Your results will appear here.
Enter your values and press Calculate.
Enter body weight in kg, workload, hay dry matter percent, and a waste allowance. The calculator returns hay dry matter per day, hay as fed per day, hay to offer including waste, grain per day and per meal, and water per day. These are planning estimates, not veterinary advice: easy keeper vs hard keeper, body condition, teeth, pasture, and cold weather all move the real ration, and a vet or equine nutritionist should check rations for metabolic, pregnant, lactating, growing, or senior horses.
How do I calculate horse feed from body weight? Start with a percent of body weight, then convert dry matter to as fed, then add waste. Worked example: how much hay does a 500 kg horse eat per day at moderate work? At 2 percent body weight, hay dry matter is 10 kg per day. Horse hay dry matter vs as fed calculator maths: at 88 percent dry matter, hay as fed is 10 divided by 0.88, which is 11.36 kg per day, and with 10 percent waste the hay to offer is 12.63 kg per day. A second example: how much hay does a 1000 pound horse eat per day? 1,000 pounds is about 454 kg, and at 2 percent that is about 9.08 kg dry matter, or 20 lb per day, which matches the common 20 lb rule for a 1,000 lb horse. Grain for the 500 kg moderate horse is 1 percent, or 5 kg per day, split into 2 meals at the 0.5 percent body weight cap, which is 2.5 kg per meal. Water is 6 percent of body weight, or 30 litres per day for a 500 kg horse.
Use this horse feed chart by weight to check your result, and remember that horse feed for heavy work vs light work differs mainly in grain, while forage stays near 2 percent. A 400 kg horse at light work needs 8 kg dry matter per day, a 500 kg horse at moderate work needs 10 kg, a 600 kg horse at heavy work needs 13.2 kg, and a 1,500 lb warmblood at 2 percent needs about 30 lb of hay per day. Horse feed chart by weight from guides: a 1,000 lb horse needs 15 to 20 lb of hay per day, an 800 lb pony needs 12 to 16 lb, a 1,200 lb draft cross needs 18 to 24 lb, and a 1,500 lb warmblood needs 22 to 30 lb. Daily hay intake horse ranges from 1.5 to 3 percent of body weight per day, with maintenance at 1.8 percent, light and moderate at 2 percent, heavy at 2.2 percent, and intense at 2.5 percent in this calculator. Never drop forage below 1 percent of body weight without vet supervision, and keep forage at least half of the daily ration. For a horse feed cost calculator total, multiply daily hay and grain by your price per kg, then multiply by 30 for a month and by 365 for a year, adding any monthly extras.
How many bales of hay does a horse eat per month? Divide hay to offer per day by your bale weight and multiply by 30. For the 500 kg moderate example at 12.63 kg offered per day, a 20 kg bale lasts about 1.6 days, so about 19 bales per month, and about 76 bales over a 120 day winter, which matches the classic winter example. How many bales of hay per horse per winter therefore depends on bale weight: a 25 kg bale lasts about 2 days for the same horse, or about 15 bales per month. How many flakes of hay per day? A typical adult eats 4 to 8 flakes per day, and one flake is typically 1.7 to 2.7 kg, but flakes vary, so weigh hay instead of counting flakes. Why weigh hay instead of counting flakes? Because bale size, flake thickness, and hay type all vary, and weighing is the only way to hit the percent of body weight target. Waste matters: slow feed nets lose about 5 percent, while ground feeding or an open round bale ring can lose 20 to 40 percent, so offered hay rises fast with waste.
Should I feed more hay in cold weather? Yes. Unblanketed horses eat about 0.2 percent more body weight than blanketed horses, and intake can rise to 3 percent in winter, because hindgut fermentation of forage produces heat. How much hay does a horse need in winter for a 500 kg horse? About 11 kg dry matter in cold weather against 10 kg in warm weather, before waste. Does pasture reduce hay needs? Yes, good pasture can replace part or all hay, so reduce hay in proportion to grazing, while a dry lot or overgrazed field means hay carries the whole diet. Do senior horses need different hay? Senior horse hay feeding may need softer, leafier hay or soaked hay cubes for worn teeth, at 1.5 to 2 percent body weight plus 0.5 to 1.5 percent concentrate. Pregnant mare horse feed chart guidance: hay 1.5 to 2 percent throughout, concentrate 0.75 to 1 percent in late pregnancy and 1 to 1.5 percent in lactation. Do overweight horses need less hay? Restrict to about 1.5 percent, use mature low energy hay, slow feeders, or soaked hay, and never starve below the forage floor. Does soaking hay reduce calories? Soaking reduces sugar and some calories, and soaked hay dry matter falls to 30 to 40 percent, so weigh after soaking with care.
About 2 percent of body weight in dry matter per day for most horses, or 1.5 to 3 percent across workloads. A 500 kg horse at 2 percent needs 10 kg dry matter, or 11.36 kg as fed at 88 percent dry matter.
From 0 percent at maintenance on good forage, to 0.5 percent at light work, 1 percent at moderate work, 1.5 percent at heavy work, and 2 percent at intense work, all as a percent of body weight.
At most 0.5 percent of body weight per meal, which is 2.5 kg for a 500 kg horse or 5 lb for a 1,000 lb horse. Split larger daily amounts into 2 to 3 meals, and feed hay before grain.
Many horses at maintenance or light work can live on good hay plus a ration balancer, salt, and water. Horses in heavy work, growing horses, and lactating mares usually need concentrate as well.
About 25 to 35 litres per day for a typical horse, or about 6 percent of body weight, rising in heat and heavy work. A 500 kg horse needs about 30 litres per day at rest.
At least 1 percent of body weight in roughage, with a practical floor of 1.5 percent for most horses and 1.8 percent when restricting an overweight horse. Never go below the floor without vet supervision, and never leave a horse without forage for more than 4 hours.
Yes. Good dense pasture can replace part or all hay, so reduce hay in proportion to grazing time and pasture quality. A dry lot means hay must carry the whole diet.
Flakes vary in weight from 1.7 to 2.7 kg, and bales vary in size, so counting flakes cannot hit a percent of body weight target. Weighing a day of hay is the only reliable method.