Horse feeding plan (Australia): state codes, a condition score of 2, and pastures that work against you

By Sebastien Kister

Last reviewed 12 October 2026

There is no national rule for feeding a horse in Australia. Welfare law is written state by state, and the eight versions run from a mandatory code in the ACT to a bare duty of care in New South Wales and Queensland. Like the British code, none of them puts a number on forage. Unlike it, several draw a line on a horse's condition. And the pasture itself can be the problem, in ways a northern-hemisphere guide never has to mention.

No national standard, and none on the way

Australia has national animal welfare standards for cattle, sheep and poultry, but not for horses. A draft horse standard was written in 2008 and 2009; since 2011, by the account of the national standards body itself, there has been no progress for lack of funding, and no state has adopted it. So the rules are the states' and territories' own.

What each jurisdiction actually says

The spread matters if you move a horse, or agist across a border: the same thin horse is a breach of a mandatory code in Canberra and a matter for a general cruelty provision in Sydney.

The number they do give: condition score 2

Australian agencies score condition on a scale from 0, very poor, to 5, very fat, with half points allowed. Score 2 is the line that keeps coming up: the ACT's mandatory code and Western Australia's standards both say a horse must not fall below it or rise above 4, and Agriculture Victoria says the same of the bottom end.

None of the codes says how much hay or pasture that takes. The agencies' own guidance gives working figures: Agriculture Victoria puts intake at about 1.5 to 2 percent of bodyweight in dry feed a day and suggests budgeting at 1.7 percent, about 8.5 kg for a 500 kg horse, mostly as roughage; the NSW department gives 1.5 to 2.5 percent of bodyweight in dry matter for mature horses. Agriculture Victoria also advises raising feed by no more than 10 percent at a time and phasing in any change over three to five days.

When the pasture is the problem: big head

This is the hazard with no British or American equivalent. Kikuyu, setaria and a number of other tropical and subtropical grasses contain oxalate, which stops a horse absorbing calcium. Horses kept on them for long periods can develop nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, known in Australia as big head. The NSW department says the effect of kikuyu can be overcome with a calcium supplement or by overseeding the pasture with ryegrass, and calls setaria, because of its high oxalate levels, unsuitable for horses and donkeys.

No government source we found gives a calcium dose. How much your horse needs depends on the pasture, the rest of the ration and the horse; that is a question for your vet or an equine nutritionist, and the answer is worth writing on the feeding plan, because it is exactly the kind of supplement that gets dropped when someone else does the feeds.

Plants a European guide never mentions

• Crofton weed. The first sign of poisoning is coughing that gets worse with exercise, and it cannot be treated. Horses graze it even when there is plenty of other feed, and slashed, dried plants are still toxic.
• Paterson's curse. Its pyrrolizidine alkaloids damage the liver, and pigs and horses are the most susceptible animals. The damage is irreversible; good-quality hay and keeping horses off infested pasture is the prevention.
• Birdsville indigo. In inland Queensland and the Northern Territory it causes Birdsville horse disease, for which there is no cure.

Drought is a feeding plan too

A dry season is not an emergency in Australia so much as a recurring part of the year, and the official guidance treats it that way. The NSW department's drought feeding advice, from 2006, keeps roughage at a minimum of about 0.5 to 0.7 percent of liveweight, with the rest of the ration made up of concentrate. That is a floor for hard times, not a target, and it only works if someone is watching condition score closely enough to act early.

Write it down, because you are not the one feeding

A horse on agistment is fed by whoever does the feed run, and a horse whose owner is away is fed by whoever stepped in. The calcium supplement, the soaked hay, the reason this one gets no lucerne: none of it survives a change of hands unless it is written where the person feeding can read it. And a condition score is only useful as a series. One score says how the horse looks today; three, a month apart, say whether the plan is working.

Sources

• Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines — Horses (status of the national draft)
• ACT Legislation Register — Animal Welfare (Welfare of Horses in the ACT) Mandatory Code of Practice 2024
• Agriculture Victoria — Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses (Revision 1), overview of the codes and Basic horse care
• WA DPIRD — Standards and Guidelines for the Health and Welfare of Horses in Western Australia
• NSW — Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 and Queensland — Animal Care and Protection Act 2001, s 17
• NRE Tasmania — Tasmanian Equine Welfare Guidelines
• Agriculture Victoria — Condition scoring and weight estimation and Feed requirements of horses
• NSW DPI Primefact 425 — Practical feeding of horses and Primefact 296 — Feeding wheat to horses in a drought
• NSW DPI — Pastures for horses (kikuyu, setaria, big head)
• NSW WeedWise — Crofton weed, Paterson's curse and Agriculture Victoria — Paterson's curse
• NT DAF — Birdsville indigo

Codes and standards are revised, and several states are reforming their welfare law; check the current version before relying on it, and set a ration with your vet.

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