Nov 3 • General discussion
Horses eat for how long ??
“Your horse is designed to eat for 14–18 hours each day — not just two big meals.”
📚 What the Research Says
- A study in a pasture setting observed that horses graze about 16-18 hours a day when given unrestricted access.
- According to a feature on feeding frequency in The Horse, horses grazing naturally spend about 60% of their time (14-16 hours/day) consuming small amounts of forage.
- A fact sheet from Utah State University Extension indicates that, for maintenance horses, grazing time can range “up to 6-10 hours/day” on certain pastures — while young, growing horses may need as much as 15 hours/day to meet nutritional needs.
- A recent article from Morris Animal Foundation states: “Feral and wild horses can spend about 16 hours per day grazing.”
“Horses evolved to eat frequent, small roughage meals throughout the day … Forage consumed during grazing moves relatively quickly through the stomach … About 60% of their time when on pasture is spent eating.” — Stacey Oke, DVM, MSc.
🧠 Why This Matters to Us
- Because horses are built to graze continuously, modern feeding practices (e.g., two large meals/day with long gaps) can lead to digestive stress, increased ulcer risk, reduced gut motility, and behavioral issues.
- Understanding this helps us align our feeding & turnout practices with the animal’s natural behaviour, improving welfare and reducing risk of problems like colic, cribbing, or wood-chewing.
- As horsemanship learners and practitioners, this emphasises the “forage first” mindset: making sure the horse has access to long-stem fibre and the opportunity to nibble, rather than big infrequent meals.
- It’s a perfect “aha” moment: if you feed only twice and expect your horse to behave like a natural grazer, you’re asking them to live outside their design.
💬 Engagement Prompt for Your Community
🪴 “How many hours does your horse actually spend eating? Is it grazing, hay-nibbling, or standing idle?”
Questions to share:
- When you look at your horse’s day, how many hours are they actively eating forage (pasture or hay)?
- If your horse is only fed twice daily, what do you think their “off-feed” time feels like?
- What changes can you make this week to increase the forage access/time your horse gets? (slow-feeders, turnout, more hay, hanging nets, etc)
- Have you seen any behaviour (cribbing, wood chewing, pacing) that might link to “not enough eating time”?
✅ Key Take-Home
Your horse needs continual access to forage and the chance to be a grazer. As part of our community at No Bucks Given Hoof Camp, let’s commit to building feeding practices that honour the horse’s natural design — because better horsemanship is rooted in understanding them.
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Horses eat for how long ??
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