Why horses need to chew, and how much per day

In nature, horses spend 14–16 hours a day grazing, taking many small bites of fibrous forage almost around the clock. The horse is a trickle feeder and a hindgut fermenter, its whole digestive system is built for a near-constant stream of chewed forage, not two big meals. When chewing time drops, health problems follow.

Chewing isn't just eating: it produces the saliva that buffers a stomach which secretes acid continuously, and it keeps the hindgut microbes fed. Enough long-fibre forage is the foundation of a healthy horse.

How much should a horse chew each day?

As a rule of thumb, a horse should eat roughly 1.5–2% of its bodyweight in forage (dry matter) per day, about 7.5–10 kg of hay for a 500 kg horse, spread across the day so it is rarely without forage. Chewing 1 kg of hay takes far longer than 1 kg of concentrate, which is exactly the point: the time spent chewing is as important as the nutrients.

Why nature designed it this way

• Continuous chewing → saliva → buffers stomach acid → protects against gastric ulcers
• Long fibre → steady fermentation in the hindgut → stable energy and healthy microbes
• Many small meals → matches the small stomach and constant acid secretion
• Chewing and foraging → natural behaviour that reduces boredom and stress

What happens when chewing time is too low

Long gaps without forage, or diets low in fibre and high in starch, remove the saliva buffer and disturb the hindgut, raising the risk of gastric ulcers, colic and stereotypies such as crib-biting and weaving. More forage, fed little and often, is the simplest protection.

How Prime Hay helps

Clean, palatable, lab-tested hay encourages horses to eat and chew steadily. It's low-sugar and dust-extracted, so you can feed plenty of it, the way the horse evolved to eat, without the sugar or dust load. Delivered and placed across Portugal and Spain.

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