Horse nutrition — fibre-based forage diet, constant forage access, clean water, gradual diet changes (UK DEFRA code)
Source: UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), “Code of practice for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids” (December 2017), gov.uk. Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 — verbatim quotation permitted with attribution; C1 substring-verified against pdf-raw/horse-welfare/horses_welfare_code_2018.txt.
Feeding guidance from the DEFRA welfare code: horses are grazers whose diet should be built on forage (grass, hay, haylage), with concentrates limited and split across meals, continuous access to clean water, and all diet changes made gradually to avoid colic and other gastrointestinal upsets.
Claims
Horses are naturally grazers who eat little and often.Horses should have almost constant access to forage (e.g. grass, hay, haylage) during their non-exercise hours.It is essential that all horses have continuous access to a clean supply of fresh water.Stabled horses should have continuous access to fresh water.If a daily concentrate ration is required it should be spread over at least two meals a day.Any diet changes (increase in volume, change in feed or hay etc.) should be made gradually.The weight and condition of every horse should be monitored regularly to avoid welfare problems.around 5 to 10 litres per 100 kg bodyweight per day