Working heavy horse question about feed

Horses will nip the grass almost flush with ground. Cattle less so because bovines don't have teeth in the upper jaw; only in the bottom jaw. So cattle can't bite the grass off and can't eat it as short as horses. Lush pastures such as Alfalfa are much too rich for a steady diet for either horses or cattle. Cattle are susceptible to bloat: caused by an overly rich diet.

Wagon trains of the westward migration depended on the grass along the trail for their animals:mostly oxen, so the travel must be timed with the grass growth.

https://www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-advice/laminitis

If this is a civilized area, which is what it sounds like, we're dealing with a vary different scenario to wilderness. At certain intervals there would be inns. The inn would have a corral and maybe a small pasture for the overnight guests. Inns save a lot of time through not requiring setting up camp and cooking meals. The horses would be fed some grain or corn, and then let loose in corral or pasture. Hay would be provided instead of relying on graze. It's more predictable and you don't want the horses overeating, which can bring on bloat and tying-up.

The horses are going to be very tired. They're not going to be big into wandering about. Nor do the teamsters want their horses wasting energy wandering about all night.

Jim Clark-Dawe

It also depends on the horses, although heavy draft horses ARE more prone to obesity than light horses.

But, if they are working all day, then they won't be at pasture as long, which is definitely a factor. The horses might also be stalled, depending on the inn, and provided with hay.

Plus a lot of the issues we now see with things like laminitis are caused by artificially fertilised rye grass, which is what you typically get on intensively farmed cow pastures. From what I've read of your posts, you're talking long before artificial NPK fertilisers were used, so you won't get these very rich, leafy grasses which cause a lot of the problem. With the best will in the world the pasture will have a much more diverse, stalky sward. And that means it won't have nearly as much sugar etc easily available to the horses. Also, people think horses these days ridden for an hour are in 'hard' work, which is total nonsense. Yours will be working much harder, so less prone to issues.

Horses (especially cobby breeds such as you're describing) aren't generally fussy about their hay (although my two sports horses rejected a bale of haylage recently which looked entirely fine to me - go figure), and in fact old hay is actively encouraged if you have a horse prone to lami. Horse owners on the other hand - terribly fussy about hay

Basically you just want it to be not dusty or mouldy, so if it was cut and stacked/baled dry, and stored well, you're golden. We're feeding last year's hay this year, and we'll feed this year's hay next year. You don't generally want to feed hay the year it's cut - people obsess about how many months to leave it before feeding it to their precious equines! If you think about how the seasons go, you'll cut hay summer (and early autumn if the weather allows a second cut), bale it, use up the last of last year's hay to Christmas, then start on this year's hay next January-ish.

Hay would be kept in stacks out in the fields unless you've got lots of storage. No hay bales. Grain or corn would be the main calorie source, with the hay to fill the horse's stomach and time. Quality of the hay isn't very important and wasn't very understood back then anyway. Inns would go for grass hay because it's cheap. (You charge extra for grain or corn.)

Horses would be brushed and cleaned as soon as they arrive. Then walked to someplace where they could roll, then released into a corral or pasture or placed in a stall. Teamsters would then eat, then saddle soap the harness to clean it off. Oil would not be put on the harness on a daily basis. Final glance at the horses and then bed.

Waking up, horses would be given grain or corn, then tied. Horses would be brushed and a light cloth run over the harness. Harness would be placed on the horses ready to go, then the teamsters would grab a quick breakfast. Then horses would be led to the wagon and hitched up.

You'd go to about eleven to noon, then stop where the horses can get some graze. Give them a nose bag to start, then stake them out for a couple of hours. Lunch, then a brief nap. About two hours after starting, you hitch up again, and go to about four or five in the evening.

Rinse and repeat for however many days your trip takes. Sunday was frequently taken off, and gave people time to repair clothes and gear. Fifteen to twenty-five miles a day was a good distance, less during winter and mud season.

Jim Clark-Dawe