One day of feed for a mount weighs 10 LBS!

bigdndfan · Oct 19, 2002

That is heck of a lot of oats. Its not a typo or in the phb errata.

Any thoughts about this? Isn't this excessive?

My party has a pony and a horse, so for a 10 day trip we have to fill our cart up with 200 lbs oats.

Mark · Oct 19, 2002

bigdndfan said:
That is heck of a lot of oats. Its not a typo or in the phb errata.

Any thoughts about this? Isn't this excessive?

My party has a pony and a horse, so for a 10 day trip we have to fill our cart up with 200 lbs oats.

Actually...

from - http://www.4ahorse.com/horseshealth/n99.html

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How much feed?

To determine how much to feed a horse, we first must know how much the horse weighs. Then, you can use a simple rule to determine how much feed an adult horse should receive each day.

The daily total weight of feed should be between 1.5 percent and 3 percent of the horse’s body weight. Using this rule, a 1,000-pound Quarter Horse would need 15-30 pounds of total feed (forage plus grain).

This ration allows for adjustments to meet specific needs. An idle adult horse would rank on the lower end of the scale at 15 pounds. A horse in top physical condition that races or works all day would need closer to 30 pounds of feed a day to provide necessary energy.

The ratio of grain to roughage in the diet also will vary with the type of work the horse performs. Idle horses can subsist entirely on grass or hay, whereas hard-working athletes require more grain to meet their energy needs. However, to avoid intestinal upset, forage should make up more than 50 percent of the horse’s diet. This calculates to one to 1.5 pounds per 100 pounds of body weight, or roughly 10-15 pounds of hay daily for a 1,000-pound horse.

To follow the 1.5-3 percent rule, weigh your horse - or use a weight tape to estimate his weight - then weigh the horse’s feed, both hay and grain. Weighing easily can be done on any small scale.
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jgbrowning · Oct 19, 2002

if i remember properly, you are also supposed to mix the feeds to provide your horse. if you only give him oats he'll get really backed up...

make sure you give him a good supply of grasses or you'll have a very unrideable horse. he also needs a good hour or two of attention from you every day after all day riding...

horses aren't cars.

joe b.

Christian · Oct 19, 2002

They don't talk about it in the PH ... but, presuming the 10 lb/day is for (size Large) horses, then (by the same principle as for the food weights for Small vs. Medium characters) a pony (size Medium) should only need 2.5 pounds of feed per day (plus forage).

bigdndfan · Oct 19, 2002

Hey guys, thanks for the effort for real world workings. I don't think though my DM wants to complicate the simple rules with weight of horse to determne how much oats the horse needs.

Also, the blurb for feed puts horses and ponies in the same catgagory 10 lbs. a day. Riding dogs and other carnivores get bits of meat.

It does say they don't have to eat oats they can find food in fields, but oats are better.

Stalker0 · Oct 19, 2002

Well if there out in the open, just assume they forage for their own food, if there's grass and stuff about.

But yeah, my family owns a couple of horses, and 10 lbs is probably on the light side.