Does it matter what time you feed your horse, just ...

No it doesn't matter as long as you feed them at least twice a day and try to space the feedings out a few hours...morning and evening and hopefully about the same time every day...they get anxious when they anticipate being fed and you stress them out when you are late...they get in a routine and need to be fed close to the same time every day to avoid this kind of stress.... just like you! you expect to eat at certain times of the day and your stomach tells you when you are close to that time, right? Animals are not much different....

Dear God please know the time your horses eat makes ALL the difference.  You operate on a clock but your horses and cattle adjust to the sun.

Horses operate on a solar clock.  That varies with the season.  You will hear them "ripping" (passing gas) just before dawn and that is because what you fed them at dusk has digested.  When they stop ripping they have digested.  They need to eat within an hour of when they begin ripping.  Let them drop their turds in one paddock and then feed them in another: you like to keep your bathroom apart from the dining hall too, right?

Race horses are professional athletes and will kill themselves in a race to make youhappy.  Many do.  They always need "hot feed" like oats and molasses.  That maybe 3 times a day and 4 on race day.  Don't spare the water.

Set out your hay in loose blocks in mangers a few minutes before dawn and if you need to give them oats (for a cold day) give them the oats half an hour after they eat hay.  Be careful about giving a starved horse too hot feed: it can lead to colic or collapse.  There is an insulin hassle with it.  Horses are really sensitive to timing.  They begin producing insulin as they see the sun starting to crest the horizon.

After a good morning feed, lead them back to the dirty paddock and let them relieve themselves.  Clean it with the tractor as soon as the moisture equalizes.  Check their stools when you do.  If they are green and well formed they are getting enough hay and water.  If it looks soft and soupy they need less grain and more hay. 

Feed again just before the sun turns good and red on the horizon.  If you don't have lights over the feed paddock then feed them in the barn where they can see what they are eating. 

Don't over feed! 

There's a difference between stable horses, work horses, pack horses, ranch horses, and rodeo horses. 

Stable horses can get idiot riders that don't know straight up about horses and make all sorts of bad mistakes.  They are used to exploiting those mistakes and can get really spoiled.  They put on too much fat and get hoof problems (laminitis) as the result.

Pack horses (sometimes work horses) go on longer trips but they usually know where they are going and will continue to the next feed station and stop there for a good feed.  If no one is there they want to go to the next station that might be a day's ride away.  You will have to tie them hard to get them not to leave if you don't feed them on time.

Pack horses figure on going anywhere their master tells them but if a stranger is riding them they will make the rider prove his mettle.  Once the horse is sure of the rider he will go nearly anywhere . . . well, I said NEARLY anywhere.  They want to eat dawn and dusk and you had best be ready to give them good pasture or good hay when you get there.

Ranch horses know every inch of the ranch and can get you from point A to B without you much more than making it clear by your guide where you want to go.  If you have a cutting horse, he will never want to leave the remuda or corral.  If you have a range horse he can't stand that remuda or corral and will let you know about it -- big time.  Either way they still want to eat on schedule.

Rodeo horses are a little like wild broom tails in that they will kill you if they get half a chance.  If there was a prison for horses they would be in it.  Rodeo horses are supposed to be miserable to ride so you don't feed them on schedule.  You might feed them 3 or 4 times a day just to keep them rowdy and nasty but you don't stick to any specified schedule.

Adjust your feed schedule accordingly.