A properly selected diet is the key to a horse’s well-being. It is no less important in breeding production. After all, well-chosen nutrition, proper care and regular training are among the main conditions for breeding.
A properly selected diet is important for a horse. And although there is a large number of specialized feeds on the modern market, many farmers prefer to use traditional feeds: oats, silage, hay and straw. You can buy special granules, feed and vitamin mixtures on the market. They are not cheap, so not every farmer includes them in their horse’s diet.
Coarse hay is indispensable in the diet. How much hay does a horse need for the winter? Up to 10 kg of hay can be fed in its pure form. If the volume is larger, it should be cut up and given in a mixture with concentrated food.
Most farmers make their own hay. To diversify the diet, hay is taken from fields with different grass compositions.
Straw can be used to replace hay. It is lower in nutritional value, but rich in fiber. It is also recommended to feed corn and oat straw. It is given mixed with hay.
Oats are indispensable in nutrition. It is given in its pure form to healthy animals. Grinded for foals and horses with dental problems. Oats contain B vitamins, have a positive effect on digestion and contain a lot of protein. You can also give wheat and corn, rye and barley.
Indispensable in the diet are succulent feed, which consists of high-quality potatoes, root vegetables, and silage. Haylage is introduced into the diet in winter and spring.
In summer, the horse herd is switched to green feed. To avoid indigestion, do this gradually. First, a small amount of fresh mown grass is introduced into the diet, gradually increasing the volume, and only then is it transferred to pasture. In this case, you can save about 800-1000 rubles on maintaining a horse during the summer months.
Vitamin mixtures that easily replace cake and sprats are also important in nutrition; they can be corn, soy, or flax. Vitamins and microelements are also contained in salt, yeast, fish oil and special premixes. All this should be present in the horse's diet.
Over the course of a month, feeding an adult horse will require in total terms:
- Oats – 170 kg for 1190 rubles;
- Hay – 420 kg for 850 rubles;
- Bran - 42 kg for 300 rubles;
- Juicy feed - 85 kg for 510 rubles;
- Salt – 1 kg for 15 rubles.
The result is 2865 rubles for food.
Stable maintenance
To raise a horse, it is equally important to organize the premises in which the horse spends most of the day; you need to purchase equipment for the stable. Horses have a sensitive nervous system, so it is very important not only to feed them in a balanced manner, but also to take good care of them and organize comfortable living conditions.
When equipping a stable and stall for horses, a number of parameters are identified that must be observed. The stalls must be of sufficient size, well lit, and ventilation is required in the stable. The temperature is maintained between 15 and 18 degrees. Natural light plays a big role.
The stalls must be equipped with drinking bowls for horses and feeders, mangers for hay and a compartment for mineral supplements. A solarium for horses is also necessary. To simplify maintenance, you can purchase automatic waterers for horses.
In general, stable maintenance consists of maintaining temperature and lighting. Horses cannot tolerate high humidity, dirt and musty air. Cleaning is required daily. If you do not do this work yourself, you will have to hire a special person, his salary will be from 6,000 rubles per month.
Important! If you build a stable from scratch and choose an economical option for 2 heads, then the costs of construction and equipment will range from 400,000 to 500,000 rubles.
The horse must not only be fed well, but also properly looked after. They love cleanliness very much, so they need daily washing with soap. The fur, and especially the mane, is combed out with specialized brushes and a scraper. After brushing and washing, the horse is dried. You will have to spend up to 30 minutes a day caring for a horse; during this time you can communicate with the horse, which is the responsibility of the horse handler who feeds and waters the horses.
The next mandatory procedure is shoeing the hooves. For these jobs, they hire a specialist who will have to pay, unlike other horse care work that you can do yourself. How much does a farrier cost? He charges from 2000 to 6000 for work, the cost depends on the complexity of the procedure.
Ammunition
Ammunition
For the horse it is necessary to purchase special equipment. These include blankets for different seasons, saddle pads, and many other small items. Bandages and boots are required for the legs. A mandatory purchase is a saddle; it is better to pay more right away and buy a good saddle and bridle. These are not always monthly expenses; in this case, the cost of ammunition will cost up to several thousand a year.
Veterinary services
Note! If the horse gets sick, the cost of veterinarian services will increase significantly. She will need treatment, diagnostic equipment, and a specialist will have to be called to her home.
Horse tracking systems
In addition to all of the above, there will be costs for the purchase of special tracking equipment if the cultural herd method of cultivation is used. After all, with this method, animals gain weight quite quickly and grow well, but at the same time they cannot be left unattended.
Electric shepherds for horses are becoming increasingly popular. It is a low current charge fence. When a horse comes into contact with a fence, it receives a low-frequency electric shock, which does not cause any damage to it, but causes discomfort. In the future, she will develop an instinct and will stay inside the fence without trying to leave its confines. The cost of an electric shepherd is around 7000-10000, these are the cheapest options.
On a note. At the same time, they take into account that these are one-time costs; you will not have to hire personnel to monitor the herd while walking, because their services are not cheap.
GPS trackers are no less popular - they are a kind of tracking system. To do this, horse trackers are worn by several animals, the leader and those that the animals willingly follow. They are invisible, but at the same time they have a large charge; with the help of satellite monitoring you can always find out where the herd is. It is very convenient to set certain parameters of the territory for walking; if horses go beyond their boundaries, a warning signal will be received. The cheapest GPS trackers cost from 4,500 rubles, but do not forget about the costs of their installation. There are also more expensive options - up to 20,000 rubles.
Horse microchipping is a similar system to the previous one, in which horse chips are implanted under the skin of the animal. This is a very convenient microchip that is inserted in accordance with the instructions. It’s quite difficult to mix something up, because in order to chip, you just need to do everything according to the rules. During installation, a characteristic click is heard, which signals that the process is complete. In the future, it will be very easy to track the location of the microchipped horse herd.
As a result, if we talk about how much it costs to maintain a horse per month, then the amount is quite significant. Therefore, you need to decide for yourself why you need a horse, and whether the burden of financial responsibility will be small. Even if you try to save money, you won’t be able to minimize costs below 20,000-25,000 rubles per month. So the issue of buying a horse must be approached with all responsibility, because it is not for nothing that they say: “buying a horse is easy, selling it is difficult.”
Hay for horses began to be usedat the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, and this became a significant milestone in the maintenance of maned assistants. After all, before this, horses could only be used where grass grew all year round. And the introduction of hay into the horse’s diet made it possible to use these animals, for example, in Northern Europe, which means that people could move great distances and fight effectively.
What is hay and how is it prepared for horses?
Hay is one of the most important components of a horse's diet.
Hay is grass that is cut in the summer, then dried and stored until the next harvest. The grass is dried to such an extent that it does not mold. Thanks to this, hay can be stored indoors without special packaging.
An important property of hay for horses is the amount of water that it binds in the digestive tract. Approximately 2.5 - 3.5 liters of water per 1 kg of hay. A similar phenomenon is associated with chewing and mixing hay particles with digestive juices and saliva. This fluid is the horse's internal water supply.
Why do you soak hay for a horse?
Hay is quite difficult to make. It needs to be dried in the field for several days before being baled or rolled. But in countries with frequent rains, this is problematic, and if the hay gets damp in the field, mold fungi grow in it. They do not necessarily cause illness, but can provoke respiratory allergies, especially if such hay is fed in a stall that is poorly ventilated.
Hay that has been piled wet also needs extra attention because bacterial activity causes the temperature of the hay to rise. It harbors molds that infect the horse's respiratory tract, causing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and exogenous allergic alveolitis in humans.
To rid the hay of dust consisting of mold spores, it is soaked. During soaking, mold spores and dust are either washed out of the hay or, once wet, stick to the grass stems, so that the horse does not inhale them, but swallows them.
Soaking hay is not easy; it requires a large tank and a lot of water. And in winter, the water also freezes, so it’s very unpleasant to tinker with such hay. In summer, the water deteriorates quite quickly, as the nutrients that get into it from the hay decompose. Therefore, the water used for soaking hay should not be poured near rivers or wells - it pollutes the environment.
As for the time for soaking hay, some believe that 10 minutes is enough, and some keep the hay in water for a day. Studies show that the optimal time is 30 minutes, although sometimes it is necessary to soak the hay for evening feeding in the morning.
Keep in mind that as a result of soaking, some nutrients are washed out of hay, such as proteins and sugar, and its nutritional value is reduced.
Which hay is best for a horse?
Hay can be used for seed or meadow hay.
Seed hay is a mixture of grasses that were specially sown for the preparation of this type of feed. The most commonly used are ryegrass, timothy and perennial ryegrass, or a mixture of these. This hay is quite coarse and has relatively few nutrients.
Meadow hay is harvested on special pastures and contains a greater variety of grasses than seed hay. Therefore, the nutritional value of meadow hay is slightly higher than that of seed hay.
How much hay does a horse eat?
The amount of hay is individual for each horse.
An approximate calculation of the amount of daily feed is 2 – 2.5% of the horse’s weight, and the ratio of hay and concentrates varies depending on the load the horse bears. However, this is only an approximate figure.
Some horses eat 10 kg of hay a day, while some don't eat 20 kg.
Ideally, access to hay should be constant. However, if you see that your horse is eating a lot and gaining excess weight, the amount of hay he eats can be limited by installing so-called slow feeders. Thanks to the small cells of these devices, the horse does not remain hungry, but receives hay constantly, but in small portions.
Slow feeders can also be a good solution if the horse is not so much eating the hay as trampling it.
How much hay does a horse need? These questions are asked by all horse owners, both current and future. So let's look into this issue.
Hay is grass that is cut and dried during the summer months, which is then stored until the colder months when fresh grass is not available. The grass is dried to the point where mold no longer grows. Therefore, it can be stored in bales, in a place protected from humidity. It is very important that there is no dust, mold, fungi and weeds.
What kind of hay is there?
There are sowing and meadow hay. Seed is hay from a mixture of grasses specially sown for hay making. Meadow hay is made from ordinary meadow grasses, without special pre-sowing. In general, meadow hay has greater nutritional value than seed hay. But it is very important that it does not contain herbs that are poisonous to horses.
So you have good quality hay. How much hay does your horse need? Different experts have slightly different opinions, but on average they all agree. A horse needs about 2% of its body weight in hay. This means that the average horse weighing 600 kg eats about 10-15 kg of hay per day. This, the level of load, gender and health status of the horse. Does this mean you have to feed your horse a certain amount of hay per day? No. These figures are given only to calculate the purchase of the required amount of hay. The horse must have a 24-hour...
The horse comes first
The Five Freedoms (Farm Animal Welfare Council, 2009), which are the basis for proper and healthy horse management, clearly state: “Freedom from hunger and thirst - constant access to fresh water and a proper diet to maintain health and energy.”
This rule is based on scientific knowledge about the nature of behavior and physiology of horses. The horse's gastrointestinal tract is designed in such a way that gastric juice is constantly produced in the horse's stomach. If a horse does not eat for more than 4 hours, it begins to gradually erode the stomach walls. This leads to gastritis and stomach ulcers. It also leads to behavioral problems caused by boredom, stomach pain and an inability to satisfy natural behavior patterns.
Studies have shown that gastric ulcers affect almost 60% of sport horses and 37% of hobby horses. (Picavet, 2002). Most cases of gastric ulcers are found among racehorses. More than 90% of racehorses suffer from gastric ulcers to some degree (Pagan, 2008). It has been observed that horses never voluntarily fast for more than 4 hours (Krazak, et al., 1991). The reason is that during this time the acid level increases excessively.
Horses are herbivores that have adapted to consume coarse fibrous feed frequently and in small portions. Studies have shown that horses, being free to choose the quantity and quality of food, spend almost 60% of the day (about 14 hours) eating vegetation (Gudmundsson and Dyrmundsson, 1994; McGreevy, 2004). Our task is to provide the horse with the opportunity to satisfy its natural needs. Among other things, provide her with constant access to roughage.
Horses are extremely hardy animals, which by their nature are adapted to being on pasture for a long time and feeding on pasture. However, this does not mean that when keeping horses at home, attention should not be paid to their diet. Regardless of the purpose of the animal, be it a working horse, a sports horse or a breeding stallion, the diet should be developed in strict accordance with the physiological characteristics of the animal.
In this article we will look at the main types of feed that are used in horse nutrition, give examples of horse feeding rations, and the basic rules that should be followed when giving food to animals.
Feeding horses
Feeding horses is not particularly difficult if the animal owner follows certain rules for feeding the livestock (Figure 1).
- A clear feed distribution schedule: It is desirable that the animal's digestive organs are occupied throughout the day. To do this, food must be given out often, but in small portions. In this case, the basis of the diet should be high-quality hay or meadow grasses, to which animals should have constant access. Feeding 3-4 times a day is considered optimal, since if there is a lack of food, the animal may develop an ulcer.
- Constant chewing: physiologically, the horse is adapted to the fact that at any time of the day it has constant access to pasture on the pasture. When kept at home, it is also necessary to provide conditions under which the animal can constantly chew.
- No sudden changes in diet: In the horse's intestines there are constantly microorganisms that are responsible for the digestion of a certain type of feed. In order not to disturb the microflora of the digestive system, animals should be transferred to new types of feed gradually, over two weeks. With a sudden change in diet, animals may experience intestinal disorders or metabolic disorders.
- Access to water: The average daily water requirement of a horse is approximately 35 liters, but in the summer this figure may increase due to the heat. A sufficient amount of drinking water will help the animal maintain optimal body temperature and ensure proper transport of nutrients throughout the body. Therefore, animals must either be watered frequently or provided with constant free access to clean drinking water. In winter, drinking water must be heated.
Figure 1. Nutritional features of horses In addition, when feeding horses, it is imperative to comply with sanitary and hygienic standards: monitor the quality of feed, the cleanliness of feeders and the health of the horses’ teeth. Only in this case will the animals not only remain healthy, but also productive.
Horse diet
The feeding ration is compiled individually for each horse, depending on the purpose of its use, age and physiological characteristics. However, there are general feeding standards that are acceptable for all animals (Table 1).
Note: The average horse weighs approximately 500 kg. To feed such an individual for a year you will need about 2 tons of oats, at least 4 tons of hay, 1 ton of carrots and approximately 500 kg of bran. The diet must include table salt (about 13 kg per year). Naturally, these figures look scary, but if you convert the annual ration figures into daily rations, the volumes of feed will not be so large.
As mentioned above, an adult horse needs to be fed 3-4 times a day, and it is better not to distribute food immediately before performing work or other physical activity. After eating, the animal must rest.
Table 1. Volumes of feed consumption depending on loadOn average, one adult per day will need 5 kg of concentrated feed (for example, oats), up to one and a half kilograms of bran, 2-3 kg of succulent feed (beets, carrots or other root vegetables) and 10-15 kg of hay, to which animals must have constant access.
The nutritional characteristics of horses largely depend on the age, gender and physiological characteristics of the animals. However, the main thing that should be taken into account is the correct selection of the food products themselves (Figure 2).
Among the main feeds for horses are:
- Green grass forms the basis of the diet in the warm season, when horses can freely eat pasture while grazing.
- Roughage, which include hay, straw and chaff of spring crops. In this case, the main product is considered to be hay, to which animals must have constant access. In addition, it is advisable to prepare high-quality hay, which will serve as an excellent source of protein and beneficial microelements, thanks to which the animal will be strong, resilient and energetic. It is advisable to harvest hay in different fields and meadows so that the finished product contains a maximum of useful substances.
- Concentrated feed- These are various grains. As a rule, oats are used to feed horses, but they can be supplemented with barley, corn and wheat to add variety to the diet.
- Juicy feed are especially important during winter feeding. Animals can be given raw beets and carrots, as well as boiled potatoes.
In addition, it is advisable to include corn or sunflower silage in the diet, which is mixed with hay. However, this food is contraindicated in pregnant mares and sport horses.
Figure 2. Main feeds for horses (from left to right): green, roughage, concentrates, juicy Certain differences also exist in the diet of animals depending on their purpose, age and physiological state. Next, we will look at nutritional recommendations for sport and working horses, breeding stallions and mares, and small foals.
Sports
The diet of sports horses is determined depending on the period of sport and the weight of the animal. For example, during rest the menu should be less intense than during training and competitions.
The diet of such horses is based on concentrates, high-quality hay, premixes and succulent feed, especially carrots. At the same time, all food products must be easily absorbed by the body and be of the highest possible quality.
On average, per day, one sports horse will need 7 kg of cereal-legume hay, 1 kg of grass meal and corn (can be replaced with other grains), 500 grams of molasses, 60 grams of table salt and 100 grams of special premixes for horses. During sports competitions associated with intense physical activity, the amount of molasses and grains in the diet is increased.
workers
The daily feed requirement of such horses depends not only on their weight, but also on the severity of the work performed. At the same time, the daily diet must necessarily include succulent, concentrated and roughage feed. For additional nutrition, premixes and feed yeast are included in the menu.
Depending on the severity of the work performed, a diet is also developed. As a rule, the higher the physical activity of the animal, the more concentrates it should be given, reducing the share of roughage. At maximum loads, 70% of the diet should be concentrates, and the rest should be roughage, succulent feed and nutritional supplements.
The average daily ration of a working horse with moderate physical activity should consist of 7 kg of hay, 5 kg of silage, 7 kg of haylage, 5 kg of oats or other grain, as well as 50 grams of premix and 40 grams of table salt.
Breeding mares and stallions
Pregnant and lactating mares must eat a special diet. This is due to the fact that food products must not only provide the adult with everything necessary, but also ensure the uniform development of the growing fetus.
Approximately, the diet of pregnant mares should consist of cereal-legume hay (3.5-4 kg for every 100 kg of live weight), a mixture of cereals (oats, barley and corn), 5-7 kg of root crops, 3-4 kg of silage and 1 kg of cake per day. In the last weeks of pregnancy, the amount of roughage should be reduced, and silage and legumes should be completely excluded from the diet.
If we talk about breeding stallions, their diet is also uneven throughout the year. During the period of sexual rest, it may be less intense, and during the mating period, the menu should include the maximum amount of foods that give strength and energy. For example, in winter, the basis of the diet (more than 55%) should be concentrated feed, which is supplemented with high-quality cereal-legume hay and succulent feed. In the summer, breeding stallions will be fully provided with the necessary nutrients when grazing freely on pasture.
During the breeding period, it is necessary to include food of animal origin in the diet: milk, meat and bone meal, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc., since these products significantly increase the quality of sperm and improve the results of insemination.
No less important role The food distribution schedule also plays a role in feeding. During the breeding period, hay or green grass is given up to 6 times a day, and concentrates - 3-4 times a day. In this case, it is desirable that feed is dispensed at the same time.
Young animals
Immediately after birth, foals receive all the necessary nutrients from their mother's milk. However, for full development, young animals need minerals and other nutrients, so there must be a feeder with table salt in the room (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Nutritional characteristics of young animals After the foal is weaned from its mother, it is gradually introduced to an adult diet. First, the young animals are given hay and green grass; later, flattened oats, cake and wheat bran are introduced into the menu. As you get older, you can also include sprouted oats, raw carrots and molasses in your diet.
Feeding horses in winter
The main difference between the winter diet and the summer diet is that animals cannot eat green grass, which forms the basis of nutrition in the warm season. In addition, as the weather gets colder, animals need additional energy to help maintain a stable body temperature.
Note: To provide the horses with everything they need, with the arrival of winter it is necessary to make some adjustments to the basic diet.
The main nuances that should be taken into account when feeding horses in winter are:
- The basis of the diet should be bulky food, namely hay prepared from meadow grasses before flowering. You should not make hay in swampy areas because the plants growing there have a characteristic sour taste that can cause heartburn in animals. In addition, horses should not be fed clover hay, as this plant has a negative effect on the animals’ joints. It should also be taken into account that at least 6 weeks must pass between the time the hay is harvested and before feeding, so that the grass has time to dry completely.
- Hay can be partially replaced with straw from oats or barley, but these products should only form a small part of the diet as they contain too few nutrients. To increase the nutritional value, it is advisable to chop the straw and mix it with grain concentrates.
- If you use straw instead of hay, you must include fodder beets in your diet. However, no more than 8 kg of this root vegetable per adult should be given per day. To increase nutritional value, beets can be mixed with carrots, but before serving, all root vegetables must be thoroughly washed, peeled and chopped.
- To replenish the body with energy, horses are given grains every day, in particular fully ripened and dried oats. As a substitute for this crop, crushed barley mixed with crushed corn and wholemeal flour can be used.
It is important that horses need a sufficient amount of clean drinking water not only in the summer heat, but also in winter. However, in order to prevent the development of colds, the water must be heated before dispensing and ensure that it does not freeze in the drinking bowls.
Feeding a horse at home: daily ration
The preparation of a daily diet for a horse is carried out individually, depending on the gender, age and purpose for which the animal is used. On average, with a light load, the daily menu of an adult should consist of 70% roughage and 30% concentrated feed (Table 2).
Table 2. Daily norms of necessary feed To develop muscles and provide energy, the diet also includes soybeans and alfalfa, which contain large amounts of protein. In addition, these products contain fiber, which normalizes digestion, and calcium, which strengthens bones and teeth. However, it should be borne in mind that an excess of alfalfa can cause overload of the kidneys, so 1-2 kg of this product per day will be enough for one adult.
Calculating the daily intake of dry concentrated food is very simple. To do this, the horse's weight must be multiplied by 2%. The resulting number will correspond to the required daily amount of forage and grain concentrates. However, if the animal is subjected to intense physical activity, the weight should be multiplied by 2.5%. Green grass, hay and drinking water can be given in unlimited quantities, leaving them in feeders and drinkers throughout the day.
You will learn more about keeping and feeding horses from the video.
The horse's diet is selected individually depending on living conditions and climate, type of activity and load, breed and age of the animal. Common to all types of horses is the need for plant foods. It is obvious that a balanced, well-composed diet is the key to the health and beauty of the animal, maintaining long-term performance and productivity. We will talk further in the article about what products must be included in the diet of horses of different ages.
What do wild horses eat?
Freedom-loving, unbridled animals in the wild spend almost all their time in search of food, covering vast distances. Despite the large size of horses, their stomachs are relatively small in size, so horses cannot eat huge portions at a time - that’s why they eat on the “little but often” principle. 
Chewing food slowly allows you to feel full for a long time. Forbs and shrubs form the basis of the diet of wild animals. In summer, horses feed on the fleshy stems of meadow and steppe grasses, in winter they extract grass from under the snow, and can be content with twigs of bushes and even tree bark. Sometimes they can get root vegetables.
Did you know?Wild horses spend 85% of their time eating grass, which means they chew about 20 hours a day.
What to feed a horse at home
The diet of a domesticated animal also consists of plant foods, but differs in the amount of food and compliance with a fixed feeding regimen. Since domestic horses usually endure much more intense workloads than their wild counterparts, their diet must be appropriate. To provide the animal with all the necessary nutrients, the diet must include three main groups of products: roughage and succulent feed, as well as grain mixtures. Animal products occupy a small part of the diet. 
For each specific individual, the ratio is selected individually, based on many factors, but, in general, the diet should look like this:
- 60–80% - roughage and succulent feed;
- 20–40% - grain mixtures.
Important!If the animal’s body does not receive enough coarse and succulent food along with exceeding the permissible amount of grain, a severe disruption of metabolic processes may occur, fraught with dangerous pathologies.
Roughage
Consist of the following products:
- Haylage (dried grass). A very healthy and nutritious product that horses eat with great pleasure. The daily norm for an adult is 8 kg.
- Straw. It is difficult for the horse’s body to digest and contains few nutrients, so it should be used in limited quantities (no more than 5 kg per day per adult horse). The best types are corn and oat straw.
- Hay. An important product in winter, the amount in the diet reaches 50%. Can be meadow or sown. The daily dose for an adult horse is 20 kg per 500 kg of animal weight. With intense physical activity, the proportion of hay decreases, and the proportion of oats increases.
Juicy feed
Juicy feeds include those with a water content of 70–90%. The succulent feed category consists of vegetables (mainly root vegetables), green fresh grass and silage.
The most useful and popular vegetables are:
- Carrot. A valuable source of carotene, it can be fed raw or boiled. Young animals require up to 2 kg per day, adults - up to 3 kg.
- Fodder beets. It is better to feed raw in an amount of 4 kg for young animals and 12 kg for adults.
- Sugar beets. It is fed unprocessed, young animals are allowed to receive 4 kg per day, adults - 7 kg.
- Potato. It is advisable to give boiled in quantities of 5 kg and 15 kg for young and adult individuals, respectively.
Another juicy product, silage, is nutritious and rich in vitamins. It is best to use corn silage in an amount of 5–15 kg, depending on the age of the animal (the older, the higher the norm). Green food, as the name suggests, is a mixture of various herbs. It is a staple food for horses in the wild as well as domesticated animals. It is the richest source of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. An adult should receive up to 60 kg of green food per day, young animals - up to 40 kg.
Concentrated feed
They should be present in the diet of horses in limited quantities, but they cannot be avoided when fattening meat horses and during intense physical activity. Grain mixtures are a kind of “fuel” for animals. Mainly the following crops are used:
Important!The horse’s digestive system is extremely sensitive to low-quality feed: products with signs of rotting, souring, mold and other defects immediately affect the animal’s digestion. It is unacceptable to use them in the diet!
Animal feed
They must be present in the animal’s diet in very limited quantities to replenish protein and mineral reserves. Basically, farmers use skim milk and fishmeal in quantities of up to 300 g per day per adult animal.
What not to feed a horse
Products from the following list cannot be fed to horses, otherwise they can cause painful conditions of varying degrees of complexity from simple bloating and fermentation to intestinal blockage and liver inflammation. Prohibited animal products:
Most horses (except Arabian varieties) are not adapted to digest wheat, so it is not present in their diet. Remember that you need to feed corn and barley in limited quantities and do not exceed the dosage. Rules for watering animals
At first glance, there can be no difficulties in the drinking technique. But if you don’t know the basic rules, you can make serious mistakes that will affect the health of the animal. In most cases, this is due to drinking at the wrong time. So, when drinking, you need to follow these recommendations:
- It is strictly forbidden to give the horse water within 2 hours after eating, so as not to cause gastric dilatation and colic.
- You can give your horse water 30 minutes before meals.
- It is not recommended to give water to a hot animal for 30 minutes after active physical work. During this time, the animal should cool down and completely restore breathing.
- The number of waterings per day is 3–4 times.
- The water temperature should be room temperature.
At one time, a horse can drink a volume of water several times greater than the volume of its stomach (its capacity is 15 liters), all because almost all the liquid immediately leaves the stomach and moves to the intestines. A horse's need for water depends on a large number of factors: time of year and temperature, load, type of food. In winter, an animal can drink 30–60 liters of water; in the hot season, especially during intense exercise, the need for fluid increases to 80 liters or more. It is also important to consider what you feed your horses with.
In nature, horses lower their heads low to the ground to drink, with their necks fully extended. If you use automatic drinkers in a stable and place them too high, the drinking process becomes inconvenient and contrary to the physiology of these animals, so you need to place the drinkers as low to the ground as possible.
Did you know?A horse's stomach, unlike a human's, is not capable of stretching and changing volume depending on the amount of food.
Approximate daily ration and feeding norms
As we have already indicated, it is advisable to prepare a diet for each specific individual individually, taking into account its physiological characteristics, the amount and type of load, and other factors. But as a basis, you can take ready-made calculations developed by experienced livestock specialists and intended for an average animal weighing 500–550 kg.
For stallions
The quantity and variety of products in the diet of producers largely depends on the period of sexual activity, as well as on the breed (heavyweight or riding horse).
| Component | Horse breed (up to 600 kg) | Heavy breed (over 600 kg) | ||
| Pre-mating/breeding period | Rest period | Pre-mating/breeding period | Rest period | |
| Hay | 9 kg | - | 12 kg | - |
| Withered grass | - | 20 kg | - | 25 kg |
| Oats | 3 kg | 4 kg | ||
| Barley | 1.5 kg | 3 kg | ||
| Carrot | 3 kg | - | ||
| Bran | 1 kg | |||
| Cake | 1 kg | - | 1 kg | - |
| Salt | 33 g | 30 g | 45 g | 40 g |
| Premix | 150 g | 100 g | ||
| Chicken eggs | 4–5 pcs. | - | - | - |
For mares
Pregnant mares must spend at least 6 hours a day grazing freely.
| Product | Horse breeds (up to 550 kg) | Heavyweights (up to 600 kg) | ||||
| Single | Foal | Lactating | Single | Foal | Lactating | |
| Hay | 8 kg | 9 kg | 10 kg | 8 kg | 10 kg | |
| Straw | - | 2 kg | - | 2 kg | ||
| Oats | 2 kg | 3 kg | ||||
| Corn | - | 1 kg | 2 kg | - | 1 kg | 2 kg |
| Barley | 1 kg | 1.5 kg | 1 kg | 2 kg | ||
| Cake | 0.5 kg | - | 1 kg | 0.5 kg | - | 1 kg |
| Bran | 1 kg | - | 1 kg | |||
| Salt | 27 g | 33 g | 40 g | 29 g | 36 g | 43 g |
| Premix | 100 g | 200 g | 400 g | 500 g | ||
For young animals
Until 2 months of age, the foal feeds on its mother's milk. Next, you can gradually introduce rolled oats, hay, cake, molasses, bran and carrots. The table shows dietary standards for foals of different ages and weights (f.m. - live weight).
| Product | Age | |||
| 0.5–1 year (body weight 250 kg) | 1–1.5 years (body weight 350 kg) | 1.5–2 years (body weight 400 kg) | 2–3 years (body weight 500 kg) | |
| Cereal-legume hay | 4.5 kg | 6 kg | 8 kg | |
| Oats | 3 kg | 4 kg | 3 kg | |
| Bran | 0.5 kg | 1 kg | 0.5 kg | 1 kg |
| Corn | - | 1 kg | 2 kg | |
| Soybean meal | 500 g | - | ||
| Carrot | 2 kg | |||
| Molasses | - | 400 g | - | |
| Lysine | 5 g | 8 g | 7 g | - |
| Salt | 18 g | 22 g | 24 g | 25 g |
| Premix | 100 g | 200 g | ||
| ICF, supplement | 50 g | - | ||
In addition to regular foods, your diet can also include vitamin-mineral complexes, supplements with amino acids, probiotics and digestive stimulants. If the animal’s diet is prepared correctly, and feeding is carried out according to all the rules, then your pet’s body will work as efficiently and harmoniously as possible, and the horse will feel healthy, cheerful and energetic.