There are 4 easy steps to blancing your horse's ration to keep him in the best health, condition, and performance. Follow these guidelines and rules, and your horse will be healthy and happy!

Step One

Weight is everything! In order to properly assess your horse and develop a feed program, you really must know how much he/she weighs. The average horse owner, however does not have a "horse sized" scale available to them. Studys show, that the weight of a horse can be given by a weigh tape and be fairly accurate, but usually under guess the actual weight of the horse by roughly 50lbs.

What condition is your horse in? Now that you know how much your horse weighs, factor in his/her condition. Is he thin, fat, just right? REALIZE, that most horse owners tend to under asses their horse's condition. He may be just right, but you want to put more weight on him. Obesity in horses is MORE dangerous than a horse that is a little underweight. Here's a good assesment of weight:
• VERY THIN -- sunken rump, visible bone structure (ribs, backbone, croup), ewe neck.
• THIN -- sunken rump, ribs easily visible, prominant withers and croup, thin neck.
• MODERATELY THIN -- (also called "race weight.") flat rump on sides of backbone, ribs just visible, backbone well covered, thin but firm neck.
• JUST RIGHT -- round rump, ribs covered (easily felt), no crest, firm neck.
• FAT -- rump well rounded, developing a gutter down topline, hard to feel ribs.
• VERY FAT -- bulging rump, deep gutter down topline, cannot feel ribs, cresty neck, folds of lumpy, spongy fat well seen (especially in hip area.)

Work load. Adjust your horse's diet to the work load that your horse is put under. This is another factor that horse owners commonly miscalculate. We all have a tendency to believe that our horses work harder than they do. Follow this chart to help you become more objective:
• MAINTENANCE These are horses that are not used, or only used on the occasional trail ride. (excludes young horses/broodmares)
• LIGHT WORK Quietly hacking or riding 3 days a week or less.
• MODERATE LIGHT Occasional ringwork, hacking, and "montly" show.
• MEDIUM WORK Jumping, Dressage, lesson horses. On a daily schedule riding 5 Days a week, "bi-montly" shows.
• HARD WORK Upper Level Jumping, Dressage, Eventing, Endurance, Hunting.
• FAST Race Horses.

  Most horses owned by amateurs fit in the Maintenance to Moderate Light work range. Knowing what range your horse is in will help you determine the proportion of roughage (hay,grass) to grain ratio that you should keep.

  What to feed?

  WORK LOAD	Ratio of HAY:GRAIN
  Maintenance	100:0
  Maintenance(when hay is low)	90:10
  Light Work	85:15
  Moderate light	80:20
  Medium Work	75:25
  Hard Work	65:35
  Fast	50:50

Step Four

Balancing the ration. After finding the weight of your horse, calculate the amount (in lbs) that your horse should be fed per day by using the following method:
Weight of horse lbs X .025 = FEED lbs.
This is determined because, to maintain a horse's weight, it must be fed 2.5% of it's body weight PER DAY (NOT per feeding). IF your horse is overweight/underweight, and you wish for it to lose weight, you feed it 2.5% of the goal weight. In this case, you would also feed the HAY:GRAIN ratio 1 level above the actual work for an underweight horse, and 1 level below the actual work for an overweight horse.

If you have a 15 hand horse that weighs 1000 lbs, and is on a light work schedule, and is in "Just Right" condition, you would calculate:
1000 lbs X .025 = 25lbs

Since it is in Light work, 85% (21.25 lbs) of this weight would be hay, and 15% (3.75) would be grain.

Or if you have a 15 hand horse that weights 900 lbs, that is underweight (should be 1000) and is in a Medium Work schedule, you would calculate it's weight based on the goal, 1000 lbs.: 1000 lbs X .025 = 25lbs

Since it is in Moderate Work, but you want it to gain weight, you would feed it in the Hard Work catagory: therefore, 65% (16.25) of this weight would be hay, and 35% (8.75) would be grain.