Grain
How much concentrate or grain you feed your horse will depend on your goal.
Do you want your horse to gain weight?
Is your Mare pregnant or nursing a foal
Is your horse working very hard and needs extra energy?
Read the label on the feed bag. It will probably tell you to feed a certain percentage per body weight. This percentage will guarantee that the horse is getting the recommended nutrition. However, depending on the horse’s condition or workload some people will adjust that amount.
The proper way to measure grain is by weight, so an old kitchen scale is handy. Weigh the feed in the scoop or container which you are using to dispense your grain and note how much feed is in the container. That way you won’t have to weigh the feed each time. Also, be aware that all feed does not weigh the same. Your scoop or container of oats will be much lighter than a pelleted concentrate.
There are no set standard for feeding a horse. Every horse and every horses needs are different. Monitoring your horse’s condition and energy levels is the only way to tell if your horse needs more or less garin or hay. If your horse is too energetic, you’ll want to decrease the amount of energy producing feed. If your horse is loosing weight or tires easily in work and is eating free choice quality hay or pasture you’ll need to increase the horse’s feed concentrates.
The bulk of your horse’s diet should be either hay or grass. If you are going to add grain or concentrates to your horse’s diet you can replace up to 40% of its fodder with the concentrate. In some special cases horses are fed only 1% of their body weight in hay. But feeding high concentrate to fodder ratios can cause boredom (fence chewing, weaving, cribbing), colic, or other problems. Horses are foraging animals and therefore, providing them with good quality hay, several small meals every day or all day turnout on grass pasture is more beneficial for their health and well being. Add grains as a supplement to this diet and you will have a happy and healthy horse!
