Horse care in Australia: the complete owner's guide
Caring for a horse is not complicated so much as relentless: a short list of things that must happen every day, and a longer list that must happen on a cycle you're expected to hold in your head. This guide covers both — what a horse actually needs, how often, and what it costs in Australia — and links out to the detailed guides for hooves, feeding and vaccinations.
What a horse needs every day
25–55 L per horse per day, more in an Australian summer or in hard work. Check troughs daily — not that they're full, but that they're working. Dehydration is the fastest route to colic.
A horse is built to trickle-feed. Aim for at least 1.5% of bodyweight per day as pasture or hay — roughly 7.5 kg for a 500 kg horse — and avoid long gaps with an empty gut.
A daily look-over: is it moving normally, eating, drinking, passing manure, free of new cuts or swelling, and behaving like itself? Most of horse ownership is noticing small changes early.
Thirty seconds per foot, and the best routine inspection you'll get. See the hoof care guide.
Horses are herd animals that evolved to walk all day. Turnout and a companion are welfare requirements, not luxuries — a stabled, isolated horse develops problems.
Shade in an Australian summer, a windbreak in winter, and fencing checked often. Most paddock injuries are the fence's fault, not the horse's.
The routine care cycles
This is where horse care actually goes wrong — not in the daily list, which is hard to forget, but in the six overlapping cycles nobody can hold in their head at once.
| Task | How often | More detail |
|---|---|---|
| Farrier | 4–6 weeks shod, 6–8 weeks barefoot | Hoof care guide |
| Worming | Every 8–12 weeks, or FEC-targeted | Care schedules |
| Dental | Every 12 months (6 for under-5s and over-20s) | Care schedules |
| Vaccinations | Tetanus, strangles and Hendra — each on its own cycle | Vaccination schedules |
| Body condition score | Every 4–6 weeks | Feeding for weight gain |
| Annual vet check | Every 12 months | Usually bundled with vaccinations and a dental exam. |
| Rug changes | Daily in winter, and with the weather | Rugs are checked and shifted daily — rubs and overheating both happen under a rug nobody has lifted. |
Feeding a horse: the short version
- Pasture and hay should be the base of the diet, not the garnish. Hard feed exists to fill the gap forage leaves.
- in dry matter — roughly 7.5–12.5 kg for a 500 kg horse — with at least 1.5% as forage.
- A horse in light work on good pasture may need nothing but a mineral balancer.
- — over one to two weeks. Sudden changes cause colic.
- Use the Henneke 1–9 scale monthly; most ridden horses should sit at 4–6. See feeding for weight gain and the free feed planner and calculator.
Miniature horse care: what's different
Miniature horses need the same cycles as a full-size horse — farrier, worming, dental, vaccinations — but three things bite owners who scale down from a big horse:
- Minis get fat on what looks like nothing. Restrict grazing on lush pasture, weigh feed rather than scooping it, and condition-score monthly.
- Full-size teeth in a small head means more overcrowding, retained caps and misalignment — many minis need six-monthly dental checks for life.
- An overweight mini that stops eating — even for a day — is a genuine emergency, not something to watch overnight.
What does it cost to keep a horse in Australia?
Costs vary enormously by state, whether you own land, and what the horse does. As a shape rather than a quote:
| Cost | Frequency | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Agistment | Monthly | Usually the largest single line for owners without land; paddock, part-agistment and full-care differ several-fold. |
| Feed and hay | Weekly | Highly seasonal — hay prices swing hard after drought or flood. |
| Farrier | Every 4–8 weeks | Shoeing costs several times a trim; the cycle is non-negotiable either way. |
| Worming | Several times a year | Small, but faecal egg counts add a lab cost and usually save money overall. |
| Dental | Annually | Often combined with the annual vet visit to save a call-out fee. |
| Vaccinations and vet | Annually, plus emergencies | Budget for an unplanned vet visit every year — colic and lameness don't schedule themselves. |
| Gear, rugs, insurance, transport | Ongoing | The category everyone underestimates when they buy their first horse. |
Horsify's free feed planner shows cost per horse per day from the prices you enter, which is the only version of this number that's actually true for you.
Detailed guides
Trimming cycles, thrush, seedy toe, cracks and step-by-step hoof abscess care.
Tetanus, strangles and Hendra primary courses and boosters, and what events require.
How often each routine task is due, plus a printable worming and care schedule.
Why a horse is underweight, what to feed, and how fast weight should come back on.
Work out daily intake and forage targets, then keep a digital feed card per horse.
Vaccination certificates, health declarations and expiry alerts in one place.
Common questions
How do you care for a horse?
Daily: clean water (25-55 L), near-constant forage, a look-over for lameness, appetite and injury, feet picked out, and turnout with company. On a cycle: the farrier every 4-8 weeks, worming every 8-12 weeks or targeted by faecal egg count, a dental check yearly, vaccinations on their own schedules, and a body condition score every 4-6 weeks.
How much land does a horse need in Australia?
It depends entirely on rainfall, pasture quality and whether you are supplementing with hay. As a rule of thumb, one to two hectares per horse of good pasture will carry a horse in a reliable-rainfall area, while drier country needs far more or year-round supplementary feeding. Horses can be kept on much smaller areas, but then they are being hand-fed rather than grazed.
Can a horse live alone?
Horses are herd animals and a solitary horse is at higher risk of stress behaviours and stereotypies. A companion - another horse, a pony, or in some cases another grazing animal - plus daily human contact and turnout is strongly preferred. Being able to see and touch a neighbouring horse over a fence is far better than complete isolation.
How much does it cost to keep a horse in Australia?
Costs vary widely by state and by whether you own land. The recurring lines are agistment (usually the largest for owners without land), feed and hay, the farrier every 4-8 weeks, worming, an annual dental and vet visit with vaccinations, plus gear, rugs, insurance and transport. Budget for at least one unplanned vet visit a year.
What is different about miniature horse care?
Minis need the same routine care cycles as full-size horses, but three risks are higher: obesity and laminitis (they gain weight on very little grass), dental crowding (full-size teeth in a small head, so many need six-monthly dental checks), and hyperlipaemia - an overweight mini that goes off its feed even for a day is an emergency, not something to watch overnight.
What are the signs a horse is unwell?
Not eating or drinking, no manure or a change in manure, lying down more than usual or repeatedly rolling, sweating without work, a raised temperature (normal is about 37.2-38.3 degrees C), new lameness, heat or a bounding digital pulse in a hoof, dullness, or simply not behaving like itself. Colic and laminitis are both same-day vet calls.
How do I keep track of everything a horse needs?
Horsify's free Care Assistant tracks farrier, worming, dental, vet, vaccination and body-condition cycles per horse, each on its own interval, and reminds you before each is due. You log completions in plain English - 'wormed Bella today' - by text message or in the app, and the next due date rolls forward automatically.
Stop keeping six cycles in your head
Horsify's Care Assistant is free for riders. Add your horses, tell it what you've done in plain English — by text or in the app — and it works out when farrier, worming, dental, vaccinations and condition checks are next due, then reminds you.