Dosage chart: Supreme Minerals
Short version: see the overview
The base dose is 15-20 g per 100 kg of horse per day for maintenance and light work. If your horse is in moderate work, in foal or aged 15 or over, give 20 g per 100 kg.
If you don't know your forage, use the high end of the range.
Good planning makes everyday feeding easier
We recommend that you familiarise yourself with what matters most for your horse's needs, i.e. the key factors, and with how we assess the total workload. The definitions of light, moderate and hard work are in our guide to feed quantities.
Daily dosage
| Situation | Per 100 kg of horse per day | Example: 500 kg horse |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance and light work | 15-20 g | 75-100 g |
| Moderate work, in-foal mare or senior horse 15+ | 20 g | 100 g |
| Intensive work or lactation, months 1-3 | 20-35 g | 100-175 g |
Amounts are always given as dry weight. Feed according to your horse's current weight, not its ideal weight. If you don't know the weight, you can work it out from the girth measurement in metres, cubed, times 80. Example: 1.7 x 1.7 x 1.7 x 80 is approx. 392 kg.
Don't have a mineral analysis of your forage?
Then we recommend using the high end of the dosage range, for light work 20 g per 100 kg. It's the best way to make sure your horse gets enough of the important trace minerals, even if you don't know exactly what's in your forage.
If, on the other hand, you do have an analysis and the mineral content figures are roughly as below, you can safely use the low end of the range:
| Mineral in the forage | Level that allows a low dose |
|---|---|
| Copper | 4-5 mg/kg |
| Zinc | 20-22 mg/kg |
| Manganese | 40-50 mg/kg |
| Iron | 100-110 mg/kg |
| Calcium | approx. 4 g/kg dry matter |
| Phosphorus | 2.0-3.0 g/kg dry matter |
As horses only absorb a small proportion of the iron in forage, typically 10-15 %, and as many analyses show low values, we recommend the high end of the range if your forage is low in iron in particular.
Remember salt every day
Horses have no salt reserves and need salt in their feed every day along with the daily dose.
- Maintenance: 13 g salt per 100 kg of horse per day. For a 500 kg horse, that's 65 g
- For moderate work, the total salt requirement is 18-20 g and for demanding work 25-30 g per 100 kg. Heat, pregnancy and lactation also increase the requirement.
- A salt lick alone is not enough. Give loose salt in the feed bowl, and build up from half a teaspoon over 14 days
Stallions
Stallions need a daily dose at least 10 % higher than the chart states to be covered. We recommend feeding stallions at the high end of the dosage range relative to their workload.
In-foal and lactating mares and their foals
When the mare is in foal
Up to the 8th month, she is fed according to how much work she is in. From the 9th to the 11th month, she is fed as a horse in moderate work.
After the mare has foaled
For the first 3 months, she is fed as a horse in hard work, because she has to produce milk for the foal. After that, she is fed as a horse in moderate work until the foal is weaned and no longer suckling.
If the mare is both in foal and has a suckling foal
Then she is fed as a horse in hard work for the entire period she is producing milk. Once the foal is weaned, follow the recommendations for the in-foal mare again.
Feeding foals
Foals from approx. 2 to 5 months need approx. 0.5 grams of Supreme Minerals per day per kg of the foal's body weight. A 100 kg foal therefore gets approx. 50 g a day.
Foals from 6 months and youngstock are fed based on their expected adult weight, at the level for horses in light work or normal turnout activity.
Glossary and feeding questions
The feed glossary and the recurring questions about soaking, mash, and dry and wet weight are collected in one place: Feeding FAQ.
