Heavy work shifts a horse’s ration toward grain rather than simply increasing it: a 500 kg horse eats 8-10 kg of hay when idle and 7 kg of hay plus 5 kg of grain, 12 kg in all, in heavy work, while a 600 kg ox eats 15-18 kg of hay and no grain. Water before grain, never immediately after, and offer water at least 3 times daily.
Part of Draft Animal Training
Rations and water for horses, oxen and mules at three work levels, with the arithmetic behind the table and an explicit note of where this wiki’s sources disagree.
Heavy Work Replaces Hay With Grain Before It Adds Weight Of Feed
The ration table below is the source for every figure in this article. It gives mass of feed per day. It gives no calorie or energy figures, so nothing here converts mass to energy; the claim that grain is more concentrated than hay is a general fact, not a number from the source. All percentages are computed here from the table and are not feeding standards.
| Animal | Idle (per day) | Light work | Heavy work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horse (500 kg) | 8-10 kg hay | 8 kg hay + 2 kg grain | 7 kg hay + 5 kg grain |
| Ox (600 kg) | 10-12 kg hay | 12-15 kg hay | 15-18 kg hay |
| Mule (400 kg) | 6-8 kg hay | 7 kg hay + 1 kg grain | 7 kg hay + 3 kg grain |
What You Need
- Body weights — the table assumes 500, 600 and 400 kg; weigh or estimate your own animals and scale accordingly.
- A feed and hay store sized for the season — see the season arithmetic below.
- Water at the point of work — troughs or buckets.
- A tally of work days — the totals scale with them.
Method: Compute A Ration And A Season
Step 1: Total mass per day. Add hay and grain: horse light 8 + 2 = 10 kg, heavy 7 + 5 = 12 kg; mule light 7 + 1 = 8 kg, heavy 7 + 3 = 10 kg.
Step 2: Express it against body weight. Divide by body weight:
| Animal | Idle | Light | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horse, 500 kg | 8/500 to 10/500 = 1.6% to 2.0% | 10/500 = 2.0% | 12/500 = 2.4% |
| Ox, 600 kg | 10/600 to 12/600 = 1.7% to 2.0% | 12/600 to 15/600 = 2.0% to 2.5% | 15/600 to 18/600 = 2.5% to 3.0% |
| Mule, 400 kg | 6/400 to 8/400 = 1.5% to 2.0% | 8/400 = 2.0% | 10/400 = 2.5% |
Step 3: Grain’s share of the heavy ration. Horse: 5 / 12 = 42%. Mule: 3 / 10 = 30%. Ox: 0%.
Step 4: Scale to a season. For 100 working days at heavy work:
- Horse: hay 7 x 100 = 700 kg and grain 5 x 100 = 500 kg; total 1,200 kg.
- Mule: hay 7 x 100 = 700 kg and grain 3 x 100 = 300 kg; total 1,000 kg.
- Ox: hay 15 x 100 = 1,500 kg to 18 x 100 = 1,800 kg; no grain.
The ox consumes 300 to 600 kg more than the horse by mass (1,500 - 1,200 to 1,800 - 1,200) but none of it is grain, which is why oxen suit a community that cannot grow grain.
Step 5: Water. The carrier gives a working horse 30-50 liters a day and oxen 40-60 liters. Offering water at least 3 times daily means 30 / 3 = 10 to 50 / 3 = 17 liters per horse per offering and 40 / 3 = 13 to 60 / 3 = 20 liters per ox. Water before feeding grain, never immediately after, and offer more often in hot weather.
A Documented Disagreement On Water
The wiki’s draft-animal-care article gives a working horse 40-60 liters a day in cool weather and up to 80 in summer heat, and its logistics articles use the carrier’s 30-50. The figures are not reconciled here and are not averaged. For a horse the ranges overlap at 40-50 liters, but the highest figure, 80 liters, is more than the carrier’s top of 50 by 30 liters (60%). Until you have measured your own animals over a few working days with a counted bucket, provision the trough for the larger figure; a shortfall hurts the animal and a surplus costs only carrying. Also note the care article’s heavy-work horse ration of 17-20 kg is in “hay equivalent”, a different unit from the 12 kg as-fed total here, so the two are not in conflict as a mass.
Worked Example
A household keeps 2 horses and 1 mule in heavy work for 60 days.
- Horses: hay 2 x 7 x 60 = 840 kg; grain 2 x 5 x 60 = 600 kg.
- Mule: hay 7 x 60 = 420 kg; grain 3 x 60 = 180 kg.
- Totals: hay 840 + 420 = 1,260 kg; grain 600 + 180 = 780 kg; together 2,040 kg.
- Water at the carrier’s horse figure: 2 horses x 30 to 50 L x 60 days = 3,600 to 6,000 L, before the mule (no mule water figure is given).
Common Mistakes
- Treating the table as fixed — it is for 500, 600 and 400 kg animals in good condition; scale from your own weights.
- Raising grain suddenly — a change to rich grain can cause digestive upset; raise it gradually.
- Quoting percentages as a standard — they are arithmetic on the table, not a feeding rule.
- Watering right after grain — water first.
Safety
Feeding errors cause colic and founder
A sudden big grain meal can cause serious digestive and hoof problems in a horse. Change rations in small steps over days, keep grain bins closed against animals, and do not work an animal that has gone off its feed.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Physical Conditioning — how feed and work build together
- Combine with: Animal Feed & Water Logistics — carrying the feed on a journey