How often do horses eat grass or hay?

Answer 1

it depends very much on the physic and age of the horse and how much work its doing..you need to be more specific with your question..i should say once in the morning and once in the evening for a horse that isn't doing much work..but if it does work then breakfast lunch and dinner.

Answer 2

Because horses have small stomachs, they should be fed little portions multiple times a day. The ideal is to feed your horse three to four times per day (for grain) but you can get away with two times.

With hay, it is best to have their hay put in a slowfeeder and let them eat it over the course of the day.

Answer 3

The best eating schedule for a horse is to have grass or good quality grass hay for them to nibble on throughout the day. Due to their small stomachs in comparison to their bodies, they need dozens and dozens of small meals throughout the day. The grass helps keep them regular, and it's best for them to always have something in their stomachs to prevent the gastric juices to slosh to the upper half of their stomach, which isn't as preotectedas the bottom half is, inviting gastric ulcers.

Horses may also be fed a grain meal anywhere from once a day to four times a day, possibly more.

Answer 4

The amount to feed a horse depends on its body weight, work load, age, reproductive stage especially with mares (pregnancy and lactation) and what type of feed you are wanting to feed your horse. Moisture content of the feed also has an affect of how much a horse will eat or should be fed per day.

As a general rule, however, a typical horse should eat at least 2% to 2.5% of its body weight in dry matter ration per day. The actual amount depends on the water content of the feed in question. Typically, the higher the moisture content, the more they'll eat. Roughages like grass and hay should be a feedstuff that is always given to them or they have to work to graze for. The amount of grain fed to a horse is much less than what you would feed in hay and grass. An average horse will drink about 7 to 10 gallons of water a day. However, they tend to drink less in the winter if the water is too cold, because they dislike cold water. Horses might also eat a few pounds of grain to balance what they lost while they were worked, if they are working hard. Most horses are fine on just grass though.

Answer 5

Given the option, horses will spend up to 80% of their time grazing. Horses that need more nutrition than grass or hay has to offer are often fed grain twice a day.

Answer 6

Horses are browsers, they will happily spend most of their waking time nibbling away at grasses and plants.

Answer 7

when they are hungry!