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What do horses eat?

So just how much do horses eat?... Well, we know they eat a lot! Ideally, they will eat for up to 16 hours a day, grazing on high fibre forage, walking slowly as they do so. This is fine if they have free range on the right sort of pasture but when it comes to us having to work out just how much is 'lots' it can be confusing.

Horses need plenty of fibre to keep their incredible guts working well. Fibre gives plants strength – it’s their skeleton. Not all fibre is the same. What our horses need is fibre from forage – edible green plants. Horses are not adapted to the fibre in cereal grains or straw for instance.

As horses evolved and became larger, a whole host of microorganisms evolved with them. They convert the right sort of fibre into fuel the horse can utilise. The wrong food can kill off good microbes and allow harmful ones to proliferate. So, basically, we are feeding a gut full of microbes and they in turn look after the horse.

Back to how much... A horse needs to eat 2.5% of its ideal body weight in dry matter of forage per day. This will keep the gut functioning well and the microbes happy. We go by ideal weight as this is a constant, as is the gut’s capacity that counts.

Winter weight loss, good, bad or something in between?

When the temperature decreases horses need more calories to keep warm so it is important to ensure our horses have enough food to sustain them. For good doers this may be as simple as placing hay out in the field, but poorer doer’s may need extra support. 

Forage feeding is ideal for all horses all year round, but it really comes into it’s own in colder weather. The fibre in quality forage is broken down by microbes in the hindgut. This fermentation process generates heat, providing our horses with their own in-built central heating! Cereals and low-quality fibre, such as that obtained from straw, cannot be utilised in the same way. So when it comes to keeping warm, ensuring you provide plenty of quality forage, such as hay or buckets of soaked HayCare, is essential for horses when it is cold and grazing is in short supply.

Reducing the risk of impaction colic in cold weather

Frost and the increased risk of laminitis

Feeding the itchy horse

Itchiness can be caused by a variety of factors; some within our control such as those affected by diet or management and some beyond our control i.e. environmental factors such as the weather or pollens. Soaps, sprays and detergents can also irritate sensitive skin and some horses do appear a lot more sensitive than others!

Itchy cobs may have underlying conditions such as Mallenders or Chronic Progressive Lymphoedema (CPL) whilst native breeds can often be prone to conditions such as sweet-itch.

There is little scientific evidence for 'best practise' but it is usually important to keep sugar and starch levels low and remove common irritants such as cereals and their by-products, also soya, molasses and artificial additives or bulkers.

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Managing changes in routine during winter

In winter it can be hard to strike a balance between horse ownership and day-to-day life; less daylight means many horses spend an increasing amount of time indoors and may also have less interaction with their owners who are dashing back home to thaw out!

Some horse’s enjoy their “home comforts” - a deep bed, a pile of hay and a warm mash of soaked Lucie Nuts, but for others, spending more time stabled can be stressful and take some getting used to.  Similar to changing their feed, management changes should also be introduced gradually, so if you know your yard restricts turn out from 1st December for example, start stabling them for short periods now.

If your horse doesn’t cope well with being stabled for longer, there are lots of things you can do to help:

Feeding the poor doer in winter

How much linseed is safe to feed my horse?

"How much linseed can I feed?" is a question we are often asked. Start with 25g per 100kg of the horse's ideal weight, for example 125g for a 500kg horse. If needed you can increase up to three times this amount. Build up gradually, taking up to 4 weeks to increase to this level. 

Instant Linseed is nature's finest source of plant derived, essential omega 3. It is high quality with 42% oil compared with 38% in other sources of linseed. It is always a great addition to the feed, but especially with hay or haylage, as omega 3 is lost in these. During the autumn moult, additional Instant Linseed aids and hastens moulting, ensuring a healthy, shiny coat. As a natural anti-inflammatory, it is helpful in any inflammatory condition.

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