Does Your Horse Become Stressed if Their Feed is Late?

I’m sure we all know some horses that become upset if their feed isn’t served on time, but maybe that’s with good reason.

A study by a team of researchers in Slovenia looked at the behaviour of eight horses when fed breakfast at regular or irregular feeding times and found they do become stressed if their meal arrives late.

The horses were housed in individual stables and were fed with ad-lib hay and a barley and oat mixture hard feed. For five days each week their morning feed arrived at their normal feed time of 6am, on Thursdays it arrived an hour earlier at 5am and on Saturdays it arrived an hour later at 7am. After their morning meal the horses were then turned out to pasture for the rest of the day.

The horses’ behaviour was observed and recorded for 2 hours around their breakfast time starting an hour before their feed arrived. The study took place over a 10 week period.

The horses that were fed early were described as not being ready for their meal. Lead researcher Manja Zupan said the horses 'weren’t really awake yet'. As a result they spent less of their pre-breakfast time eating hay than when fed on time or late, and so they ended up consuming less in total before they were turned out.

Unsurprisingly, the horses who were fed late displayed a number of stress behaviours. They kicked the stable door, whinnied, looked towards the food source and pawed at the ground while waiting for their feed to arrive. While some horse owners find this behaviour irritating or even funny, it is vital to remember each of these behaviours are caused by frustration and stress and could be considered a measure of poor welfare. Zupan reported 'A horse that cannot predict when he will get fed will have compromised performance and health'.

This study will likely not surprise many horse owners but is nonetheless important. It shows that horses are great timekeepers, they can recognise what time of day it is and know their routine. We already know they are capable of predicting their daily activities on learned cues, like the sound of specific equipment or their owner or caretaker’s voice.

It can be difficult to stick to a consistent feeding schedule – life often gets in the way and we may be late for our horse’s mealtimes. However we must remember that any change to routine like this can affect horses adversely, especially if their species-specific needs are not met and their choices are limited.

Horses who live in sight of one another should all be fed at the same time to avoid frustration and undue stress. Those who are routinely fed at a specific time and then fed out of their normal time schedule (and perhaps watching other horses being fed first) can find this extremely stressful. If they have to be fed at a different time to normal, then being fed early is preferable to being fed late.

Ensuring your horse has access to ad lib forage so they don't run out of food will also go a long way to keeping them healthy and happy if you can’t get to the yard. Of course being turned out with friends and no need for 'mealtimes' is the ideal!

Manja Zupan, Ivan Štuhec & Dušanka Jordan. 'The Effect of an Irregular Feeding Schedule on Equine Behavior'. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Volume 23, 2020 - Issue 2