What Should I Feed My Horse Daily?

Feeding a horse isn’t just about offering hay and grain — it’s about meeting the horse’s biological needs in a way that supports health, performance, and welfare. This guide walks you through the essentials of daily feeding, how to avoid common mistakes like over-supplementing, and how to balance your horse’s diet confidently.

1. Start with Forage: The Bulk of Every Horse’s Diet

Horses are grazing herbivores with a digestive system adapted to nearly constant intake of fibrous plant material. Forage should make up at least 1.5–2% of the horse’s body weight per day — more if possible.

📌 Daily forage guideline:

• A typical 500 kg (1100 lb) horse needs 7.5–15 kg (16–33 lb) of hay daily.
• Spread feedings throughout the day using slow feeders or hay nets to support natural trickle feeding.

Why Forage Matters:

• Supports gut health and motility
• Reduces risk of gastric ulcers and colic
• Maintains a healthy microbiome and mental calm
• Constant forage +2.5% of body weight prevents sand impaction
• Encourages natural chewing, which promotes dental wear and saliva production

2. Analyze Your Hay

Even high-quality hay can be deficient or imbalanced in minerals like copper, zinc, and selenium. The only way to know what your horse is actually eating is to test your forage.

📌 Benefits of hay analysis:

• Confirms protein, sugar (NSC), fiber, and mineral levels
• Helps you choose the right balancer or supplement
• Prevents unnecessary or dangerous oversupplementation

🧪 Affordable hay testing is available through labs like Equi-Analytical (USA). Choose a test with WSC, ESC, starch, and minerals, the 603 Trainer $79 is a good one.

🌾 How Hay Maturity Affects Nutrition and Intake

The nutritional quality and palatability of hay directly impact how much a horse will eat. These qualities are influenced by the stage of maturity at which the plant was harvested.

As hay matures, its nutritional profile changes:

• 🔺 Higher fiber content (especially NDF)
• 🔻 Lower protein content
• 🔻 Reduced digestible energy
• 🔻 Lower sugar and starch (hydrolyzable carbohydrates)

More mature hay tends to have thicker stems and fewer leaves, which makes it less digestible and less palatable. Horses often eat less hay voluntarily when fiber (NDF) exceeds 65%.

As I previously said, visual assessment isn’t enough — a proper hay analysis is essential to determine the actual levels of protein, fiber, and energy.

Feeding recommendations based on hay maturity:

• ✅ Mature hay is ideal for horses at maintenance or light work — it supports slow eating without excess calories.
• ✅ Early-cut, higher-quality hay is better for horses with higher energy needs, such as growing foals, lactating mares, and performance horses.

3. Understand a Horse’s Nutritional Requirements

Here’s a simplified chart based on NRC (2007) values for a 500 kg (1,100 lb) mature horse in light work:

📚 Source: NRC, 2007

4. Add Salt

Salt is essential every day, especially in hot weather or with exercise. Horses won’t always lick enough from blocks, so additional loose salt may be needed.

🧂 Daily salt guidelines:

• 1–2 tablespoons of plain white salt added to feed
• Or: offer free-choice loose salt alongside forage

🧱 Salt Block Options:

• Plain white salt: Pure sodium chloride
• Mineralized salt blocks: Contain trace minerals (Cu, Zn, Mn, I) — normally have too little minerals. It’s best to provide free choice or give with feed.
• Electrolyte blocks: For working horses in hot weather

⚠️ Always check what’s in your salt lick — if you’re using a fortified grain or balancer, a mineralized salt lick may lead to excess intake.

Suggestions:

Contains The 6 Core Micro Minerals: Zinc, Manganese, Cobalt, Copper, Iodine and Iron

Replaces minerals lost in sweat during exercise, extreme weather & stressful conditions, 5 lb., 40 day supply

Minerals Include Zinc, Manganese, Cobalt, Copper, Iodine and Iron

Not only does it have minerals, but it adds garlic for insect control.

Vtiamin stability, added antioxidants, weather resistant

5. Use a Ration Balancer or Supplement Wisely

Hay is essential, but it’s often lacking in key nutrients—especially copper, zinc, selenium, and vitamin E. If your horse’s diet consists mostly of hay or pasture, it’s important to identify and fill in these gaps to maintain optimal health and performance.

🔹 What is a Ration Balancer?

A ration balancer is a concentrated, low-calorie pelleted feed that supplies essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids—especially lysine—without the added sugars and starches found in traditional grain mixes.

Best for:

• Easy keepers on forage-only diets
• Horses that don’t need high-calorie feeds

Typically fed at just 1–2 lbs per day, a balancer ensures your horse meets their daily nutrient requirements without without unwanted calories or energy surges.

🔹 What is a Vitamin-Mineral Supplement?

These come in powdered, pelleted, or loose forms and are often used with carrier feeds like soaked beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, or hay cubes. They’re non-caloric (or very low-calorie) and provide baseline levels of trace minerals and fat-soluble vitamins.

Useful for:

• Horses on forage-only diets
• Senior horses with custom feeding needs
• Horses on pasture that don’t need a balancer pellet

🧪 These supplements are typically fed in amounts ranging from 30 to 120 grams/day, depending on the product.

⚠️ Avoid Oversupplementation

Many horses today receive multiple supplements, salt licks, and fortified feeds. This can lead to wasting your money because your horse doesn’t need it and if fed too much, to dangerously high levels causing toxicity to horses. Modern feeding programs often include:

• Ration balancers or fortified feeds
• Free-choice mineral or salt blocks
• Additional supplements

🔍 Always cross-reference feed and supplement labels with your hay analysis (or a forage report, if possible). If you’re already using a ration balancer or fortified feed, do not add a separate vitamin-mineral supplement unless directed by a nutritionist or vet.

6. Avoid Feeding Too Much Grain

Grain isn’t inherently harmful — but it’s often overfed or fed inappropriately, especially to horses who don’t need the extra calories or starch. Excessive grain intake can disrupt the digestive system and increase the risk of:

• Insulin spikes in metabolic or IR-prone horses
• Hindgut acidosis (from undigested starch fermenting in the large intestine)
• Colic and laminitis
• Gastric ulcers (especially in stalled or performance horses)

🧠 Did You Know?
Most horses in light work or on good hay do not need grain. Ration balancers or vitamin-mineral supplements are often sufficient to meet nutritional needs without the risks.

Grain Alternatives for Safer Calories:

For horses needing more calories without the risks of high-starch grains, consider:

• Soaked beet pulp (fermentable fiber, supports gut health)
• Alfalfa pellets or cubes (adds protein and calcium)
• Stabilized rice bran (high fat, low starch energy source)
• Flaxseed or chia (adds fat, omega-3s, supports skin and joints)

7. Don’t Feed by Volume — Feed by Weight

You can’t know how much your horse is eating without weighing it.

• Two flakes of hay can range from 2–8 lbs depending on type and compression
• A scoop of pelleted feed can weigh far more than the same volume of textured feed

📏 Use a digital scale and record your feed weights consistently.

8. Watch Sugar & Starch (NSC) in At-Risk Horses

Horses with insulin dysregulation, PPID (Cushing’s), EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome), or a history of laminitis must be managed carefully when it comes to non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) — which include sugars, starch, and fructans.

🔹 What’s a Safe NSC Level?

For metabolically at-risk horses:

• Ideal total NSC in forage and feed: under 10–12%
• For severe cases (e.g., active laminitis or PPID): target <10% NSC in total diet

🧪 NSC = WSC (water-soluble carbohydrates) + starch
Get your hay tested to know the actual content — it can vary widely!

🔹 How to Reduce NSC in the Diet:

Use:

• Dry lots with controlled hay feeding
• Grazing muzzles
• Limited turnout windows

9. Feed Frequently — and Reduce Time Without Forage

Horses need to chew throughout the day to maintain gut health. Long fasting periods increase ulcer and colic risk.

• No more than 4–6 hours without forage
• Divide meals and use slow feeders or hay bags/nets to extend intake
• Feed grain (if necessary) only after forage has been consumed
• Try using less energy dense hay so you can feed more

🕒 The more natural your schedule, the better for gut health and behavior.

10. Adapt the Diet to the Horse’s Life Stage and Health

Each horse is an individual — age, breed, medical history, and activity level all influence what to feed.

• Seniors: May need soaked feeds if teeth are worn
• Foals and broodmares: Require higher protein, calcium, and lysine
• Performance horses: Have higher vitamin E, fat, and electrolyte needs
• Metabolic horses: Need a very controlled, low-sugar diet
• Horses with ulcers: Need forage access, alfalfa, and reduced starch

🩺 Always work with a vet or equine nutritionist

Final Advice: Think Holistically, Feed Responsibly

• Test your hay so you know what’s missing
• Weigh everything you feed
• Avoid doubling up on nutrients from multiple sources
• Provide forage around the clock
• Match supplements to the actual needs — not marketing claims

By combining science, observation, and regular monitoring, you’ll build a feeding program that supports your horse’s long-term health — from the inside out.

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