For starters this will apply to any horse not just Friesians but there are specific points that will be made because of the breed needs...
Horses need Roughage (hay/grass), Water and Salt 24/7. sounds silly but I hear a lot of they get fed 2x a day. That creates acid flux in the stomach and results in ulcers (pissy behavior, pain etc)
Step 1 TEST YOUR HAY. you can not tell me it's good cause it's green, or good because it's the place you always get it from, or good because it's expensive. The test is cheap and your horse's nutrition is vital. Each field changes each year, and with each cutting and with the time of day it's cut and the type of weather that occurred while growing and cutting and drying. SO get the test done. Here is one company that does horse specific tests EQUI-ANALYTICAL or google equine hay tests. Your local Ag. extension office should also be able to do this (we don't have one), but most states and areas have them.
Feeding 101 - Horses need roughage such as hay, pasture, grasses etc. they need to consume about 1% of their body weight per day in good quality hay. So a 1200lb horse needs 12lb of hay. not 2 flakes AM/PM 12 lbs. Weight your food
With that being said the exceptions are if they are nursing, breeding, showing, working, growing (till they are 6yo) they need 1.5-2% of their body weight some even need 3%. If your mare is pregnant you need to add on the weight of the pregnancy as she grows.
Another exception is winter feeding. Horses get warm from fermentation of roughage in their body. So feed them more food to stay warm. If you are worried about the 3 F's with over feeding a horse (founder, fat and freaking out) then get a lower Relative Feed Value (RFV) hay for your horse for the winter and give them more.
Bodyweight in pounds = [(heartgirth in inches) squared times length in inches] divided by 330 where the length of your horse is measured from the front point of his shoulder blade to the point of his rump.
If your hay is lacking something and you are stuck with it. The next step is to balance the minerals and making sure they have enough Energy. If your area soil and water are lacking in something or high in something you need to factor that into your equation. For example, my area in Colorado is low in copper. The only thing we give our horses besides hay is a copper lick. Selenium is one that varies greatly and is toxic in low and high levels with a narrow range of safety. There are certain grasses in the south that leech calcium and minerals out of horses, don't feed them, don't grow them, and bring in better hay. So know your area. Your state agriculture department can help as well as google reports on your area's soils.
This is a great online calculator Horse-feed-calculator (not sponsored by me please be careful not to push an advertisement button on their page. There are a lot of ads and you know I personally will not use ads on my page because they try to trick people into pushing them... not ethical
Some general guidelines
Digestible Energy (DE) - here is the general formula DE/day (Mcal) = 1.4 + 0.03 (body weight in pounds divided by 2.2) (x by 1.25 for light work, x1.5 for medium, x2 for full work)
Calcium : Phosphorus (1:1 up to 2:1) (Calcium min 0.25% total diet)
Protein- maintenance 8-10%, everything else higher up to even 18%. If your horse is in a stall and your stall smells like ammonia that would make your eyes water, their protein is too high and their kidneys are working over time. Some reasonable pee smell is expected, but should be tolerable.
Horses especially Friesians do not do well on high sugar diets (like people). Hay can have very high sugars if cut at certain times of day. Grains have a ton of sugars to try to get horses to eat them. TEST YOUR HAY. Know what you are feeding.
STOP the grains - Grain is a carbohydrate and sugar. Those are two things that are not ideal for horses. They may contain fats that give you a shine on your horse. But it's junk food. it's usually by products packed into pellets. The nutrients test in a lab, but are rarely as digestible and the label. Also if you read the label and see the mass amounts that the company requires for you to feed to meet the label specifications you will realize it's crazy. There are new products claiming to be natural grains etc. but there is usually a molasses added (sugar bad). And Grains are sprayed with round up like products just before harvesting to dry the seeds faster... so guess who's eating that... your horse...GACK. Some know it all will say they found an organic grain etc. BUT if you have that much money to spend on a bag of grain why on earth did you not test your hay for less and buy true quality hay that doesn't need you to feed grains. How often do horses get out and raid a corn field, oat field, barley field? The eat the first grass they come to.
100% do NOT grain your foals to make them grow faster. The current foal grains (and all grains) are designed to fast grow a thoroughbred or quarter horse to get it to a track at 18 months. A horse ALL HORSES, are not done growing their joints and spine till 5yo. SO if you push a foal to be a 5yo by the time they are 18mo their joints will be compromised. DON'T DO IT. Just think about all the OTTB's on joint injections at age 6. That is 1000's of dollars and a lifelong journey of pain because someone fast tracked them to grow. DON'T DO IT. If you see a 3yo that looks a little young... they grew correctly. A 3yo should look like a 14-16 year old kid, a bit thinner than the final 30yo/40yo version of themselves. Take the time the horse needs so it doesn't have to be in pain from 3 year old to 30 year old (if they make it that long) It's safer to slow grow the first 5 years (not starve, balanced hay growing) and have them be sound and injection free till 30+yo.
If your hay is quality you will not need to feed them anything else.
Hay can be trucked all over the US. so you can buy hay that balances your areas deficiencies. If you have horses you should have enough covered area to store 1 years supply of hay for your horses. That is just responsible ownership. If you need quality tested hay trucked to you Email me or facebook me allison@sableranch.net If you board there isn't much you can do but you can test your hay so you
