How to feed correctly ?

It depends on the horse (or pony) These things are very similar to humans too.

• How tall/high or how short

• How substantial or lightweight – i.e. body/bone type or build

• How laid back or how energetic (good doer or not)

• How fat or how thin (right now – not next month or last month/season/year)

  • Use a body score system and feel that fat with your palms and fingers (go on – feel your own ribs too – it will be a similar feeling of either too much fat or just enough covering)

Use the following calculations – depoending on whether you work in Kg or lbs:

• Girth x girth x length, divided by 11,900 = Body weight in kg
• Girth x girth x length, divided by 330 = Body weight in lbs

When feeding you MUST also take into account:

• Exercise / workload – you MUST be really honest about the daily or weekly length of time and type of riding you do.

• Overall life care system – Do they live in/out? Are they clipped?

• Age – younger and older animals require different things. They may be still growing or older horses find it difficult to chew with have fewer teeth, etc.

• Per feed weight: Digestive system should not be overloaded. Try not to give more than 3.5 – 4 lbs (1.5 – 2kg) per feed for a horse. THIS ALWAYS includes chaff and sugar beet.

• (for ponies it would be 3 – 3.5 lbs (1.25 – 1.5kg)

Changing the diet

Changing your horse’s diet should be done gradually. We do this to:

• Avoid disruption of the gut and nutrients and flora making within the gut

• Avoid colic – It’s really easy to get colic when changing turnout regimes in Autumn and Spring. When you change from living in to turning out, the grass and hay/haylage intake changes enormously.

• How long is gradually?

  • We used to be told to take 7 – 10 days to make a gradual change.

  • Now, 2 – 3 weeks is the minimum recommended

Week 1 You feed 75% of the old diet and 25% of the new diet
Week 2 You feed 50% old diet and 50% new diet
Week 3 You feed 25% old diet and 75% new diet

Week 4 All of the new diet

Remember to avoid colic – so include this 3-4 week regime when changing from Summer grazing to bringing in to the stabke more often and eating hay/haylage and use this regime when changing from Winter to Spring and Summer when you start to turn out more often and your horse is eating more grass – do it over a 3 week period. Do not do this quickly – not overnight or just over 1 week – be sure to take 3 weeks minimum.