what to feed my horse ?

Question
Hey x
My name is Emily and I am 13 years old. I am getting a horse next year around summer time and I am really want to learn what to do now, every thing is so confusing, and I really want to keep my horse happy and healthy.
One of the main thing that I am most confused about is 'feeding' so I hope you can help me...

I am not quite sure what to feed my horse.I looking for one which is 14-16 hands and which is fast and fun but is easy to control.So what should I feed him/her?

My friend just got a horse 3 weeks ago and keeps it out side in the day and brings it in to feed in the middle of the day after riding and then lets her out again but bring her in for the night.She feeds her just pony nuts. her horse is really lazy and doesn't like to go.So is this to do with the feeding or just the horse ? Also is it ok just to feed your horse Pony Nuts because the horses that i ride have really complicated feed and it is confusing.

and the last Question is how much do you feed a horse and how many times a day do you feed a horse ?

Thank you for your time and I hope you can help me

lots of love Emily x

Answer
Dear Emily,

These are all great questions and I know feeding can be confusing.  You should plan on feeding your horse at least 1.5% maybe 2% of his body weight as hay each day.  So if he weighs 1000lbs he would need 15-20lbs of hay.  If he were to get less than 1.5% his digestive system would have a hard time functioning.  Now if he will be on pasture than you can feed less as the grass will replace some of his need for hay.  In fact some horses on good pasture don't need hay at all in the summer months but will need hay in the winter because there is not much nutrition in winter grass.  Some horses do too well on grass though and can get fat so you need to be careful.

I would strongly recommend a series of books on horse management put together by an organization called Pony Club (it is for horse owners too).  I'm not sure where you are but in the US there are 3 manuals D,C and B HA and A.  These cover information in increasingly more complex levels and they cover everything to know about owning horses.  If you are in England then there is an english version called "the manual of horsemanship".  Look these books up on Amazon and I think you would do very well to buy them and read them now.

Kudos to you for trying to find out everything now rather than after you get your horse which is what a lot of people do and then they end up in trouble.  I wish you all the best in your hunting for a good horse.

Best wishes,

Clair