Day after day, dollar after dollar, much of the cost and labor in horsekeeping is seeing that your horse gets the proper kind and amount of nutrition for his individual needs. Offer too much or over-supplement and you’re throwing money away at best. Skimp on feed quality or quantity and you potentially imperil your horse’s health. It’s important to budget wisely when you have only one or two horses, but when your herd consists of a half-dozen, a score, or a squadron of hungry hay-burners, you’ve got to be vigilant in planning what and how you feed your horses, and in streamlining related labor efforts.

Here is how some folks manage.

Pasture

For large herds, pasture is usually the cheapest, least labor-intensive means of providing the bulk of a horse’s nutrition. “Having sufficient pasture is a massive savings and lightens up immensely the cost of hay and grain,” notes Margaret Evans, breeder/owner of Kikkuli Farm, a Thoroughbred racehorse/performance horse breeding facility in Lindell Beach, British Columbia