Equilin ration calculator

See in a few minutes what is missing from your horse's ration. Do the maths yourself, using the same standards we work with.

Do you feed on instinct, or do you know?

Most horses get what they have always had. A scoop of this, a bag of that, and some grass in the field on top. Usually that works out fine. But whether your horse actually gets what it needs is a different question from whether it looks good.

With the ration calculator you work it out yourself.

How it works

You enter what your horse gets: roughage, grazing, concentrate, balancer, oil and salt. Add your horse's details, its workload and the number of hours at grass. That is all you need. If you have your own roughage analysis, you can enter that too.

You then see straight away:

• For each nutrient, how much of the requirement your ration covers
• How much sugar is healthy for your horse, and whether you are feeding too much
• What happens if you give more, less or different roughage, or increase the workload
• Where the ration falls short, and where you have plenty

What the calculations are based on

The standards come from CVB Horses 2012 and 2016 and the NRC.

Do you have a roughage analysis? Then you can enter your own values and the calculation becomes a lot more precise. If not, the calculator uses averages. For concentrates we work with brand averages, so you are not tied to one manufacturer, but you can also enter the label from your own bag of feed.

Who it is for

For anyone who wants to understand what goes into the feed bucket and see the wood for the trees again. You do need to be willing to look a few things up: your horse's weight, how much roughage really goes in and what is on the bag. Estimating is fine, weighing is better. If your horse has unlimited roughage, we help you with the right amounts as well.

What a calculation does not do

To be honest: a calculation is about quantities, not quality. Whether the roughage is dusty or mouldy, how well a mineral is absorbed and how the gut flora is doing do not show up in it. Substances that are not part of a standard analysis stay invisible too.

That is why the order stays the same as always: first enough suitable roughage, water, chewing time and calm in the ration. Only once that foundation is in place does targeted supplementing make sense. A calculation helps you decide what to add, not whether you need to do everything at once.

Want to really understand it?

This calculator shows what is missing, or rather that very often not much is missing and feeding can be a lot simpler. In the course you learn why, how to build a ration yourself and what affects good digestion. We go step by step through the book The New Feeding Concept, which forms the basis of the course.