How to provide your horse with a good diet

per day once you have factored in dry matter content or 1112kg of haylage. The latter is slightly higher to account for its extra water content. Grass also needs to be included in this figure but during the winter most of the ration will come from conserved forage. If you are unsure about how much to feed speak to a nutritionist.
Selecting a higher energy hay or haylage for those horses who struggle to hold weight or are working harder makes sense adds Donna. For good doers it would be better to choose a lower energy one to enable you to feed slightly more.
Dry matter is the weight of your horses forage minus its water content. It can be estimated depending on its type but this can be highly variable. Different types of forage have different dry matter weights. For example grass has a higher water content and therefore lower dry matter weight than hay so more must be consumed to meet the same volume of dry matter. Dr Laura Wilson talks more this topic here.
How long should a horse go between meals?
Horses are natural trickle feeders. Essentially this means that they are designed to eat all the time. Little and often not two times a day when you can get to the yard to give them a new haynet which doesnt last until morning. Donna explains that as a rule of thumb you should never leave a horse for longer than four hours without access to some sort of forage.
For stabled horses this can become a challenge so consider buddying up with a friend to provide hayhaylage nets little and often she says. You may find you need to get to the stables much earlier in the morning or later in the evening than you anticipated.
Of course ad lib forage is tricky to provide if your horse is greedy and inclined to put on weight. This is when you need to get creative. Try feeding forage in tricklehole haynets for example so that it takes longer to eat. Provide it in different parts of the stable so that the horse has to move around to find it. Soak hay to remove some of its nutrients.
Lower the risk of gastric ulcers
One of the best feeding tips I was ever given from a vet was to feed my horses a small amount of chaff or softchop forage about half an hour before riding.