• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Pet Ponder

Pet Ponder

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Articles

A Stable Diet: What Do Horses Really Eat?

Horses basically eat pasture and hay. However, you can also feed them fruits and vegetables occasionally. Find out what are the food items that can be included in your horse's diet, and what should be strictly avoided, through this PetPonder article.

Home / Pet Types / Farm Animals / A Stable Diet: What Do Horses Really Eat?
What do Horses Eat?

Horses basically eat pasture and hay. However, you can also feed them fruits and vegetables occasionally. Find out what are the food items that can be included in your horse’s diet, and what should be strictly avoided, through this PetPonder article.

Ryegrass field on a sunny day
Fresh Sorghum
Azaleas Flower
Pokeweed Plant
Foxglove Plant
European Yew
Blooming Lily of the valley
Milkweed flower
black elderberry fruit
Field Of Wild Blue Flax
beet pulp
corn grains drying in direct sunlight
Barley on wooden table
image of oats
Haystacks for horse
Hay Roll On Farm
Field Stubble Landscape with Straw Bales
Timothy Grass

Horses are grazing animals, and hence their diet consists of good quality hay and pasture. Horses are a member of the family Equidae, and they were first domesticated by humans in around 4000 BC. If you are considering to become a proud owner of this magnificent animal, then consider to acquire some basic knowledge about its diet.

Diet of a Horse

The amount of food that a horse requires depends mainly on its age, weight, overall health condition, and the level of physical activity. In general, a horse needs 2 to 2.2 pounds of feed for every 100 pounds of its body weight. Primarily, the diet of a horse should include hay and pasture. The digestive system of herbivores like horses is adapted to digest grass and other plant materials. Following are some foods that your horse would surely love to relish.

Pasture and Hay

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk...

Let's Work Together!

Pasture and hay are the staple food of horses. In fact, horses can survive on pasture and hay only, if they are not doing any heavy work. But be sure to feed them quality hay and pasture. While purchasing hay for your horse, make sure that it is free of mold and dust. If you feed them moldy and dirty hay, they can develop various health problems, including colic and respiratory problems.

There are different types of hay, such as alfalfa, oat, bermuda, and grass hay like Timothy and orchard. You can find hay in the form of bales, pellets, and cubes. Alfalfa hay contains a very high level of proteins, as compared to grass hay. So, its excessive consumption can cause diarrhea, which should be kept in mind while feeding your horse alfalfa.

Concentrates

In addition to hay and pasture, concentrates are another important component of a horse diet. Concentrates are especially required for providing enough nutrition to a pregnant or nursing mare, as well as the highly active horses. The youngsters should also be fed concentrates in order to promote their growth.

The most common concentrates for horses are grains, like oats, barley, corn, and beet pulp. Beet pulp needs to be soaked in water for a while before feeding your horse. Sweet feed is another good concentrate, which is made by mixing grains with molasses. Concentrates are basically meant to supplement forage or hay to provide better nutrition.

Other Foods

Try giving them some carrots and apples. In fact, horses love to eat fruits and vegetables, and apples and carrots are the favorites in this category. Many horse owners prefer to give their horses an occasional ‘treat’. Such treats can be made with carrots, apples, oats, and molasses. You can also give your horse supplements like corn oil and cod liver oil. However, be sure to talk to a veterinarian in order to know the appropriate dosage of such supplements, and how frequently these can be given.

A small amount of rice bran can also be given to horses. But horses should be given only stabilized rice bran. Apart from these, salt blocks are very important for the health of your horse. Foods that horses usually eat are low in sodium and chlorine. Therefore, a trace mineralized salt block is ideal for proving these minerals. If your horse is not getting enough salt and minerals, you can observe the animal licking dirt.

Foods to be Avoided

Certain foods and plants are not good for horses. Wild blue flax, elderberry, milkweed, oleander, lily of the valley, water hemlock, yew, and foxglove can be toxic for horses. On the other hand, horse chestnut, pokeweed, azaleas, mesquite, and laurel can cause diarrhea and colic in horses. In addition to these, it is better to avoid giving them Sudan grass, ryegrass, tall fescue, as well as a large amount of red clover, sweet clover, and bran rice or wheat.

In addition to the aforementioned foods, horses need plenty of water, about 38 to 45 liters of water per day. So, make sure that enough clean and freshwater is available for them. Another important point to be kept in mind while feeding horses is that they tend to overeat, which can cause laminitis. Therefore, it is better to feed them small and frequent meals.

Red Clovers
Tall Fescue Grass
Blossoms of Mesquite
Horse Chestnut Seed
Meadow of blooming hemlock
Pink oleanders, spring time flowers
Horses Licking New Salt Block
Rice Bran
Cod Liver Oil
Corn oil
Dish of molasses
Carrot with apple on white board
Hay stack cubes in wheat field
Bag of wood pellets
Hay in Field
Rows of alfalfa hay
Fresh hay
Fight Of Horses
Wilde Horses
Two Brown Horses Running Through A Pasture
Herd Of Young Horses
Loving Horses
Horses Running In Cloud Of Dust
Three Horses In Lake
Horses Looking At Camera
Horses Grazing In Bluebonnet Pasture
Two Horses In Pasture
Wild Horses In The Prarie
Two Young Horses Together On Pasturage
Wild Horses Of Wyoming
Horses Mare And Foal
Horses Feeding At The Trough
Playful Wild Horses
Belgian Draft Horses
Horses At The Stable
Horses Running
Two Galloping Snow White Horses
Two Horses Standing Together
Horses Grazing On Green Meadow
Portrait Of Two Horses
Horses
Horses On Misty Pasture Close Up
Two Brown Horses With Their Heads Bent Toward Each Other
Horses Grooming
Beautiful Brown Horses On Pasturage
Horses With Fly Protection
Race Horses In Training
Two Horses Out At Feed
Two Running Grey Purebred Spanish Horses
Two Horses In Field
Laughing Horses
Horses
Wild Horses Estancia In Argentina

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk...

Let's Work Together!

Like it? Share it!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
« Previous Post
Next Post »

Category iconFarm Animals

Get Updates Right to Your Inbox

Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week (give or take)...right to your inbox.
Blog Updates

Further Insights

best goats for pets on farm
What Are the Best Goats for Pets?
August 26, 2020
How to Take Care of Your Pregnant Mare
September 21, 2011
How to Get to Know Your New Horse Better
July 27, 2011

Primary Sidebar

Search

Latest Articles

black and white cat

Brand Spotlight: Nationwide Pet Insurance (formerly Veterinary Pet Insurance)

dog in field

Pet Insurance Plans: Should You Get Standard Coverage or Wellness Care?

dog playing with toy in grass

Pet Suites: Boarding, Grooming, and Training Services for Dogs

cat looking into distance

What’s the Best Pet Insurance for Cats? 

Exploring the website?

Our site includes quite a bit of content, so if you're having an issue finding what you're looking for, go on ahead and use that search feature there!

Footer

We hope you are enjoying PetPonder! We provide informative articles about caring for pets that you can come back to again and again when you have questions or want to learn more!
  • Facebook
  • RSS

Copyright © Pet Ponder & Buzzle.com, Inc.
6789 Quail Hill Pkwy, Suite 211 Irvine CA 92603

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsAccept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.