Here are nine more tips from Anitta Højmark Thusing, feed consultant at Nordic Horse. Anitta therefore focuses on how you can save on your horse's feed - while ensuring that the horses needs are covered.

However, to be sure that you are doing the right thing for your horse, professional feed advice and a feed analysis are advisable. Of course, this costs money in the first place, but in the long run, feeding according to needs can save a lot of money and improve the horse's health.

If your horse develops problems with its hooves, body or teeth, this will affect its overall stress and health, and can be costly to correct with treatments and supplementary feeding.  

If your horse is an overeater and tends to gain weight quickly, then you might consider using a slowfeeder when feeding it. This slows down the eating and makes your forage last longer.

If your horse has too soft or too dry droppings, loses weight or has problems with its hooves, you can save a lot of money if you start feeding supplements immediately instead of waiting (after an expert has analysed the problem, of course). Problems can often be solved quite quickly if they are treated directly, whereas problems that have been going on for a long time also take a long time to be solved and are therefore more expensive.

Many horse owners add chopped straw to the concentrate in order to extend the chewing time for the horses. However, a long chewing time should primarily result from giving good roughage. Roughage should also always be fed before concentrates - this stimulates salivation, and this is good for the stomach. Good feed and feeding management can save money and at the same time do something for the horse's health.

If you give your horse a supplement, remember to consider whether it still needs it. We often find that horse owners can be nervous about stopping supplements that have helped their horse with a specific issue. But perhaps that supplement is no longer needed. You can easily check this yourself by slowly phasing out the supplement and seeing if it changes anything in your horse. If there is no change, you can usually stop the supplement without any problems.

With a feeding plan, you can ensure that your horse is fed the feed that best suits its needs, and that supplements are only given at times when they are needed. For example, we always divide our feeding plans into 'basics', which is the food your horse needs every day throughout the year, and 'cures', which is the supplementary food your horse may need for a certain period in order to address specific challenges. In this way, you can easily keep track of the total feed budget.

Look at the daily price instead of the price for a bag. A cheap bag of feed can easily be more expensive than a more expensive bag because the daily amount of feed for the horse is higher. There is a big difference between a sack lasting 10 or 30 days. 

If you want to save money in the long run, an analysis of the forage can be a good idea. With an analysis of the forage, you can see which vitamin/mineral supplement best matches it. This will help you avoid imbalances or deficiencies that need to be corrected later with supplements. For example, imbalances and deficiencies can result in poor hooves, poor coat and so on. At the same time, an analysis also shows you how many feed units your forage contains. If it is high in feed units, some horses might gain weight quickly, and if conversely, the forage is low in feed units, some horses might lose weight and become too thin. It can easily be expensive in supplements and complementary feeding to correct challenges that have arisen because the forage does not "fit" the individual horse.

The vast majority of horses in light training can function quite well on a good straw feed, a vitamin/mineral supplement, omega-3 fatty acids and salt. You can mix your own or find a good basic feed with these ingredients. Be sure to read the declaration to make sure you're not paying for unnecessary ingredients.  

The equipment that I do have, I make sure to take very good care of. I make sure to polish it, care for it and wash it to prolong its life. I do this with everything from riding boots to saddles and riding gloves. I wash and fold my rugs at the end of the season and store them in storage bags in a closed cupboard. 

In my time as a student, I have always divided things in 'nice or need' when it comes to both equipment and feed. I have so much equipment lying around that I either no longer use or can't fit, and I have also sold a lot of my old equipment. We, as horse owners, often end up making impulse purchases because we want a certain piece of equipment or just want to buy some extra goodies - without really needing it.

I make sure to muck out my horses stall every day, and I only add additional bedding if needed. Therefore, the stall is always clean and dry for my horse. 

My horse is boarded in a small private stable where bedding has always been included in the price. Therefore, my wallet does not notice that bedding is more expensive. 

To save money on feed - without compromising on quality - it can be a good idea to join forces with other horse owners and order a pallet at a time. You can often save money by buying half or whole pallets, and then you won't have to find new feed that might be of poorer quality. 

Here we give you five tips from an ordinary young horse owner. As a student, Julie Herskind is keen to save where she can - but she also wants to do what's best for her horse.