Feeding My Horse?

Question

At what times do I feed my horse?
hay, grain, how much of each do I feed her during the day (she's two years old and is about 15 hands tall).
No, don't be worried that I haven't been feeding her correctly. I don't have her at my house currently but will soon. I would ask the people that keep her but honestly, I feel that they don't care properly for their horses.
Please respond

Answer 1

Ultimately your horses health plan needs to be determined up to you and your vet. A lot of things stem on feeding- such as how much exercise is she going to be getting? is she going to be ridden? will she have grass or pasture hay available to her free choice?
Feeding times is really up to you and your schedule. But this should be kept regular, so if you know you're going to be especially late or not able to feed- make plans for someone you trust to feed her.

Also- never follow coffee can measurements someone else gives you. Some people are so ignorant. Your horse should be getting 1/2 lb of feed for every 100 lbs of her body weight at each feeding without you feeding more than 5 lbs per feeding. So if your horse weight 1,000lbs she should be getting 5 lbs. of feed per feeding.
The reason why the coffee can thing doesn't work is because different feeds weigh differently- so someone elses type of feed that may meet the required feeding at a full can could be your different feed weighing the same amount at 1/2 a can or 3/4 a can.
Your horse should also get horse quality hay and depending on her body condition alfalfa.
Also salt and mineral blocks along with loose salt should be available next to a fresh supply of water.

Consult your vet before you buy her and he'll tell you how to properly care for your equine.

Answer 2

Horses like many grazers will want roughage and forage so to keep their colons clear. Hay is a generic term. Alfalfa have roughage and proteins in this plant. vitamins and mineral too. There is also a hay pasture mix just for horses. Then timothy hay and clover. These are also known as legumes which have proteins for their bones and muscles. Always give oats as a grain to hoses this grain is absorb well into the digestive tract.twice a day. But a good serving in the morning will last a long time. Been on a farm most of my life. Water is an very important to the horse can drink many gallons a day. Good luck with your horse.

Answer 3

The best thing I have ever seen for horses is 24 hour a day access to good hay. Not overly rich hay, just good, clean, round bales. I LOVE what has happened to my horse since he's been on them. He stopped lossing weight, and began to be a bit more agreeable. A horse's stomache juices never stop going. In the wild they eat all day while on the move. So, as feeding goes, access to good hay and dailey excercise is the best.

Grain, well, if you want to. She doesn't need it. As a treat or as a good muscle builder (when the right grain), horses often benefit from a handful a day. A GREAT way to help her coat get really shiny is to give her a handful of black sunflower seeds a day. The results are wonderful! Also, if your horse turns out to be the kind that benefits from extra protein, mix the sunflower seeds with pumpkin seeds. You can buy the sunflower seeds at almost any grain store and the pumpkin seeds are at Whole Foods. Stay away from sweet feeds. They are very sugary and quite unnecessary unless the horse is REALLY working hard. But even then most shouldn't have it.

Best of luck and congratulations on your new horse!

Answer 4

Depends on how much you work them. Some people dont feed grain at all but the horses love it so I do. Feeding times is up to you. We let them have a constant supply of hay because we have no grass in the paddock. We feed at about 6 in the morning aobut a pound of grain each, which is a bit much because they have easy lives, but we are still bringing it down from wha tthey got at their old homes. I check as soon as I get home, and give esome more hay, and I feed again in the afternoon(6:30-8)

Answer 5

My horse is also a 15h 2 year old. At his barn where I board him he gets free choice hay/grass (he's in the pasture all day and round bales are provided during the colder months). Then he gets a flake of hay in his stall along with his 2.5 lbs of sweet feed/pellet feed mix twice a day (its a 1.25lb sweet/1.25lb pellet mix). They feed around 7:30 or 8 am and around 5 or 5:30 pm. When its warmer, he stays out during the night and his grain gets cut back to 2 lbs (1lb sweet/1lb pellet mix). He still gets a flake of hay at each feeding, but since there is so much grass in the spring and summer, we don't put round bales in the pastures. Remember to always feed grain by weight and not by volume because different grains/feeds weigh different amounts. Also, have a mineral block available at all times. We set a bucket inside a tire and put the block in there at my barn and we set it by the water trough. This program seems to work very well for my horse and for most of the horses at the barn. One more thing, be sure to make the switch from what they are feeding your horse to what you will be feeding your horse gradually, over a couple weeks, to avoid colic. I hope this helps.

Answer 6

I'm posting a web link below which has some facts about feeding and watering and why. I like the article because the author isn't selling anything.

I lived on a farm and there were horses (not mine) and the owner put out the hay or grain as early as 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. -- no later -- and then again, around 4 or 5 p.m. Any later than that in the evening, the horses got restless and stamped their feet 'cause they were hungry and impatient.

Are you going to get a second horse (or pony) to keep her company? All animals need one of their own kind for compoanionship.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. She let them out in the yard a few times a week to graze on the grass in the yard -- it's a very big yard.

Answer 7

We feed our horses twice a day. Once around 7:30AM and again at 3:00PM. If you are going to be breaking her this spring and/or doing any heavy activity you need to account for that. If she is just going to be a pet for a while she can get along on a fairly straight-forward diet. Give her a couple pounds of grain (we feed 12% sweet and whole oats), and free choice alfalfa grass mix hay. Also have a salt and mineral block available to her at all times.

Answer 8

Instead, ask your vet, or local feedstore owner if you have to. No one on here can give you a good plan, because we don't know you, your horse, what he looks like, weighs, what you work on him with. The vet will be happy to look over your horse, and then give you a great plan. :) Don't be too worried if you get a lot of different opinions. People in the horse world are all sold on one supplement or another! :) have fun.

Answer 9

Donkeys are no longer horses. they'll founder a lot swifter than horses. Horses do no longer consume barley straw the place because it relatively is mandatory for donkeys. do no longer feed donkeys candy feed! you're searching for issues. do some high quality examine.

Answer 10

5:30 in the afternoon & between 6:00- 8:30 in the morning, my horse is 14.2 and gets a full FOLGERS can @ each feeding + atleast 1 flake(probubly 2 for yours) of hay!

and if its cold, would you be happy if your food was late cause your owner was a woose and wanted to staywarm for as long as possible so its good toget in th habit of animals get fed befor you do! : )


also try to get the same feed or get a bag or two of that and mix it w/ what ur gonna feed, so he/she doesnt colic!