Horse calculators

Horse keeping runs on numbers nobody writes down. How much hay, how many bales, how much more in a cold week, how much of it ends up trampled into the mud.

Every tool here shows its working, gives a range instead of a falsely precise single number, and cites the university research behind each figure it uses.

Calculators

Hay calculatorHow much hay does a horse need per day?Weight, workload, pasture and temperature in — pounds, bales and flakes out, for a day, a month or a whole winter. Handles the winter uplift, dry matter and feeding waste that other tools skip.Open the calculatorGrain calculatorHow much grain should I feed my horse daily?Works out the gap your forage leaves rather than a percentage of body weight — so the answer for most horses is none. Converts to scoops, bags and meals, and flags the per-meal limit that causes colic.Open the calculatorPasture calculatorHow many acres does a horse need?Asks how much grass your ground grows and how you graze it, because those decide the answer and the two-acre rule ignores both. Answers land-to-feed and land-to-keep separately.Open the calculator

Guides

A chestnut horse grazing a large, dry, burnt-off summer pasture with wooded hills in the distanceBy stateHow many horses per acre by state?There is no national table, and anyone publishing one is guessing. What there is: the four bands US pasture actually falls into, and how to find your own county’s figure.Read the guideTwo bay horses grazing a flowering summer pasture with a wire fence line and a red barn behindGrazing timeHow much grazing does a horse need?Two answers: the hours a day it takes to eat a full ration off grass, and the acres that ration comes from. Most advice gives one and calls it both.Read the guideTwo well-covered ponies with their heads down, grazing long green grass side by sideTurnout timeHow much grass can a horse eat in an hour?Enough to matter: an hour at grass replaces nearly three pounds of hay in spring. And a horse out for three hours eats far faster than one out all day.Read the guideTwo horses in a green pasture behind a weathered wooden board fence, one chestnut and one palominoTwo horsesHow many acres for 2 horses?Worked through for two horses on ground from dryland range to irrigated pasture, with the hay bill for whatever the acres cannot cover.Read the guideA chestnut horse in a headcollar with its head down, grazing short green pastureGrass intakeHow much grass does a horse eat per day?By dry matter it is the same figure as hay. As grass, water and all, it is four times that — which is why a horse can graze all day and still look hungry.Read the guideA dark bay horse grazing short green grass in a wire-fenced paddock, a second horse behind itSmall acreageHow many horses can graze on 3 acres?One if you graze it as a single field, two if you split it into paddocks. The land does not change; what you do with it does.Read the guide

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