Requirement values after GfE, Coenen/Vervuert and NRC
What your horse really needs
Enter the weight, the target weight and your hay analysis. We work through energy, protein, crude fibre and every macro and trace mineral, and show you where the ration is falling short.
This site is no substitute for an examination by a vet or a feed adviser.
Horst, 630 kg, target weight 500 kg, 15 kg of hay a day.
The vertical line is the requirement. Anything to its right is surplus.
Three steps to a ration
- 01
Describe your horse
Breed, height, current weight and target weight. If you don’t know the ideal weight, you get a suggestion from the breed table.
- 02
Enter the ration
Hay, straw, lucerne and hard feed, with the figures from your hay analysis if you have one. If not, we use typical analysis values.
- 03
Read the result
Requirement against actual ration, nutrient by nutrient. Plus concrete pointers on what you can change and where a supplement is genuinely needed.
Why this calculation is different
Requirement based on the target weight
A horse carrying too much gets the requirement for its target weight, not for the weight it is at now. That is exactly where most rations go wrong.
Appetite limit instead of a crash diet
Crude fibre is filled right up to the appetite limit while the energy comes down. Your horse keeps chewing, just with fewer calories.
Macro and trace minerals
Calcium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, selenium, including the Ca:P ratio.
Every figure can be checked
Every number comes from a published requirement table. The whole calculation is covered by a test suite, down to the upper safety limits for selenium, copper and zinc.
Where the figures come from
The requirement and appetite-limit tables follow the published values of Coenen/Vervuert (2020), GfE (2014), Frape (2010) and NRC (2007). Every figure in the calculation is covered by a test suite, including the upper safety limits for selenium, copper and zinc.
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