Horse Feed Calculator

Work out how much hay and grain to feed your horse a day by body weight. Horses should eat about 1.5 to 2.5% of their body weight in forage and feed daily, with 2% a good starting point. Enter your horse's weight below to get daily pounds of hay and grain, per-feeding amounts, and how much hay to buy each month.

The 1.5 to 2.5 Percent Forage Rule

Horses are grazing animals built to eat small amounts of fibrous forage almost continuously. The standard guideline is that a horse should eat roughly 1.5 to 2.5 percent of its body weight in feed each day, and the large majority of that should be forage such as hay or pasture. Where your horse sits in that range depends on its metabolism and workload.

These are guidelines for mature horses at rest to light work. Growing, pregnant, lactating, or hard-working horses have higher needs, so work with your vet or an equine nutritionist for those cases.

Hay, Grain, and How to Split the Ration

• Forage first: Hay or pasture should always make up the majority of the diet. Many horses in light work do well on forage alone plus a vitamin and mineral supplement or ration balancer.
• Grain is optional: Only add concentrate when forage cannot meet energy needs, such as for hard keepers or working horses. Keep grain meals small and never let concentrate dominate the diet.
• Feed little and often: Splitting the ration across two or more feedings suits a horse's digestive system far better than one large meal, and reduces the risk of colic and ulcers.
• Change slowly: Introduce any new hay or feed over 7 to 14 days. Sudden diet changes are a leading cause of digestive upset in horses.
• Weigh your hay: Flakes and bales vary a lot in weight. A luggage or fish scale lets you feed by pounds rather than by guessing from flakes.

Keep other homestead animals too? See the Bird Egg Incubation Calculator for hatching dates, the Goat Weight Calculator for tape-measure weights, and the full Homestead Pets hub for more tools.