“Am I feeding too much or too little?” is one of the most common questions owners ask — and the bag’s feeding chart isn’t always the answer, since it assumes your horse is working harder than most actually are. Here’s a clearer way to think about portions.
The anchor number is forage at about 1.5–2% of bodyweight daily. Don’t know your horse’s weight? A weight tape gets you close, and a vet scale or livestock scale gets you closer. From there, the question is whether forage alone meets the horse’s energy needs or whether you need to add anything.
Be honest about the work. A horse hacking lightly a few times a week needs far less hard feed than the feed-bag chart suggests — often none beyond a balancer. Reserve concentrated feeds for horses whose energy output genuinely demands them: heavy work, hard keepers, late-pregnancy mares, hard-working seniors.
Forget the numbers for a second and learn to read body condition: you should be able to feel ribs with light pressure but not see them, with a smooth topline and no fat pads at the tailhead or crest. Check it every couple of weeks. A horse gaining a hay belly or a cresty neck is telling you to cut back; one losing topline needs more. Your eyes and hands beat any chart.
If you do feed concentrates, smaller meals are kinder to the gut than one big one. And keep forage in front of the horse as much as possible — slow feeders help stretch hay through the day without overfeeding.
Treat it as a ceiling, not a target. Those charts assume fairly hard work. Many horses need far less, or just a balancer. Adjust to your horse’s real workload and condition.
You should feel ribs with light pressure but not see them, with a smooth topline and no hard fat pads at the crest or tailhead. Reassess every couple of weeks.
Smaller, more frequent meals suit the equine gut better. Constant forage access is ideal; slow feeders help.
Look at hay quantity and sugar content, use a slow feeder, and talk to your vet or a nutritionist. Don’t simply starve forage; manage it.