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Hay and Pasture
Horses need to be fed at least one percent of their body weight daily as forage (dry matter). Most horses are fed even more than that, receiving up to two or more percent of their body weight per day in grass or hay. This means that a 1,000-pound horse may easily eat 15 to 20 pounds per day of hay, along with three to six pounds of a grain ration. When problems occur that may relate back to nutrition, people usually look at the grain ration. However, when the vast majority of the horse’s diet is hay or grass, we must pay more attention to the important nutritional role that the forage plays in the horse’s nutritional status.
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