Making forage last

When the barn is empty the first question is « what do I replace it with? ». That is not the right one. Adapting starts with what you have: assess your needs, stop the waste, adjust numbers, and only then top up, carefully.

This page replaces neither a vet nor a nutritionistChanging a horse's ration is done gradually and under supervision: an abrupt change means colic or ulcers. We give no quantities and no inclusion rates here, they depend on the animal, the forage and the season, and they are published by the IFCE or available from a professional.

The three principles to respect

Source: IFCE.

Maintain a sufficient fibre intake. A horse needs to chew: that is the basis, and no concentrate replaces it.
Introduce any new feed gradually. Never overnight.
Respect the recommended inclusion rate for each feed. These are not to be improvised.

Quantities, nutritional characteristics and feeds to avoid are detailed by the IFCE:

📄 IFCE : Alternative feeds during a shortage

What the IFCE documents

Four families, each with its characteristics and its limits:

The roughages that can replace part of the hay, with their nutritional characteristics and how to work them into the ration.
The main commercial feeds and what they actually provide.
Raw materials and food-industry co-products usable as concentrates, beet pulp, corn gluten feed, wheat distillers' grains, fats.
And the feeds to avoid altogether. That list is the most important of the four.

Managing your grassland

Source: IFCE.

Use the grass early enough in the season, especially in spring.
Limit waste.
Avoid overgrazing as soon as the grass starts to dry out.
Make the most of autumn grazing.
Maintain and fertilise pastures where it makes sense.

📄 IFCE : Drought: managing forage areas

Securing stocks and adjusting costs

Quickly assess winter needs. A figure beats an impression.
Secure storage conditions: wet forage is lost forage.
Buy ahead and, where possible, agree supply contracts.
Limit waste both in storage and at feeding.
Avoid overfeeding horses carrying condition.
Where possible, match numbers and high-demand periods to the resources of the holding.

What owners pass on to each other

Collected in equestrian groups in autumn 2026. These are accounts, not official recommendations, check them for your own horses.

Small-mesh nets and slow feeders: they lengthen chewing time and clearly reduce what ends up trampled.
Racks and hard standing around feeding points: a bale dropped in mud is a bale half lost.
Rug the horses that tolerate it, to cut energy expenditure in winter.
Straw as a filler alongside forage, never as a replacement for it.
Forage cobs and pellets, always soaked.
Rotational grazing on small paddocks, to keep grass available for longer.
Small bales: dearer per tonne, but far easier to find and store once the big lots have gone.

Two mistakes that send a horse to the vet

Feeding forage cobs or pellets DRY: they swell and can cause an oesophageal obstruction (choke). They are always soaked. And changing the ration abruptly: that is colic.

Support available

The French CASI plan (climate, adaptation, drought, fires), rolled out by the ministry of agriculture after the summer's drought and heatwaves, includes an emergency fund, the agricultural rearmament fund, for the hardest-hit holdings, notably to finance inputs: animal feed, forage, seed and plants.
It is often said that riding centres are excluded. The IFCE says the opposite: as an agricultural sector, the horse sector is fully eligible for this scheme.
But eligibility is not automatic: it depends on the criteria set in each county. You need to contact your county agricultural directorate (DDT). Your regional equestrian committee can also pass your situation up the line.

Source: IFCE, « Drought and forage shortage: what solutions for equestrian businesses? », 7 October 2026.

🔎 And to find some

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The IFCE also points to a national forage exchange, which likewise connects suppliers and buyers.

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Main source for this page: IFCE, Drought and forage shortage: what solutions for equestrian businesses?

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