Free tool

Horse ration calculator

Tell us what your horse does and what you feed it: the tool works out its daily needs, suggests the right quantities and checks that nothing is missing, using the French reference method (INRA), explained step by step.

Step 1 · Your horse

An adult riding horse usually weighs between 450 and 600 kg. Don't know it? Estimate it.

What is your horse doing at the moment?

Choose the situation closest to its daily life, each one matches a work level in the INRA tables.

Its daily needs (INRA references)

For “riding-school lessons, beginner rider”, the INRA tables classify your horse as light work. Here's what it needs each day:

Energy

6.9

UFC / day

Protein

470

g MADC / day

Calcium

30

g / day

Phosphorus

18

g / day

How to read these figures? Energy is counted in UFC: one “Horse Forage Unit” equals the energy of a kilo of barley, the more the horse works, the more it needs. The MADC are the protein it actually absorbs (they maintain its muscles), and calcium and phosphorus maintain its skeleton.

Its appetite: 9.5 to 11.5 kg of “dry matter” a day, the weight of the feeds once the water is removed, the only measure that lets you compare grass, hay and pellets. Also provide a salt lick and a mineral and vitamin supplement to cover salt (sodium ≈ 37 g), magnesium (≈ 9 g) and trace elements.

Step 2 · What you feed it

Choose the feeds you give (or have to hand), with the kilos actually weighed: bucket or scale in hand. The value of each feed comes from the official INRA tables.

kg/d

Field-dried in good weather, full heading (no. 62). (0.52 UFC · 43 g MADC / kg as fed)

kg/d

Reference cereal of the UFC (no. 120). (1 UFC · 79 g MADC / kg as fed)

Don't want to calculate? Simply choose your usual feeds and tap “Work out the quantities for me”: the tool suggests quantities that cover the needs, favouring hay.

Step 3 · The balance: does it add up?

We compare what the ration provides with what your horse needs, line by line.

Verdict: all good. This ration covers energy, protein, calcium and phosphorus, and the total quantity matches your horse's appetite. Simply top it up with a salt lick and a mineral supplement.
What we look atThe ration providesIt needsDifferenceVerdict
Total quantity (dry matter)9.8 kg9.5 – 11.5 kg·Within the range
Energy (UFC)6.7 UFC6.9 UFC−0.2Covered
Protein (MADC)548.5 g470 g+78.5Covered
Calcium (Ca)52.2 g30 g+22.2Covered
Phosphorus (P)31.1 g18 g+13.1Covered

In every case: water at will, a salt lick, a mineral and vitamin supplement if the ration relies mostly on hay, and any change of diet spread over one to two weeks to spare its digestion.

This tool gives the average recommendations of the INRA tables for an adult riding horse (gelding, mare, or stallion via the dedicated option). It is not suitable as-is for a mare carrying or feeding a foal, a young growing horse or a draught horse: their needs are different. Also bear in mind that no two hays are ever quite alike, only a laboratory analysis gives the exact figures for yours. The best judge remains your horse: watch its condition (ribs, neck, energy) and have the ration confirmed by your vet or an equine nutritionist.

How is the ration calculated?

The method is the one taught to students in agricultural colleges and veterinary schools, on real “rationing sheets”. It comes in three steps. 1. The needs: depending on its weight and activity, a horse needs a certain amount of energy each day, counted in UFC, the “Horse Forage Unit”, which equals the energy of a kilo of barley, of protein, the MADC, the kind it truly absorbs, of calcium and of phosphorus. 2. The intake: each feed provides more or less per kilo. A kilo of barley is very energy-dense, a kilo of hay half as much but keeps the horse busy far longer, which is why a good ration is built first on hay. 3. The balance: we compare the two. If something is missing, we adjust; if there is too much energy every day, the horse gains weight. That is exactly what this page does, with the official INRA figures.

Once the ration is balanced, the ideal is to track it over time, as a team. With GaloPlan, the horse's ration and supplements are set once and for all, each serving is logged in one gesture in a shared log, and the whole team knows whether the horse has eaten.

Sources and method

This calculator invents no values: needs, feed values and equations come from the French INRA system (UFC / MADC). Each rule used is listed below with its source.

  • Daily needs (UFC, MADC, Ca, P, Mg, Na) by weight and work level : INRA tables “recommended feed intake for the sport and leisure horse”, riding horses from 450 to 600 kg (L'alimentation des chevaux, W. Martin-Rosset, INRA). Interpolation between the weight tiers; stallion: + 0.4 to 0.5 UFC and + 30 g MADC.
  • Range of dry matter that can be eaten per day : same INRA tables, the low value corresponds to a diet rich in concentrates, the high value to a ration maximizing forage.
  • Nutritional values of feeds (per kg as fed) : INRA feed tables (forages, hays, straws, cereals, by-products): dry-matter content × value per kg of dry matter.
  • Commercial feed estimated from the label : INRAE equations: UFC = 132.6 − 0.1937 × CBo − 0.0135 × MATo (per 100 kg of organic matter); MADC = (− 4.94 + 0.8533 × MAT) × 0.85; + 0.02 UFC per point of fat above 3.5%.
  • Intake − needs balance and corrective supplements : rationing-sheet method (Wolter, 1994): the mineral imbalances of a classic ration are corrected with a few dozen grams of a mineral supplement.

References

The tables give average population recommendations: they do not replace an individual rationing set with a vet or an equine nutritionist, who takes into account the forage analysis, the body condition and the health of each horse.

Frequently asked questions

The Horse Forage Unit (Unité Fourragère Cheval) is the energy unit of the French INRA system: it corresponds to the net energy of a reference kilo of barley. A riding horse needs about 4 to 8.5 UFC a day depending on its weight and work. The MADC (horse-digestible protein) measure, in the same way, the protein that is actually usable, in grams.

A 500 kg riding horse eats between 7 and 13.5 kg of dry matter a day depending on its work (INRA tables). Hay contains about 85% dry matter: a hay-based ration therefore often represents 8 to 13 kg of weighed hay a day, to be given in several portions.

The rationing method has three steps: 1) determine the horse's daily needs (UFC, MADC, calcium, phosphorus) from its weight and work level; 2) calculate the ration's intake by multiplying, for each feed, the nutritional value per kilo by the quantity given; 3) balance intake minus needs and correct the deficits. This calculator applies exactly this method.

Rarely. At rest, good hay fed within the intake range generally covers energy and protein; there is often a remaining deficit in minerals and trace elements, corrected with a mineral supplement and a salt lick rather than with concentrates.

No. It applies the average recommendations of the INRA tables. Age, body condition, health, the real quality of your hay, a pregnant or lactating mare or a growing horse change the needs: have the ration confirmed by your vet or an equine nutritionist.

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