Feeding Guidelines That Really Work Part 1 of 5

Guideline 1: Stop guessing.

Do you know your horse's weight? What about his body condition score (BCS)? Do you know in pounds, rather than in quarts, flakes, or (gasp) scoops how much your horse is fed every day? You should, because accuracy is half the battle to ensuring your horse gets what he needs.

Know his real weight. While it would be nice if we all had access to platform scales that we could get perfect weights on all our horses say monthly, that isn't a reasonable option for all of us. What is reasonable is to mosey down to the tack shop and get yourself a weight tape. Check your horse's weight monthly. Not only will this help you accurately determine what he should be fed, it will be invaluable information when it comes time to deworm or medicate him.

Know his BCS. The BCS (Body Condition Score) is used as a way to describe how thin or fat a horse is in a standardized way. Pretty much anyone can obviously figure out that a horse is too thin if he scores a 1, and that he's too fat if he scores a 9. But sometimes we manage to lie to ourselves when it comes to deciding if our horse is just a little over or under weight. Using the BCS method helps take your emotions out of it and guide you to a more realistic assessment of your horse's condition. The BCS can be found at: http://www.thehorse.com/pdf/nutrition/bcs.pdf

Know how much you are feeding. Flakes, scoops, cans, quarts, armfuls, we use a lot of generalized measurements to describe how much we feed our horses. These work fine if you are aware of how much those measurements really are, but one person's scoop may not be the same size as someone else's, one flake of hay may be larger or smaller depending on the bale of hay and the person flaking it. Ideally you'd have a scale in your feed room and you would weigh absolutely all your horse's hay and grain. At the very least you should weigh each component of a new ration so that you know how many of your scoops or flakes make the necessary number of pounds. For example: If you get in a new load of hay, weigh a flake of it. If you have calculated that your horse needs 10 pounds of hay at each feeding, and your find out that your hay weighs 5 lbs per flake, then two flakes is great. But what about if you get a load of hay that only weighs 3 lbs per flake? If you don't check the weight and adjust accordingly, you might end up effectively cutting your horse's hay intake in half. Another example: If you switch pelleted feeds and your old feed was 1 quart per pound but your new feed is 3/4 quart per pound you could end up over feeding. If someone else feeds your horse(s), weigh/measure/flake with them so that you both agree on what the flake/scoop amounts should be on a day to day basis.