Tool
Daily Ration Builder
Enter your horse's weight, work level, and diagnosis. The tool calculates target ranges for total daily intake, NSC ceiling, fat percentage, protein, and key supplements based on the systematic review corpus. Outputs are ranges, not prescriptions.
Information only, not veterinary medical advice. Final ration design should be confirmed with your veterinarian or a qualified equine nutritionist. Ranges below are starting points, not endpoints.
Tell us about your horse
How to use the output
The tool gives you ranges for each parameter. To translate them into a feed plan:
- Total daily intake sets the size of the diet. A 1100 lb horse on light work is in the 16-22 lb dry matter range, of which most should be forage.
- Forage:concentrate ratio for PSSM is typically 80:20 or higher. Forage carries the bulk; concentrate fills nutritional gaps and adds calories for harder-working horses.
- NSC ceiling applies to the forage and any concentrate combined. Test your hay (use the Hay NSC Calculator); choose concentrate with starch under the ceiling.
- Fat percentage drives calorie density without carbohydrate. For light work, oils plus a balancer often suffice. For heavy work, a commercial low-NSC + high-fat feed may be needed.
- Vitamin E and selenium are foundational. Confirm regional selenium status before supplementing selenium.
Pair with other tools
This calculator gives you targets. The Hay NSC Calculator tells you whether your forage hits them. The Feeding the PSSM horse article walks through the full implementation. Use the three together.