Rules Of Feeding
- Feed at regular times each day.
- Prepare feedstuffs carefully.
- Ensure feeds are given dampened down.
- Plenty of roughage.
- Feed little and often.
- Feed one and a half hours before working.
- Feed good quality feed products only.
- Keep feed stores and feeding utensils clean.
- Feed according to the individuals needs.
- Have fresh water available at all times.
- Feed no more than 2 kg of hard feed in any one feed.
Calculating the horses bodyweight.
In order to accurately calculate how much total feed is required per day you will need to know the girth and length of the horse in either centimetres or inches, this will give you the horses bodyweight in either kilograms or pounds.
The calculations for bodyweight in kg and pounds:
- Girth in cm X Girth in cm X Length in cm divided by 11877 will give you the horses bodyweight in kilograms.
- Girth in inches X Girth in inches X Length in inches divided by 330 will give you the bodyweight in pounds.
Once you know what the horses bodyweight is you can then calculate the total amount of feed required per day. A horse will eat approximately 2.5% of their bodyweight, so the calculation that you require is Bodyweight in kg divided by 100 X 2.5 will give you the daily amount in kilograms.
Approximations of height and weight (kg)
12 HH - 250
13 HH - 300
14 HH - 450
15 HH - 500
16 HH - 650
17 HH - 750
18 HH - 850
This total daily amount then needs to be split up into the amount of concentrate and the amount of forage, this amount will depend on the amount of work being done, this can be ;
Light work - 70 % forage / 30% concentrate
Medium work - 60 % forage / 40 % concentrate
Hard work - 50 % forage / 50 % concentrate
An example diet would be a 500 kg horse in medium work will require a total of 12.5 kg in total per day, split this up 60/40 and he will require 7.5 kg of forage and 5 kg of concentrate. This split of concentrate and forage should be evenly split up throughout the day so as not to overload the horses system all at once.
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