Feed, water and meals

Five basic feeds, clean water at all times and meals handed out with method: that is the routine of every yard — and a real responsibility on the day it is handed to you.

In the exam programme

Recognise these basic feeds: grass, hay, straw, cereals, pellets.Common module B
Know how much water they need and the ways of giving it.Common module B
Hand out the feed.Common module A

The five basic feeds

Grass

Green, fresh, full of water.

Hay

Pale green, soft, leafy.

Straw

Golden, shiny: stiff, hollow stems.

Cereals

Long oats, plump barley, round yellow maize.

Pellets

Small, even little sticks.

Fig. 2.4Grass, hay, straw, cereals and pellets

Feed	What it is	How to recognise it
Grass	The plants of the field, grazed where they grow.	Green, fresh, full of water.
Hay	Grass that has been cut, dried in the sun, then pressed into bales.	Pale green to greenish-yellow, soft, with leaves and sometimes dried flowers; a good smell of dry grass.
Straw	The stalks of cereal crops once the grain has been harvested. It is mostly used as bedding, but horses nibble it.	Golden yellow, shiny, made of hollow, stiff stalks with no leaves.
Cereals	Grains, mainly oats, barley and maize, fed whole, rolled or crushed.	Oats: a long, pointed grain. Barley: a bigger, plump, hard grain. Maize: a big, round yellow grain.
Pellets	A manufactured feed: plants and grains ground up and pressed into little sticks.	Small, even cylinders, their colour depending on what is in them.

Recognising the basic feeds

Tip

Hay or straw? Take a handful. Hay is soft, greenish and smells of grass; straw is yellow, glossy and crackles between your fingers.

In Galop 4 you will learn to sort these feeds into their main groups and to understand what a horse needs.

Water

Water is vital. A horse drinks 20 to 40 litres a day on average. For a 500 kg horse, the French national horse and riding institute (IFCE) gives a range of 15 to 60 litres, depending on the heat, the work and the diet: a horse grazing young grass, which is full of water, drinks less than a horse fed on hay. Water must be clean and available at all times.

The automatic drinker: A bowl that fills up when the horse presses a paddle with its nose. It lets the horse drink often, a little at a time. Check every day that it works and is clean.
The bucket: You can see how much the horse has drunk. It must be filled several times a day and hung up so it cannot be knocked over.
The field trough: A large tank filled from a water supply, often controlled by a float valve, or from a water bowser. In winter, break the ice.
The natural water source: A stream or a pond, provided the water is clean and the way down to it is safe.

Handing out the feed

Know the rationEvery horse has its own ration: which feeds, how much, at what time. Follow the yard’s feed chart or your instructor’s instructions, and change nothing.
Prepare and checkMeasure with the scoop provided. Feed that is mouldy, damp or dusty is not fed: put it aside and tell someone.
Announce yourselfHorses get excited at feed time. Speak before you approach, and feed over the door or through the hatch, without going into the stable if you can help it.
Feed everyone at onceFeed all the horses at the same time, leaving no one out; hay usually goes in before cereals or pellets. In the field, put out more piles of hay than there are horses, well spaced out.
Close up and tidyFeed bin shut, doors and gates closed, buckets and scoops put away.
WatchA horse that turns its nose up at its feed or will not drink may be ill: report it.

Safety

Do not work a horse within an hour of a feed of cereals or pellets, and after exercise wait until it is calm and dry before giving it one.

Common mistake

Adding a handful of grain “because he looks hungry”. The ration is worked out for that horse: too much grain can make it ill.

Ekidemy

The Galops^®, from the first step to Galop 7