How much will a horse eat when grazing?
To calculate how much horses eat at pasture, we must estimate the amount of dry matter they eat. Pasture grass contains about 80% water and 20% dry matter. On medium quality pastures, we can expect a horse to eat an amount of grass equivalent to 2 kg dry matter per 100 kg body weight (2% of body weight). This means that a horse of 500 kg body weight will eat about 10 kg dry matter daily, corresponding to 50-60 kg of grass. On good quality pasture a horse can eat more than this, often up to 3 kg dry matter per 100 kg body weight (3% of body weight). On low quality pastures with little grass, intake will be considerably less.