eats fifteen to twenty pounds of hay per day. Most hay is dispensed in flakes; however, the amount of hay in a flake can vary greatly, depending on the size of the flake and the kind of hay.

Ideally, you should wait an hour or so after your horse has finished a meal before riding them. Passage rate through the small intestine to the large intestine is quite rapid and if a large amount of grain, which contains high levels of soluble sugars, is ingested, the capacity of the small intestine is quickly overwhelmed. When high levels of soluble carbohydrates reach the large intestine, they are rapidly fermented, resulting in overproduction of gas and lactic acid, which can lead to colic and laminitis, respectively.

So, in order to maximize digestive efficiency and prevent digestive upset a horse should be fed several small meals throughout the day.

But, do you know how much your horse is supposed to eat every day? The answer to this question depends on the physiological status of the animal if it is growing, pregnant, or lactating and on the work level of the horse. The daily dry matter intake of an adult horse performing light work should be about 1.

In other words, a 1, lb horse should be fed 18 pounds of dry matter each day. Dry matter DM is the amount of feed that does not contain moisture; the DM content of hay is considerably higher than fresh grass.

Note: the hay analysis should show the DM content of your forage. Weighing hay is the most effective way to measure the correct amount. Flakes of hay vary widely in weight, depending on forage type, size and tightness of bales; therefore, measuring hay by this method can result in misrepresentation of forage amount.

The same can be said for measuring concentrates. A coffee can or a scoop of grain is an arbitrary amount. A scale with a capacity of at least 10 pounds is a must in all horse barns! You can certainly measure feed quantities by flakes of hay or coffee cans of grain after you determine how much each of those units actually weighs. That horse will need approximately 2. If you offer your animal 5 pounds 2.

As I have already mentioned, the primary source of food for horses is pasture. It is dry and has lesser nutritional value. During this time, horses get most calories and nutrients from hay. In other words, you should provide more hay for it in winter than in summer.

Another reason why the appropriate hay supply is crucial for horses when it is cold is that it keeps them warm. So, the colder it gets outside, the more hay your horse needs to eat to get the desired warming effect. How many times a day you feed your horses is also crucial in keeping them warm. A natural way of feeding includes consuming small but frequent portions of hay throughout the day. That helps digestion and allows the horse to use more nutrients out of every bite. Since digestion provides energy and keeps the horse warm, it is recommended to offer it a larger evening portion to keep it warm the whole night.

The rule of thumb is to feed your horse with multiple but smaller portions of food throughout the year, not only when it is cold. Horses have a specific digestion system, with a long colon, made particularly for digesting plant fibers.

You should be aware that a horse can get colic if its colon is not regularly full. The same thing is with digesting all food at once, leaving the digestive system without work for the rest of the day. The best way of keeping your horses healthy is by establishing a strict feeding routine. One more thing! Remember that horses have an exact internal clock, so you need to feed your animal at the same time every day.

When feeding a horse, it is helpful to divide hay into smaller portions so you can track more accurately how much it eats. To do that, you can separate the hay bales into flakes, the bale sections you can divide by hand.

The number of flakes in a bale is not always the same, but you can probably get a dozen of them from each square bale. Knowing an average bale of hay weighs about 60 pounds 23 kg , you can quickly calculate the weight of each flake. The math is not complicated at all.