What do horses eat?
Horses are built to eat forage first (grass, hay or haylage) with hard feed added only as needed.
A horse's diet starts with forage: grass at pasture, or hay and haylage when grazing isn't enough. Their digestive systems are designed for near-constant, small-and-often grazing, which is why free access to forage matters more than any single feed. The British Horse Society puts a number on it: a horse should eat roughly 2% to 2.5% of its bodyweight in forage every 24 hours, and a daily ration should never fall below 1.5% of bodyweight, the floor used when a horse is being slimmed down under advice (BHS feeding guidance, read 9 September 2026). For a 500kg horse that is about 10 to 12.5kg of hay a day. Hard feed (cereal-based mixes, cubes, or balancers) is added on top only where a horse's workload, age, or condition calls for extra calories or specific nutrients.
Fresh, clean water needs to be available at all times, alongside free access to salt or a mineral lick. Treats like carrots and apples are fine in moderation, but the daily diet is built on forage, not variety. Getting it right is one of the most fundamental parts of yard life, alongside the sort of daily jobs covered in how to muck out a stable. If you're buying for the person who manages all of it, see our gifts for stable managers and yard owners. The other daily call that shifts with the season is rugging, worked through in when a horse needs a rug.
Written by Craig Fearn, Stable & Hoof. Last updated .
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