Strategies for Feeding the Mixed Herd

You can’t just toss your equine athletes, seniors, youngsters, and retirees the same feed and call it a day.
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Strategies for Feeding the Mixed Herd
Each class of horses, from the easy-keeping pony to the senior stallion, has different nutrient needs. | Photo: iStock

You can’t just toss your equine athletes, seniors, youngsters, and retirees the same feed and call it a day

It’s rare to find a farm with just one horse. Either owners have secured a buddy for their horse, they simply couldn’t stop at “just one,” or their farm by its very nature is a facility housing multiple horses—a boarding business, perhaps. Inevitably, owners and farm managers find themselves trying to figure out how to feed a group of horses with very different nutritional needs. It is not uncommon to have competition horses, growing horses, horses at maintenance, broodmares, horses recovering from injury, retirees, or any combination of the above residing on one farm. We know we can’t feed them all alike, so what can we do to be sure every horse is fed optimally and make the process most efficient for the busy horse owner or farm manager?

Why They’re Not the Same

Different classes of horses have different metabolic needs and, hence, discrete nutritional demands. For example, the growing horse needs more minerals and protein for bone and muscle growth than an adult horse. A broodmare that is in foal and/or lactating must consume enough nutrients to maintain her own body, feed the foal at her side, and/or provide nourishment for the fetus growing inside her. A performance animal needs to consume enough calories and essential nutrients to compete, repair muscles, and maintain the body.

To further complicate feeding, even two horses that fall into the same category can have different nutritional needs. Some horses might have a faster metabolic rate than others and require more feed to maintain. Other factors that can affect a horse’s needs include but are not limited to the weather, the horse’s health status (Has he ever colicked or foundered?), housing situation (pasture with or without a run-in shed, time spent in a stall, blanketed, etc.), and behavior and temperament.  

“All horses are not the same, just like all people are not the same,” says Shea Porr, MS, PhD, assistant professor of equine science at Murray State University, in Kentucky. “Genetics and metabolism play a role in how they need to be fed, as does their workload. Ideally, they need to be fed individually.”

Establish a Management Routine

One of the best strategies for designing your mixed-herd feeding program is to assess the weight of the horses in your care. If you check their weight at least monthly, then you can make the appropriate feed changes when needed. Many feed dealers can bring a horse scale to your farm to weigh your horses and will provide this service for free to their customers. Another option is to use a weight tape to monitor changes. You can usually get these free from your feed manufacturer or buy them for a few dollars from horse supply catalogs.

“Ideally you should start with an appropriate base weight and body condition score (BCS, TheHorse.com/30154) for each horse depending on its activity level and metabolism, as well as take (into consideration) any issues specific to that horse,” says Lara Levine, MS, equine feed sales and technical representative in Central Kentucky for Southern States Cooperative. “Then measure any changes monthly and adjust feed accordingly. For example, do you have a horse that leans toward the heavy side and seems to get fat on air and is a stocky breed with a predisposition to metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance? This horse would have very different needs than an off-track Thoroughbred who tends toward the lean side and needs a lot of calories to maintain condition. Knowing each horse’s individual tendencies and keeping an eye on weight and body (condition) changes monthly is important to management.”  

Nutritionists’ recommendations to feed a horse by weight (think pounds or kilograms of feed) instead of by volume (quarts or scoops) becomes especially important when feeding different types of horses. Fortunately, many feed companies have developed scoops with markings for the average weights of their feeds, making weighing your feed on a scale unnecessary. If you would like to weigh your feeds, then one of the cheapest ways I’ve found is purchasing a fish scale from your local sporting goods store. You can hang an empty bucket on the scale and add feed to get the weight. You can also put flakes of hay in a haynet and hang that off the scale.  

Krishona Martinson, PhD, associate professor and extension program leader at the University of Minnesota, in St. Paul, says the most efficient way to make sure you’re meeting a horse’s needs is “by having your hay analyzed, weighing all feedstuffs, and feeding horses individually. Once you know the quantity and quality of feedstuffs, then work with a nutritionist to balance your horse’s ration based on activity level, age, body weight, and health status.”

Choosing Your Feed

So do you really need to offer a different type of feed to each type of horse in your care? Not necessarily, our sources say. Start with quality hay and a ration balancer, then find a feed you can use for multiple types of horses.

“A majority of horses fit into the category of adult horses at maintenance,” says Martinson. “Use a good-quality grass hay as your base that all horses receive. Then choose to add a ration balancer (a vitamin and mineral mix) for horses at maintenance and maybe one other concentrate (grain) that fits the goals of the farm. For example, a performance grain at a show barn or a mare and foal grain at a breeding barn.”

“If you use them correctly, a few feeds can do the trick for many horses,” adds Porr. She suggests mixing and matching grass hay, a ration balancer, a standard concentrate, and corn oil (or other type) for hard keepers, depending on each horse’s needs. If some of your horses (those in moderate work, early gestating mares, etc.) require even more calories and/or nutrients, you might add alfalfa to the diet, she says.  

The key to choosing the concentrate(s) that best fits your herd is to look at the purpose statement (that tells you what horses a feed is intended for) and directions on the feed tag.  

“Some feeds offer a suitable nutritional profile for most horses,” says Levine. “However, if you have horses at extremely different levels, such as a pastured 15-year-old gelding who gets ridden once a week and a 5-year-old performance gelding running barrels, then it would make more sense to buy feed that is specific to each horse’s needs.”

Tips for Mealtime

The only way to truly guarantee a horse is consuming all the feed designated especially for him is to feed horses individually in stalls or have separate sites on the pasture fence where you can tie horses at feeding time. Bringing horses in and out of stalls is time-consuming, however, especially if you have a large number of horses that live primarily outside. At the university where I teach, we are fortunate to have plenty of students that are expected to contribute to farm chores seven days a week. Each horse has a designated stall where we can provide feed and supplements directly. From a management point this also helps us monitor each horse’s appetite and make sure he or she is consuming all the feed. Going off feed (leaving some behind) can be an early indicator of illness.

Tying horses to the fence for feeding is not quite as time-consuming as bringing in and turning out, but it does pose safety risks, such as horses getting hung up in the ropes. On one farm I worked where we tied horses, we placed a small piece of baling twine around the post and then tied the rope to it. This allowed a horse to break free if spooked.

If you don’t have the option of tying or stalling your horses during feeding time, then you might consider combining groups of horses by type and amount of feed. You can also build a small holding pen inside the paddock or field for feeding “bullies,” horses with special needs, or those that simply need a little extra time to eat, says Levine.  

“Separate and feed horses in similar groups,” Martinson says. “For example, adult idle horses in one pen, adult horses in moderate exercise in one pen, overweight horses separated from thin horses.”  

When I was in graduate school we would group our broodmares, weanlings, and yearlings in pastures together and feed them from tubs on the ground. We would put the tubs in a circle and space them far enough apart that one horse couldn’t monopolize two tubs. We would also add an extra tub (so one more tub than the number of horses) so that there was always an available spot to eat. While not a perfect system, it did allow us to feed an average amount of feed per horse, and we had little to no drama between horses. We used an ATV to get around, which was a fairly quick way to feed.

Porr has used this system as well. “Someone’s probably going to get a little more, someone else will get a little less,” she says. “Set the buckets around 15 to 20 feet apart so the horses don’t feel like they have to keep threatening the others. Also, try to keep the number in the group relatively low so it doesn’t take too long to get feed into all the buckets; otherwise the dominant horse is done before you are, and that sets the low man on the totem pole up for a hungry night. If someone’s not playing well with others, then either rearrange your groups or pull the low man out for feeding.”  

If the groups are small enough—preferably no more than five horses—then you can feed the horses from tubs on the fence without tying. However, the horses need to get along well and like eating out of the tubs, and you must space them far enough apart (12-20 feet) that, again, one horse can’t control more than one tub.

Another option would be to implement feed bags, sometimes called “nose bags.” These are usually attached to a strap and go over the horse’s head like a grooming halter. Before putting the bag on the horse, place his allotted feed in the bag. As with halters or grazing muzzles, you will need to size these bags appropriately for the horse. Personally, I’ve had good success with them. Horses might take a little while to get used to them, so start with some tasty treats in the bottom to get the horse accustomed to how they fit. If you have several horses wearing feed bags, then it can be a bit time-consuming to put them on and take them off, but not nearly as time-consuming as leading horses in and out of the barn for feeding.

Final Thoughts

There are a variety of ways to feed herd members with different nutritional needs. Knowing each horse’s requirements is the best place to start, and monitoring weight is a great way to tell if a horse is getting too many or too few calories. When designing the diet, start with what forage is available (pasture and hay), and then find a balancer, concentrate, or supplement that can fill in any nutritional gaps.

The best feeding management system fits within your or your farm manager’s time constraints but also allows for the most individualized feeding. When available, work with your equine nutritionist or local extension specialist to design a feeding plan for your horses.

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Janice L. Holland, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Director of Equine Studies at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. A graduate of both Penn State and Virginia Tech, her equine interests include nutrition and behavior, as well as amateur photography. When not involved in horse activities she enjoys spending time outdoors enjoying nature.

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