How to Feed Potatoes to Horses

Potatoes contain 70 percent starch, which animals can digest easily and quickly. Although, potatoes are more expensive than grain or hay, if you have a large crop of potatoes you can feed some of them to horses. Keep in mind that their diet cannot be entirely potatoes because it needs to contain a balance of vitamins and minerals. And, some horses may get potato eczema. The most important thing to remember is to not overfeed the horse with potatoes, as too many potatoes could be poisonous.

Things You'll Need

  • Square-pointed shovel
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Instructions

    • 1

      Chop up the potatoes with a square-pointed shovel, or machinery if you have a lot of them. The horses may choke on big chucks of potato so slicing and dicing of the tuber is required.

    • 2

      Write out a schedule for feeding the horses. Potatoes should be introduced gradually to the horse's diet over the course of a month. Plan how much to feed them across the course of four weeks until you reach the maximum intake of three to five pounds per day, as recommended by the University of Nebraska.

    • 3

      Mix the potatoes into the normal horse feed, but do not expose the potatoes to direct sunlight. At the beginning of the month add between a half-pound and one pound to the mix. Increase this to between one and a half and two pounds in the second and third weeks.

    • 4

      Put the potatoes in a trough in a shady spot together with grain or hay.

    • 5

      Allow the horse to eat the potatoes throughout the day. Dispose of any moldy or dried out potatoes at the end of the day. These can be composted for recycling. Give fresh potatoes to the horses the following day.