Feeding horses well is one of the most important things you can do for their long-term health. It’s also an area where a lot of horse owners second-guess themselves, and reasonably so.
There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there, and horses genuinely have complex needs that shift depending on age, workload, health status, and the season. What works for one horse won’t necessarily work for another, even on the same property.
This isn’t a substitute for working with your vet or an equine nutritionist. But it’s a solid foundation for understanding what your horse actually needs and why.
Forage Is the Non-Negotiable Foundation
Every horse’s diet should be built around forage, pasture grass, hay, or both. Horses are built to graze for 16 to 18 hours a day. Their digestive systems depend on a near-constant flow of roughage to function properly.
When a horse goes more than a few hours without forage, the risk of colic and gastric ulcers increases significantly.
The general guideline is 1.5 to 2% of body weight in forage per day. For a 500 kg horse, that’s roughly 7.5 to 10 kg of hay. Quality matters too; first-cut hay is typically higher in fibre, second-cut denser in nutrients.
If your horse has a metabolic condition like insulin resistance or Cushing’s, knowing the exact composition of your hay becomes especially important.
Does Your Horse Actually Need Grain?
Not every horse does. Many easy keepers, those that hold weight well on forage alone, don’t need grain at all, and adding it can lead to obesity, laminitis, and other metabolic problems. Concentrates should be seen as a way to fill genuine nutritional gaps, not a default addition to every feeding.
Horses that typically benefit from grain or concentrates include hard keepers that can’t maintain weight on hay alone, performance and working horses, breeding mares in late pregnancy and lactation, growing foals and yearlings, and older horses whose dental issues make hay difficult to chew.
When grain is needed, the right equine feed formula makes a difference, keep servings small and split across multiple feedings. A horse’s stomach is relatively small, and large grain meals in a single sitting increase the risk of digestive upset and colic.
Protein, Energy, and Key Micronutrients
Protein supports muscle, coat, hoof quality, and immune function. Maintenance rations generally sit around 10 to 12% crude protein. Performance horses, young horses, and lactating mares need more. Check crude protein percentages on your horse feed tags and match the formula to your horse’s actual workload.
Energy is often listed as digestible energy (DE) in megacalories. Overfeeding energy to a horse in light work is a common cause of weight gain and unwanted behavioural changes. Match the energy level to the output.
On the micronutrient side, the calcium to phosphorus ratio should stay between 1:1 and 2:1. Ontario soils tend to be low in selenium, so horses relying on locally grown forage often need equine supplements to fill that gap. A vet or nutritionist can advise on whether supplementation makes sense for your horse.
Water and Salt Matter More Than Most People Realise
Horses need 20 to 45 litres of fresh water daily, more during heat or hard work. In winter, cold water often leads horses to drink less, which increases the risk of impaction colic. Offering slightly warmed water in cold months helps. A loose salt source or salt block available free choice supports proper electrolyte balance year-round.
Your Local Source for Equine Feed and Supplements
Durham Farmers’ County Co-op stocks a full range of horse feed and equine supplements at both our locations. Our Durham Farmers’ County Co-op team understands what local horses need and can help you put together a feeding plan that actually fits. Get in touch with us today or stop by and talk it through in person!