Horses, in their natural surroundings, are grazing -animals. They have evolved to graze for about 18 hours a day, continuously digesting a wide -variety of different grasses. Ideally, this is how we should keep our horses.

In today's world, this is next to impossible to achieve. (Very few of us have access to vast plains of land for grazing!). We have to find a balance between the natural and the unnatural, meeting the increased demand for energy that a working horse needs, yet not upsetting the delicate digestive system. How do we achieve this?

Rule one
The first rule of feeding is to provide unlimited grass – in the form of either pasture or hay. If your horse is stabled or in a small paddock, provide ad lib, good quality hay. Roughage (hay or grass) is what the horse's digestive system is designed to digest. The food spends up to two days in the large intestine, where the roughage is digested, and less than an hour in the small intestine, where other feed, e.g. cereals, is digested.

Rule two
The second rule of feeding is to feed concentrates little and often. The horse's stomach is relatively small. Feeding too much at a time can push the food through the system too fast, resulting in the food not being properly digested. Which in turn kills the "good" bacteria in the large intestine, releasing toxins which can cause colic, laminitis, swollen legs, etc.

Of course it is often not possible for us to feed our horses using this "trickle method", where a constant flow of feed trickles through the stomach. Again, we need to compromise and do the best we can. Try the following to help this process:
• Dilute concentrated feed with chaff.
• Feed hay before and after concentrates.
• Feed three or four small meals instead of one big meal.
• Feed carrots and apples mixed into the concentrate, to slow intake.

Rule three
The third rule is easy and obvious: Lots of fresh, clean water must be available to your horse at all times.

Rule four
Fourthly, feed according to your horse's needs. Take into account your horse's condition, workload, temperament and size. Do a condition score (see Figure 1 and refer to pages 44 to 45 of SA Horseman, March 2009) in order to decide whether your horse is too fat or too thin.

Roughly speaking, your horse should eat about 2,5% of its bodyweight per day. Estimate your horse's bodyweight using a weight tape, available from most tack and feed shops.

With good quality hay being the basis of your horse's diet, see with how little concentrates you can get away with and still maintain his condition and the right energy levels for your particular sport. Some horses will do well on only hay and a mineral lick, while others will need more concentrates.

At the very least, 1,5% of his feed should be hay, chaff or grass. Weigh your food so that you -remain consistent. Don't make sudden -changes – change feeds and amounts gradually.

When you have done a condition score, you will know whether your horse needs to:
• Maintain weight (score 3).
• Increase weight (score 0 to 2).
• Or decrease weight (score 4 or 5).

Feed according to the condition score and keep monitoring the weight and increase or decrease the feed as needed.

Divide your horse’s body into three areas:
• Neck and shoulder. (Horses store fat on their crest and over the shoulder blades).
• Middle. (Here fat is stored over the ribcage and along the spine. Can you feel the ribs and spine? Is a "tabletop" developing? Ignore the gut – this is not stored fat).
• Backside. (Can you see where the spine meets the tailbone? How wobbly are the quarters?).

Run your hands over these three areas, feeling for fat cover. Give each area a score from 0 (very thin) to 5 (very fat). Add the scores for each area. Divide the sum by three. This number is your condition score.