How much do horse's eat?

Answer 1

An adult horse should eat between 1.5-3.5% of it's body weight a day. That comes out to roughly 15-35 lbs for an average 1,000 lb horse. The exact amount depends on the horse's living conditions, work schedule, and metabolism.

To maintain a healthy digestive tract and metabolism, 75% or more of a horse's diet should consist of forage. Forage can come in the form of pasture grazing, hay, hay cubes, or chopped bagged hay. Pelleted hay is low in long stem fiber, so it should not make up the bulk of a horse's forage intake. Pelleted hay can be good to stretch hay when it is scarce or supplement lower quality hay.

Concentrates should be fed sparingly, and only to horses that really need them. Concentrates include sweet feed, pelleted feed, whole grains, and textured feeds (whole grain feed mixed with pelleted feed). Generally, the only horses that may need concentrates are pregnant or lactating mares, breeding stallions, young growing !horses (under 2yrs old), senior horses with compromised teeth, or horses in heavy competition and/or training. Work with your vet or an equine nutritionist to determine which concentrate is best for your horse.

Try to stay AWAY from feeds that are sticky with molasses, contain high amounts of corn, or are high in starch. Research shows that feeds that contain one or more of these items can be detrimental to a horse's long term health when fed in moderate to high quantities. These types of feeds can cause poor behavior, negative metabolic changes (a horse losing or gaining weight quickly), low grade laminitis, and they can contribute to ulcers.

Pleasure horses, idle horses, or horses working 2 days a week or less usually do not need any concentrates. To make sure this type of horse is receiving proper nutrition, you can use a vitamin supplement (mixed with just a few handfuls of feed or mixed into chopped hay) or you can use what's known as a ration balancer. A ration balancer is a concentrated pelleted feed that is fed at the rate of 1-3 lbs per 1,000 lb horse. This is a very small amount (compared to 5-7 lbs recommended for traditional feeds) but still provides optimum nutrition. Most all feed companies make a ration balancer. Most are labeled as a "supplement" or "hay/forage balancer". Talk to your local feed store to see what's available. If they are unsure, write down which brands they carry and use a search engine to find the manufacturer web site. Look for a ration balancer on the web site, then report back to your feed store to see if they carry it or can order it for you.

In order for any horse to properly digest and utilize the feed he is given he must be adequately dewormed and his teeth floated regularly. Talk to your vet to determine the best routine for both for your horse. Teeth should be checked by your vet at least once a year. If a horse has a worm infestation or has sharp teeth, he will not be able to properly digest the food you are giving him. You will need to feed him more than normal to keep him at a healthy weight.

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Other contributors have said:

• Horses will not stop eating. They can eat too much and kill themselves because of it. I know a friend who did that and the horse got colic and came close to dying. So watch out about feeding them 3 or 4 scoops of sweet feed or grain.

• How much horses need to eat depends on their size, temperament, age, condition, amount of grass in their paddock and how much work they are doing during the day.

• It matters how tall, big, age, or male/female plus how much they are worked or put to pasture and what feed you feed them.

• Depending on the age of the horse - it eats different amounts.

• Breakfast and Dinner.

• about 10 lbs a day

• I ride horses and they all never stop eating they just eat all day and be greedy it is pretty dangerous but they deserve a treat don't they.
• This is all true but horse only over eat if that have never been free range and is some thing you need to train them to do.
• Horses graze all day because that's what that would do in the wild. If you take that away then the acids in the stomach start changing and that is where all the problems happen.

Answer 2

well the amount of food all depends on the size of the horse...